There are some interesting anglicisations on the 1724 county map. Many stay the same (such as Yeovil, West Coker), and others are close enough to suggest a typo (such as Ilmister for Ilminster). There are some that some strangely reconfigured (such as Crookhorn for Crewkerne and Meryot for Merriott).
On Ogilby’s 1675 journey map London to “the Land’sEnd,” the itinerary runs ” Andover, through Middle Wallop, to the Wiltshire border, Hampshire ; then Salisbury, Wiltshire; to Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Dorset; and Yeovil to Crookhorn, Somerset.”
This map also has Meryot, Parrott, and Birdport (for Bridport – another typo?)
Blackfriars was founded as a Dominican priory by Maurice de Gaunt circa 1227. The site in Broadmead was just north of the town walls. The name “Blackfriars” comes from the black hooded cloak that the friars wore over their white habits.[1]Henry III supported the building of the church and priory, which took over forty years. Oak was supplied from the Forest of Dean and the king granted the friars charitable gifts and a moiety of fish landed in the port.[2]
In 1232, a royal grant gave the friars the right to build a conduit to supply fresh water from Peniwell, now known as Pennywell. This conduit was later given to the Mayor and town council in exchange for a feather, a branch pipe, supplying fresh water from Baptist Mills.[3] In 1287, Llywelyn ap Dafydd, de jure Prince of Gwynedd, died in captivity in Bristol Castle and was buried in the Blackfriars graveyard.[4]
John Hilsey, prior of Blackfriars became provincial of the Dominican order in England in 1534. Thomas Cromwell appointed him as one of Henry VIII‘s visitors, charged with inspecting monastic houses and administering the oath of allegiance, under the Act of Supremacy. In 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, four remaining friars surrendered the buildings and contents. In 1540 the site was purchased from the king by William Chester, who had just finished a term of office as Mayor of Bristol.[5] The area comprised some 6.75 acres (2.73 ha)[6]
During the reign of Elizabeth I parts of the premises were acquired by the Smiths and Cutlers Company and they in turn leased parts of it to the Corporation in 1654 for use as a workhouse for poor girls.[7] Eventually the Smith’s Hall and the adjacent Baker’s Hall were acquired by the Religious Society of Friends and the premises became popularly known as Quakers Friars.[8] In 1681 a mob led by John Hellier attacked the Quakers’ meeting hall during persecutions following the Conventicles Act 1670.
One of the most powerful voices that was raised on behalf of justice and equality in Bristol was that of George Fox, the visionary founder of the Quakers.
The first mention of the “Friends” in Bristol was of the imprisonment, in October 1652, of two itinerant Quaker preachers. They were arraigned before the Common Council for disturbing the peace. Details are scant but this either meant street preaching or interrupting Anglican clergymen mid-service. A couple of years later, on 18 December, 1654, the “apprentices” of Bristol attacked the Quaker shops on Bristol Bridge. This suggests the development of a Quaker community, and also the development of some animosity towards them!
In 1656, George Fox himself came to Bristol and preached in an upstairs room in Broadmead, outside the old Dominican Friary. In 1667 Fox recorded in his Journal; “Wee came to Bristol and after wee had severall powerfull meetings wee setled the mens monthly meeting there and the womens meetinge ….”
We see here the foundations of what became a strong and vibrant community. But let’s step back for a moment, and look at the man himself, and see something of the development of Quaker ideology.
George Fox was born in 1624 in the strongly Puritan village a few miles out of Leicester, as the eldest of four children of one Christopher Fox, a successful weaver, who was nicknamed “Righteous Christer” by his neighbours. He was a churchwarden and wealthy enough to leave his son a substantial legacy when he died in the late 1650s. Fox was of a serious disposition from childhood. There is no record of any formal schooling but he learnt to read and write.
“When I came to eleven years of age,” he said, “I knew pureness and righteousness; for, while I was a child, I was taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught me to be faithful, in all things, and to act faithfully two ways; viz., inwardly to God, and outwardly to man.” “The Lord taught me to be faithful in all things … and to keep to Yea and Nay in all things.”
