THE MENDIP RING - Leg 2a

Butleigh to Keinton Mandeville. 6 Miles

Starting from the Post Office in Butleigh. Grid Ref. ST 521 337

Section 1
With your back to the post office, turn left and walk up the road to the church on the right along Church Path. Keep to the right fork before the church following the path (possibly) signed to Moorhouse. Pass through the gate follow the well defined path across the field, through the next gate then head to the right of the stand of trees to a stone stile and onto the road. Turn left and follow the road; cross Wallyers Bridge then take the path on your right following the River Brue.

Section 2
Follow the river until you come to Baltonsborough Flights; cross the weir; turn half right after the kissing gate and bridge, down to a pedestrian gate in the hedge, over the concrete bridge, then turn left to follow the hedge through hedges, over stiles, through kissing gates and over sleeper bridges. When you enter a narrow field after the metal pedestrian gate, go through the metal kissing gate in the far left hand corner then turn right to reach the road (Honey Mead Lane) at Tootle Bridge.

Section 3
Go over the bridge and through the gate on your right; head straight across this field to a gate halfway along the hedge then through the next gate - half-left in the corner of the field. A few paces along the track, then left over the stile. Follow the hedge on your right to cross a double stile in the bottom corner. Turn left to reach the river then left again, follow the track round to the right then left to reach the road at West Lydford. Turn right then shortly right into the churchyard; pass the church on your right and follow the path over the bridge. Turn right then left onto a track, shortly turn right and follow this track until you reach a hedge in front of you; turn right then left through the farm gate; follow the fence on your left through another gate then at the end of the fence bear left over the tarmac bridge and out to the lane where you turn left.

Section 4
Just before you reach the main road (Copis Lane) turn left up the byway (Cotton's Lane), up the former drive of a house and into the trees on a rough track. Soon you reach a tarmac drive, follow this out to reach the B3153 at Keinton Mandeville. Ending this section at ST 552 309

Points of Historical Interest

Section 1
St Leonard's Church, Butleigh. On the site of a Saxon church dedicated to St Benedict, it was renamed after the Reformation. Its present appearance is mainly Victorian. The door jambs on the porch and the two scratch dials are from the Saxon building. The south porch and the old gable cross are 14th century. The window near the porch is by Pugin. Much of the 19th century alteration was the work of George Neville-Grenville, Squire of the Manor and formerly Dean of Windsor. There is a guide to the church in the church.

Butleigh Court, which is private property, is the building with the Tudor style chimneys immediately behind the church. A small manor house existed here in the 14th century. By 1829 it had four extensive ranges around a courtyard, and pleasure grounds. Damaged by fire in the 1830s, a new mansion was built. The rebuilding took a piece of ground from the old churchyard and local legend said that the house was cursed because bones had been disturbed. Certainly the next Squire to inherit the Court immediately gave a piece of land back to the church in recompense. Following the death of the last Squire, Robert Neville-Grenville in 1947, the Court stood empty and decaying for 30 years until 1975 when it was sold and developed into four apartments.

Across Moormead, the field behind the church, is Moorhouse a junction of three roads. In 1324 there was mention of a water mill at Butleigh and almost certainly it stood here, where the River Brue ran through the lowest part of the valley until it was straightened and moved further east in the later medieval period.

The road from Moorhouse to Wallyer's bridge has variously been known as Wallyeate Drove and Horseys Lane. The field on the left was called Horsi in 1289 and today it is still called Horseys. As the Rev Synge says in his book on the history of Butleigh 'one is reminded of Ecclesiastes 1:4 'One generation goeth and another generation cometh and the earth abideth forever' '.

Wallyer's Bridge. At a time when bridges were few and far between, the cost of their constant upkeep reflects their importance. In 1675 the Butleigh churchwardens' accounts list repairs to Bollyters and Wallyeate bridges. Bollyters may be Bolters Bridge near Hornblotton in Leg 2b. Wallyeate is described as the skew bridge on the Baltonsborough Road and as a horse bridge, too narrow for wagons. The present stone, concrete and iron road bridge was built in 1972.

There is a Bench Mark on the SE face of the bridge. Made by Ordnance Survey these marks are a framework for heights above mean sea level in Great Britain. If the height of one BM is known then the height of the next is found by measuring the difference between them. With little maintenance in the last 30 years, the levelling values in some areas have become unreliable and numbers have been reduced by road and property building.

Section 2
Along the bank of the River Brue, the church tower visible on the horizon is All Saints at Kingweston on the ridge above Butleigh.

Tootle Bridge, on the Barton St David and Ilchester road was known in 1315 as Todelemill. The central arch of the bridge was rebuilt in 1719.

The road here is called Honey Mead Lane. The word 'honey' is a reminder of the importance of bees in the domestic economy. Of equal value with the honey was beeswax, which was used for candles, seals and many domestic items. Until the early 19th century bees were mostly kept in plaited straw baskets or skeps. There was little knowledge of diseases. During the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1874 the British Bee Keepers Association was formed. The Somerset Branch was inaugurated the following year.

On the left of this lane, going back towards Baltonsborough, is St Dunstan's Dyke. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury from 946 to 957 and later Archbishop of Canterbury, is said to have been born in Baltonsborough. He directed the rebuilding of the Abbey after the attack by the Danes (see the Time Line). The remains that we see today represent some of that rebuilding.

A step aside moment.
The church at Barton St David is one of only a handful in the County with an octagonal tower. In the church is a memorial which includes the names of two American Presidents, the father and son John Adams and John Quincy Adams, whose ancestral home is in the village. The Barton Inn is a cider house.

Section 3
The walk now enters an area of cider apple orchards. The origins of cider making in Somerset are lost in time, but there are references in early ecclesiastical accounts. Its popularity increased as European wars restricted wine imports. A tax on cider in 1763 led to Excise Men being given the right to enter private premises to search for dutiable goods. William Pitt the younger, in successfully opposing this law in the House of Commons, originated the now famous phrase 'every man's house is his castle'. The National Fruit and Cider Institute was founded in 1903 and in 1912 it was formally linked, for scientific advice, to Bristol University. Modern standardised trees have a higher yield, which offsets the reduction in land given over to orchards.

There are many traditions associated with the apple trees and the mistletoe that grows on them, not least the Wassail ceremony held in January. Two superstitions relating to cider making are that the youngest person present should be the first to drink the new juice from the press and the first cider making of the season should never be on a Friday.

At West Lydford the 17th century Lydford Bridge on the Brue by St Peter's church, is little altered from its original state, with its five arches and five smaller flood arches built into the parapet

Section 4
On the track by the junction with Cotton's Lane there is a WWII Anderson shelter, in the garden on the right hand side. It is nearly covered in ivy.

The B3153 was adopted by the Langport, Somerton and Castle Cary Turnpike Trust in 1753. From the 19th century it has been known as the Cary Road.

Keinton Mandeville was Chintune at Doomsday. Mandeville, added later, was the name of the Norman French landowner. About eight houses up from the crossing point of the walk on the B3153, on the right hand side of the High Street, there is a plaque marking the birthplace of Sir Henry Irving the actor and playwright, born here in 1838. The first actor to be knighted, his statue stands outside the National Portrait Gallery in London's West End. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. A long way from a small Mendip village!

There is a shop here which is open on Sundays.