Discovering Neroche
Key archaeological & historic places
Britty Farm
Britty was once a thriving smallholding, comprising a series of small fields cut out of the expanse of unenclosed heath (Staple Common) on Staple Hill. It was occupied in the 1920s by the Rooke family - Ted Rooke survives and has recently allowed the Neroche Team to record his recollections as part of an oral history archive.
The farm fell into disrepair in the 1960s and was abandoned in 1975. Soon after it was stripped of useful building materials and left as a ruin. Today only the outer walls and chimney stacks remain - but it retains a strong atmospheric quality which has captivated many people.
| Grid reference: | ST 257160 |
| Periods of history: | Modern (1800 AD - present) |
Castle Neroche
Castle Neroche is located on the edge of a steep natural escarpment, which forms the northern edge of the Blackdown Hills (some 900ft above sea level). It occupies a strategic location overlooking Central Somerset – the Vale of Taunton, the West Somerset Levels (Sedgemoor) and the Quantock Hills. On a clear day you can see the Mendip Hills and Glastonbury Tor.
The monument has recently been re-surveyed by English Heritage. This has resulted in a re-interpretation of the earthworks suggesting three principle phases of activity dating to the -Prehistoric (Later Iron Age) period, the Post Conquest (Norman) period and during the mid 12th century in a period known as ‘The Anarchy (1238-1248)’. This slightly differs from Brian Davison’s conclusions drawn during his excavations between 1961-1964.
Castle Neroche is situated upon one of the few natural locations between Taunton and Chard, which provides an easy ascent of the Blackdown escarpment. This route is likely to have been in use from the early prehistoric period onwards, later developing into a major route, which with the advent of wheeled vehicles is thought to have been replaced by the current Green Lane which runs through the site.
Castle Neroche is a Scheduled Monument.
Origins of the word 'Neroche'
The name Neroche is thought to be derived from the Old English nierra and rechich or rachich, meaning the ‘camp where hunting dogs were kept’. Rache were a type of hunting dog. The earliest record of the word is from Close Rolls of 1235 when retchirch is substituted for La Newechirch.
In 762 Muchelney Abbey was granted eight hides of land between the Rivers Earn (now the Fivehead River) and the Ile on a hill called Duun Meten near Dommett. Duun Meten may have been the Anglo Saxon or British name for Castle Neroche.
For further information download the Castle Neroche fact sheet and plan.
| Grid reference: | ST 272158 |
| Periods of history: | Iron Age (800 BC - 100 AD), Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) , Norman |
Culmstock Beacon
This small hut built of chert on the southern end of Blackdown Common was built as part of a warning system to signal the arrival of the spanish Armada in Tudor times.
The building was designed to hold a fire, built in a basket in the hole in the roof of the structure. The fire could be seen from miles around. Similar fire beacons on hilltops running south from here towards the coast. On sighting an approaching invasion, the watchers on the hill nearest the sea would light their beacon, which would be seen from the next hill, whereupon the next beacon would be lit. The signal could thus be conveyed quickly to the county town of Taunton.
Culmstock Beacon is still used on special occasions by the people of Culmstock, such as on the Millennium and on Trafalgar Day.
For more information about the beacon, please download the factsheet.
| Grid reference: | ST 110152 |
| Periods of history: | Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) , Post Medieval (1500 AD - 1800 AD) |
Forest of Neroche
Although the Forest of Neroche is not recorded in the Domesday Book it is thought to have been a royal forest before the conquest, being closely associated with King Ina who had a royal palace at South Petherton. Royal Forests tend to be found near concentrations of Crown Land.
Forests were areas of common land which were subject to Forest Law. Although the crown rarely owned the forest, the King held exclusive privileges under Forest Law. These include the rights of vert (rights over all the timber and other forest produce as well as rights to pasturage for deer) and rights of venery (the deer themselves). Forest were deeply unpopular with the local inhabitants who struggled to maintain their rights against the kings passion for hunting and their greed for money.
Charles I abolished the Forest in 1633 in an attamept to raise funds. It was a deal which enriched both the crown and local private landowners at the expense of the commoners who lost the majority of the their common law rights.
| Grid reference: | centred on ST3001800 |
| Periods of history: | Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) , Norman |
Leigh Hill Encampment
Have you ever driven east from Forches Corner towards Burnworthy, and noticed the forlorn chimney stack standing alone in a field to the north of the road?