As he grew up, Fox’s relatives “thought to have made me a priest” but he was instead apprenticed to a local shoemaker and grazier. This suited his contemplative temperament and he became well known for his diligence among the wool traders who had dealings with his master. A constant obsession for Fox was the pursuit of “simplicity” in life – humility and the abandonment of luxury. The time he spent as a shepherd was important to the formation of this view. Much later, he noted the fact that there were many godly leaders who had been shepherds in the Bible, and so a learned education should not be seen as a necessary qualification for ministry.
Fox ‘s views led him to be somewhat critical of the established church. By the age of 19 he was looking down on their behaviour, in particular their consumption of alcohol. At prayer one night after leaving two acquaintances at a drinking session, Fox heard an inner voice saying, “Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all.”
He hoped to find among the Dissenters a spiritual understanding absent from the established church, but he fell out with one group, for example, because he insisted that women had souls:
“As I had forsaken the priests, [Anglican Church] so I left the separate preachers {Dissenting Church]also, and those esteemed the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition”; and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give Him all the glory; for all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence who enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power. Thus when God doth work, who shall let [prevent] it? And this I knew experimentally.”
Even in this first glimpse we see a certain critical attitude towards other forms of Christianity, and the insistence upon a rather narrow spiritual interiority, connected with a very strong work ethic, a humility of demeanour, a plainness of speech and lifestyle.
Let’s pause and ask the question: how do you think such an ideology would be received in a busy secular community such as 17th Century Bristol?
“This town which in point of size buildings and respectability of inhabitants may vie with most cities is situated fifty two miles southwest from Bath and thirty two northeast from Exeter being intermediate and on the publick road between those two cities. Its extent from east to west is nearly a mile and it consists of four principal streets which are wide and very well built and there is a noble spacious market place in which is a handsome commodious market house with a town hall over it the building whereof was completed in the year 1773. The markets are large and kept on Wednesday and Saturday and there are two fairs one held on the 17th of June the other on the 7th of July. The woollen manufacture has flourished in this town almost ever since its first introdućtion into England by the memorable John Kempe from Flanders the first manufacture being established here about the year 1336. Of late years it has decayed and its success has been in great measure translated to the neighbouring town of Wellington.
p. 226 The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, Vol. III, By John Collinson 1791
Taunton has a history that goes back more then 1,000 years. I have excerpted the entry for Taunton in the Topographical Dictionary of England (1848). It makes interesting reading because we know Shattocks lived through its turbulent history.
You get very good idea of the size of the town from its description in Collinson’s History of Somerset written in 1791. It had four main roads and was only one mile long. And a most interesting part of his description is the statement about cloth making in Taunton. It was brought to the town by John Kempe, from Flanders in 1336. That date is very close to the estimated birth date of the Shattock common ancestor. Designated by his genetic marker, Y17171 was born about 1350, give or take a couple of decades. Did the Shattocks arrive with the weavers of Flanders? We will explore that question.
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Some call him the first journalist, partly because of his accounts of his travels through England.
The famous author of Robin Crusoe provides a portrait of Taunton and its history in his Somerset travelogue that began in Wellington, just south of Taunton. The year was 1720, just one year after he published Robinson Crusoe:
I entered the county, as I observed above, by Wellington, where we had the entertainment of the beggars; from whence we came to Taunton, vulgarly called Taunton Dean upon the River Ton; this is a large, wealthy, and exceedingly populous, town: One of the chief manufacturers of the town told us, That there was at that time so good a trade in the town, that they had then eleven hundred looms going for the weaving of sagathies, du roys, and such kind of stuffs, which are made there; and that which added to the thing very much, was, that not one of those looms wanted work: He farther added, That there was not a child in the town, or in the villages round it, of above five years old, but, if it was not neglected by its parents, and untaught, could earn its own bread. This was what I never met with in any place in England, except at Colchester in Essex.
This town chooses two Members of Parliament, and their way of choosing is, by those who they call “pot-walloners,” that is to say, every inhabitant, whether house-keeper or lodger, that dresses their own victuals; to make out which, several inmates, or lodgers, will, sometime before the election, bring out their pots, and make fires in the street, and boil their victuals in the sight of their neighbours, that their votes may not be called in question.