If you have known this area for long enough, you may remember that some thirty years ago this chimney stack formed part of a timber-clad building - which was all that remained of a Victorian military encampment, used for training by the Somersetshire Militia. Most of the original encampment comprised temporary structures - tents and cabins used by officers and troops stationed on the site during the summer months.
| Grid reference: | ST 188170 |
| Periods of history: | Victorian |
Orchard Portman and the Portmans
The first reference to Orchard Portman is in 854 AD when Aethelwulf (King of the West Saxons) gave an estate called oceard to the Minster Church in Taunton. As the name suggests the estate contained rich fertile land that may have supported an orchard or garden. By 1135 the estate had passed into the Bishop of Winchester’s hands and Elfric de Orchard is recorded as being his tenant.
The original manor house is thought to have comprised a hall with chambers and other rooms. A dovecote, watermill and the parish church of St Michael were all located nearby. The de Orchards seem to have lived in relative prosperity throughout the medieval period until the male side of the line died in 1437 leaving Christina de Orchard as the soul family representative. Such a rich widow was an attractive proposition and 1450 Christina and Walter Portman (an ambitious Taunton merchant) were married.
The Portman descendants entered the legal profession, with the most successful being Sir William Portman (1498-1557) who was knighted in 1547 and became Lord Chief Justice in 1555. Sir William was well known to Henry VIII and he had a good eye for business; in 1544 he purchased significant land belonging to the four dissolved religious houses in Somerset including Taunton Priory. Subsequently he purchased 293 acres of land in ‘Marylebone Fields’. It was this land in London that led to the Portman family becoming one of the richest landlords during the 19th century.
During the early 1600s and in keeping with his position Sir William Portman had Orchard Portman House built. An elaborate three storeyed structure, this building may have incorporated part of the earlier medieval hall. Orchard House was later improved by Sir William Portman, Sixth Baronet (1644-1690). The new building stood to the north of the Tudor mansion. It was three storeys high and enclosed a courtyard. A bowling green and a formal garden lay behind the house.
During the Civil War (1625-1649), the Portmans supported Charles I and consequently suffered significant losses; Sir William Portman died in the Tower of London, while Orchard House after months of military occupation became a ‘pest house’. It is estimated that the family lost £30,000 as a result of the war, with many of their possessions being looted and their property ransacked.
The William, the Sixth Baronet supported James I during the Monmouth Rebellion (1685). This was a little surprising given that during the reign of Charles II the region had suffered appalling cruelty at the hands of Judge Jeffrey’s for the support of Cromwell during the Civil War. Monmouth was declared King in Taunton Castle yet 21 days later on 7th July he was captured by Sir William Portman near Ringwood, Dorset.
Subsequently the Portman fortunes continued to proper; Orchard House was abandoned in favour of their Bryanston Estate in Dorset and a town house in Portman Square. It was Edward Berkeley Portman (1799-1888) First Viscount who finally ordered the demolition of the house in 1843. Orchard House had been given to the tenants of Orchard Farm, but outbreaks of typhus and other mysterious disease lead to the house becoming abandoned. A cesspit subsequently found under the servants’ hall seems to have been to source.
Today Taunton Racecourse (established by the Fifth Viscount) covers the majority of the site. Despite being levelled for the racecourse, slight earthworks indicate the sites of some the former buildings. The medieval church is all that remains of this once magnificent estate.
For more information please see Orchard and the Portmans by Tom Mayberry
| Grid reference: | ST 2429 2168 |
| Periods of history: | Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) , Modern (1800 AD - present), Post Medieval (1500 AD - 1800 AD) |
Orchard Wood Hillfort
Orchard Wood is an Iron Age (800BC-50AD) hillfort located at the northern end of a hilltop that offers commanding views across the Vale of Taunton towards the Brendon Hills, the Quantock Hills and the Somerset Levels. Remarkably the site remained undiscovered until 1986.
The hillfort is oval in shape, comprising a single bank, ditch and in places a scarp slope. It encloses an area of c. 1.9ha. The original entrance is likely to be on the eastern side of the fort where there seems to be a break in the ramparts. Within the interior there are many small oval pits, which are thought to represent the remains of ironstone prospection pits.
Orchard Hill lies some 3 miles to the north of Castle Neroche. It is thought to be related to phase of hillfort building from 400BC onwards when many simple hillforts were constructed wherever a suitable site was available. It was probably abandoned in preference for the site at Castle Neroche.
The hillfort lies within territory, which belonged to the Iron Age tribe known as the Dumnonii but it was also very close to lands held by the Durotriges.
| Grid reference: | ST 250204 |
| Periods of history: | Iron Age (800 BC - 100 AD) |
Play Street, Bickenhall
Air photographs taken in 1977 showed extensive remains of a deserted settlement.
It seems to consist of a street marked by a shallow holloway, with crofts and building plots on both sides. These buildings surround a triangular shaped green, the presence of which is confirmed from as statement made in 1658 by Thomas Coleman of Bickenhall. He describes how all the stray stock from the common land in the Forest of Neroche were driven to Plaistreet Green for collection. The remaining stock were kept for one hour before being driven to Bickenhall Pound. The site is now ploughed, and littered with medieval and later potsherds and roof tiles. Slight earthworks associated with a former trackway survive in the field to west.
The subsequent history of ownership is quite complicated. Prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-1540) it was owned by Taunton Priory before falling into private ownership. In 1602 Rachel Portman (daughter of Sir Henry Portman) obtained the property and made it her residence. The house is described as having two chambers and a little orchard outside the kitchen door. On her death Playstreet became part of the Portman estate.
The name Playstreet is probably Saxon in origin, meaning quite literally the street where people played.
Rachel Portman (1554-1631) was buried in Bickenhall churchyard, which has since been demolished. It is said that her ghost riding a white horse roams the area from the old churchyard at Bickenhall, through Park Farm to Playstreet.
| Grid reference: | ST 2823 1868 |
| Periods of history: | Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) , Post Medieval (1500 AD - 1800 AD) |
Quants
Quants, which forms part of Buckland Wood, has a fascinating history. It contains the remains of Farm Wood Bungalow, a smallholding abandoned early in the C20th (farmstead walls, old field banks etc), and the remains of an unfinished reservoir. Planning for the reservoir began during the late 1930s, but construction ground to a halt in 1942. The site was abandoned before completion.
The site was used for a short time during the Second World War as a military training area, and in 1944 four local children from Lowton were tragically killed when allegedly playing with an unexploded shell on the site.
| Grid reference: | ST 186176 |
| Periods of history: | Twentieth Century |
RAF Culmhead (Trickey Warren)
RAF Culmhead (formerly known as Church Stanton) was a typical three-runway fighter airfield when it opened on 1st August 1941. Originally intended as an emergency landing ground and dispersal airfield, it was also used as a base for the testing of barrage-balloon wire cutters. The airfield was occupied by No 2 Polish Fighter Wing and later by Czech units. On 22nd December 1943 the airbase was renamed RAF Culmhead to avoid confusion with RAF Church Fenton in Yorkshire.
Following D-Day Culmhead was used for training the first jet-engined aircraft in RAF service, two Meteors which arrived in July 1944. The site saw little significant activity until it was closed in August 1946. The fighter station survived until the end of the twentieth century when much of the technical area was destroyed.
Some of the surviving structures include fighter pens, aircraft control towers and two groups of pillboxes. All lie within the Scheduled Area.
For further information please contact the South West Airfield Trust www.southwestairfields.com
| Grid reference: | ST 208 151 |
| Periods of history: | Modern (1800 AD - present) |
Ringdown Barn
The old barn at Ringdown, within Ringdown Nature Reserve, is a typical example of a vernacular farm building from the C19th. However this one has added significance, having been used as a subject by a group of landscape painters who spent time at nearby Applehayes in the early twentieth century. The artists, known as the Camden Group, included Spencer Gore and Robert Bevan.
| Grid reference: | ST 180153 |
| Periods of history: | Twentieth Century |
Robin Hood's Butts
Nine burial mounds located in two discrete groups on Brown Down, near Bishopswood. The northern group is linear in arrangement while the southern group is more dispersed in plan.
The name Robin Hood's Butt's seems to be derived from local folklore which suggests that the barrows were used by Robin Hood and Little John to play quoits. Another tradition is that these mounds were created by giants throwing heaps of earth at each other. The barrows are also said to be the burial places of hundreds of Cromwell's soldiers.
All but one are Scheduled Monuments.
| Grid reference: | ST 237128 |
| Periods of history: | Bronze Age (2150 - 800 BC) |
Staple Deer Park
During the C13th there were two deer parks in Staple Fitzpaine; Staple Park and a smaller one at Park Farm. By 1583 the smaller park had vanished leaving Staple Park which was sold to Hugh Portman in 1595. The Portman's were keen huntsmen - they added a pale to the park boundary (wooden fence) and in 1690 a lodge and kennels were built.
Royal permission was needed to enclose a deer park as deer were the property of the king - this was particularly important if a park lay in or near a royal forest like Neroche. Parks are normaly located on marginal land on the edge of estates and tended to have circular boundaries to maximise the grazing area yet minimise the boundary length.