There are two large parish churches in this town, and two or three meeting-houses, whereof one, is said to be the largest in the county. The inhabitants have been noted for the number of Dissenters; for among them it was always counted a seminary of such: They suffered deeply in the Duke of Monmouth’s Rebellion, but paid King James home for the cruelty exercised by Jeffries among them; for when the Prince of Orange arrived, the whole town ran in to him, with so universal a joy, that, ’twas thought, if he had wanted it, he might have raised a little army there, and in the adjacent part of the country.
Interesting to note about Dafoe’s account is the fact the town was full of “dissenters,” that is people who were critical of the Church of England, its hierarchy and its ceremonies. It can be said that the majority of Shattocks were dissenters. The other interesting part of his account is the role the cloth trade in the town’s history. It had the same important role in Shattock history. Dafoe’s comments on how the cloth trade provided employment for cloth workers provides us with a reason why the largest families of Shattocks and Shatticks are found in the three largest cloth towns and villages: Taunton, Stogumber and North Molton. Workers who found employment had the money to marry and start families and provide their children with the means to start their own families. The pattern is repeated in New England when the weaver William Shattuck (1622-1672) founded his dynasty in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Shattockes have not been a big presence at the center of Taunton. They lived in the villages on the outskirts of Taunton: Bishop’s Hull, Norton Fitzwarren and Staplegrove. These villages were involved in cloth making. The church tower at St. Peter and St. Paul is even shaped like a weaver’s shuttle, said to be paid for by local weavers. A fulling mill in the Langford area of Norton Fitwarren dates back at least to 1504.
They may have located outside Taunto town limits to avoid the restrictions laid down by the cloth trades. And they combined farming with weaving.
The record of the death of Thomas Shattocke is found among the very first entries in the St. Mary Magdalene parish records in the middle of the 16th century. A Taunton will in 1533 by John Shattock, probably the father of Thomas, shows that he owned a “shoppe.” It might have been full of looms. The fact he was either a tradesman or merchant means he had a high social status in society at the time. Citizens, merchants and tradespeople formed the ruling groups in towns, especially early in the 16th century. The successful ones bought property in the country with a view to entering the ranks of the gentry and this appears to be the case with Shattocks at this time. The list of wills for Shattockes shows a high concentration around Staplegrove – Taunton, and they appear to have acquired property in the countryside as well. (See The Age of Exuberance by Michael Reed, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986 p.14).
John Shattock’s will of 1533 bequeaths a shop, an abode and donations to the Staplegrove church, so it is likely that John Shattock lived in Staplegrove but had his business in Taunton, which at the time was a separate village, just over a mile away, town centre to town centre. Today, Staplegrove is considered a suburb of Taunton.
In 1569 there is a record of a John Shattock in Staplegrove that identifies him as a vintner. Since wine was imported from southern Europe and the Mediterranean, he must have had trading connections outside of England. In general wool and cloth were traded for wine. This fits with the early history of Taunton, since it was one of the first towns in England to engage in making cloth rather than merely exporting wool. On the English Heritage page I discuss the case of another John Shattocke in the next century who was a merchant doing business in the Portuguese island of Madeira. Wine was a major trade item on the island. And I feature John Shattock, the merchant on this page: John Shattuck visits Samuel Pepys, the Diarist. Perhaps the John Shattock in 1569, who was a vintner in Taunton is the direct ancestor of John Shattock the merchant out of Madeira.
Tudor buildings (late 15th century to early 16th century) on Fore Street in Taunton.
Flemish weavers were invited to Taunton to help local merchants get more value from their wool. Doubtlessly Shattockes were involved in the wool industry, since it played such a prominent role in Taunton’s early history. There was a fulling mill in Taunton from the early 13th century, which means cloth making had already begun to play a central role in the economy of the town even before the weavers from Flanders arrived to improve the quality of cloth being made. After wool is woven it is “fulled,” which means it is pounded by wooden hammers to clean and thicken it. Those hammers are driven by a water mill. If you were a Flemish weaver, then settling in Taunton would provide you with a ready market for the wool you wove on your loom. The record of the death of Thomas Shattocke is found among the very first entries in the St. Mary Magdalene parish records in the middle of the 16th century. A Taunton will in 1533 by John Shattock, probably the father of Thomas, shows that he owned a “shoppe.” It might have been full of looms. The fact he was either a tradesman or merchant means he had a high social status in society at the time. Citizens, merchants and tradespeople formed the ruling groups in towns, especially early in the 16th century.
Philippa of Hainault (1314-1369)
The two traditional industries of Taunton Deane were cloth production and agriculture. In a sense one was dependent upon the other, for wool provided the raw material for the cloth, not least the rough serge known as ‘Taunton Cloth.’ Flemish weavers had settled in the locality in the 14th century, bringing new techniques to what had been a simple home-based craft in earlier times. Merchant families became prominent, and participated in the affairs and expansion of the town. (p. 14)
There was a history of Taunton first published in 1791 and a revision published in 1822, that gives us the dates when Flemish weavers arrived in Taunton. (The History of Taunton, originally written by Joshua Toulmin, D.D., published in 1791. A revised edition by James Savage 1822. See the complete ebook here.)
Flemish weavers had apparently migrated to England as early as the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066. (Flemish weavers were known as excellent warriors.) And in 1270, Henry III apparently tried to influence Flemish weavers to settle in England when trade was interrupted between the Low Countries and England. The cloth trade was in some distress by the reign of Edward III, which began in 1327. Apparently the king, Edward III, married Philippa of Hainault (daughter of the Duke of Hainault) of the Low Countries (now in Belgium). In marrying the duke’s daughter, Edward III became “family.” He then did something that we call today “poaching another company’s knowledge workers.” Here is how Toulmin describes it:
This town has been noted for its woollen manufactory, in which it carried on for a number of years a very large and extensive business. Its trade may be traced back for four hundred and eighty years to the reign of Edward III, to whose wise counsels belongs the glory of first bringing the woollen man factories into this kingdom. Previously to his reign, though England was famous for the growth of wool, it does not appear that the people knew how to make it into cloths, unless of a very coarse kind called friezes. Our wool was exported to the Netherlands, and enriched that country, which gave occasion to the institution of the order of the Golden Fleece by the duke of Burgundy. The king availed himself of the opportunity, which offered through the increasing intercourse between the two countries, in consequence of his marrying the daughter of the earl of Hainault, to send over, without suspicion, emissaries to the Netherlands to ingratiate themselves with the Flemish manufacturers. Every allurement was thrown out to this class of men, who in their own country earned with hard labour a poor and scanty maintenance, to invite them to transport themselves and their art to England. On the fair prospect of living in a superior style, enjoying a proportional profit of their labour, and forming conjugal connexions with the best families, numbers came over bringing with them their tools and their trade. pp. 368-369
Flemish weavers had their own reasons for leaving the Low Countries for England. The craftsmen in the towns were oppressed by the merchant companies and the weavers in the country were in conflict with the weavers in town, often interrupting their supply of wool. Practicing their craft in towns close to the source of English wool, in towns like Taunton in Somerset would be an appealing alternative for Flemish weavers.
I have transcribed the entire section of the fourth chapter of the Taunton History book on the woolen and silk industries in Taunton. You can find it as a sub-page of this one. It makes for fascinating reading on the ups and downs of the woolen industry that affected the lives and fortunes of our Shattocke ancestors. There is also a great story of how an English draughtsman and mechanic stole the plans for a silk weaving machine from Italy and was poisoned by an Italian woman before he could benefit from reconstructing the machine. It is written in the perspective of the times, as the section of child laborers in the silk factories attests.
A point that emerged from the book is how well connected Taunton was to London. Toulmin describes how London interests purchased or rented property in Taunton to set up silk weaving factories.
Shattockes in Taunton
Market Day at the Parade in Taunton sometime in the 1890s
We have a record of a Shattock who a member of the local militia as recorded in the “Certificate of Musters in the County of Somerset Temp. Eliz. AD 1569.” This was a voluntary militia. John Shattock was a pikeman, who had a long pole used to protect the company’s musketeers from charging enemy cavalry. Is this John Shattock, the vintner? Part of the reason why people joined the militia was the pay of one shilling. Presumably the John the vintner would not have joined for this reason. And this was a dangerous time to be in the militia, the Eighty Years War had begun the previous year on the continent and there was the First Desmond Rebellion in Ireland.
The descendants of the original settler in the Taunton area would also have experienced war in their new homeland. Wikipedia provides us with a synopsis of the battles that raged in Taunton.