The remains of the park survive on the ground today as a sinuous, curving boundary which is represented in places by a substantial double bank. Ancient (pollarded) oaks in Piddle Wood and the neighbouring fields around Staple Lawns indicate the former areas of wood pasture which lay adjacent to the deer park.
| Grid reference: | ST 247187 |
| Periods of history: | Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) |
Thurlbear Church
The Church of St Thomas at Thurlbear is a building chiefly of the 11th-14th centuries. It is renown for the quality and extent of its early Norman features, and is one of the earliest surviving aisled churches in Somerset. Thurlbear Church is Grade 1 Listed Building.
Why such an ambitious church was constructed in Thurlbear remains unknown. It may be that Thurlbear Manor held a special significance for its medieval lords the de Montacutes or their Domesday overlord, the Count of Mortain. It is also possible that the church originated as a minster or mother church although later documentary evidence for such status is lacking.
The church consists of a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, south porch and chancel. It is constructed from local blue lias limestone with dressings in Beer Stone (from East Devon) and Ham stone (from Ham Hill). Most of the exterior walls have been rendered although the rendering on the tower was removed in the 19th century when the church underwent significant restoration. The nave, aisles and chancel are enclosed under a welsh slate roof. The tower is mid 15th in date. Following its completion in c. 1450 four bells cast in Exeter were provided. Each carried a latin inscription. These bells still hang today and are remarkable for being one of the few pre-Reformation bells, which are the work of a single maker. In 1988 the church was declared redundant and became invested in the Churches Conservation Trust.
The stained glass of the west window was placed there by the Major William Surtees Altham husband of Henrietta Moulton Barrett who died at Stoke Court, Stoke St Mary in 1860. Her life in many ways mirrored that of her sister – Elizabeth Barrett Browning with both women growing to middle age without marriage under the very strict influence of a father who threatened disinheritance if they married. Part of the window depicts Rachel and Jacob a subject chosen as a parable by the Major for his long courtship and wife’s early death. Their graves are in the south-east corner of the churchyard
For more detailed information see St Thomas's Church, Thurlbear, Somerset by Tom Mayberry
| Grid reference: | ST 2658 2111 |
| Periods of history: | Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) |
Thurlbear Wood
An Inquisition Post Mortem of William de Monte Acuto in 1320 gives the extent of the Manor of Thurlbear and includes 40 acres of woodland and a farm with adjoining land. Mrs Sixsmith in her “A History of Thurlbear” states that this almost certainly refers to Church Farm (previously Simon’s Court – perhaps named after Simon de Monte Acuto) and the woodland is therefore likely to be Thurlbear Wood.
The Priory of Taunton owned land in Thurlbear and there is reference in 1538 to the lease of land from the Prior of Taunton to John Carvanell (a tenant of William Portman) that included “a close lying under the wood called Priors Wood and a close called Priors Wood” (in 1855 a field just across the road from Thurlbear Church was called Priors Mead and the western part of Thurlbear Wood may have been Priors Wood).
In 1556 Sir William Portman bought the Manor of Thurlbear and other property for £ 80. He had been on a commission to value the lands belonging to Taunton Priory and appears to have done well out of the redistribution of Church Property. Thurlbear remained in this family until 1942 when the final parts of the Portman Estate were sold to the Crown to pay death duties.
In 1789 the accounts of the Portman Estate show an entry for the payment of £32 to a Mr Haydon for Thurlbear Coppice Wood.
| Grid reference: | ST 270210 |
| Periods of history: | Medieval (1066 AD - 1500 AD) , Post Medieval (1500 AD - 1800 AD) |
Wellington Monument
Wellington Monument, built to commemorate the ‘Iron Duke’, is currently undergoing an assessment to determine the extent of the structural damage. It survives as the fifth tallest freestanding obelisk in the world.
| Grid reference: | ST 137173 |
| Periods of history: | Victorian |
Wychwood Lake
Wychwood Lake was built as a decoy pond for duck shooting by Lord Portman around 1910. It proved unsuccessful for that purpose, and was subsequently turned into an ornamental lake until the demise of the Portman estate.
Later the lake became a coarse fishing lake used by Taunton Angling Association, but it gradually became overgrown and reduced in size. As part of the Neroche Scheme the lake is being restored to something closer to its original size, while retaining its value for wildlife.
| Grid reference: | ST 248196 |
| Periods of history: | Twentieth Century |