In 1451 during the Wars of the Roses Taunton was the scene of a skirmish between Thomas de Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, and Baron Bonville. Queen Margaret and her troops passed through in 1471 to defeat at the Battle of Tewkesbury. In the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 most of the Cornish gentry supported Perkin Warbeck’s cause and on 17 September a Cornish army some 6,000 strong entered Exeter before advancing on Taunton. Henry VII sent his chief general, Giles, Lord Daubeney, to attack the Cornish and when Warbeck heard that the King’s scouts were at Glastonbury he panicked and deserted his army. Henry VII reached Taunton on 4 October 1497 where he received the surrender of the remaining Cornish army. The ringleaders were executed and others fined a total of £13,000.
Taunton Castle changed hands several times during the Civil War of 1642–45 but only along with the town. During the Siege of Taunton it was defended by Robert Blake, from July 1644 to July 1645, with the town suffering destruction of many of the medieval and Tudor buildings.[4] After the war, in 1662, the keep was demolished and only the base remains. On 20 June 1685 the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself king of England at Taunton during the Monmouth Rebellion and in the autumn of that year Judge Jeffreys lived in the town during the Bloody Assizes that followed the Battle of Sedgemoor.
The Taunton Election of 1754 and Decline of the Woolen Industry
If there were still heavy involvement of Taunton or Staplegrove Shattocks in the woolen industry, it would have suffered a deadening blow in 1754 in the Taunton Election. Taunton had been a hotbed of revolt against the established church. According to James E. Bradley, in Religion, Revolution and English Radicalism (Cambridge University Press, 1990) the Dissenters and Low-Church Anglicans dominance of the woolen industry made them powerful players in English politics. Bradley describes Taunton as one of the centers of English religious and political revolts in England (p. 351). There was a huge contest that ensured a Whig victory for the Dissenters over their Tory adversary. But it cost the government a huge amount of money to secure the election of the Whig candidate through corrupt means and the ensuing riots ended in the loss of lives and eventually lead to the decline of the woolen industry in Taunton. According to a history of the woolen industry in nearby Wellington (The Woollen Manufacture at Wellington, Somerset; Compiles from the Records of an Old Family Business by Joseph Hoyland Fox, 1923), the Taunton Election was one of the major factors in the rise of the woolen industry in Wellington.
The introduction of machinery for the carding and spinning of wool did not take place until the close of the eighteenth century. Before that time all the work was carried on by hand, as well as combing and weaving, this being done in the cottages. A large part of the population of Somerset and Devon were thus employed, not only the people in the towns, but also throughout the country districts. The introduction of machinery and the erection of mills caused a social revolution and concentrated in the towns the work previously done in the country districts.
1754 was the year of the Taunton Election, that proved so disastrous to the woollen industry in that town, where the manufacture of serges had employed some eight thousand people men, women, and children. Much of this trade was diverted to other places, and a considerable share must have gone to Wellington. (p. 6)
He quotes from Toulmin’s history of Taunton:
The mischief of their influence in this respect was particularly felt in the continued and violent opposition of the year 1754. The demand for its goods was then great ; but through the idleness and debauchery of the season it could not be answered. The orders, being returned to the merchants, were sent for execution to other towns, with which, the intercourse being thus opened, was continued.’
In fact the decline of the woolen industry in Taunton, a major center from medieval times, probably contributed to the emigration of Shattocks to other parts of England and the world. In fact, the founder of the London Shattocks, Thomas Shattock abt. 1770-1842, who went to London, was born 16 years after the Taunton Election.
Chard is a town and a civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It lies on the A30 road near the Devon and Dorset borders, 15 miles (24 km) south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 13,000 and, at an elevation of 121 metres (397 ft), Chard is the southernmost and one of the highest towns in Somerset. Administratively Chard forms part of the district of South Somerset.
The name of the town was Cerden in 1065 and Cerdre in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means “house on the chart or rough ground” (Old English: ćeart + renn).After the Norman Conquest, Chard was held by the Bishop of Wells. The town’s first charter was from King John and another from the bishop in 1234, which delimited the town and laid out burgage holdings in 1-acre (4,000 m2) lots at a rent of twelve pence per year.[4] The parish of Chard was part of the KingsburyHundred,
The earliest evidence of settlement near Chard is the Iron Age fort of Cotley Castle overlooking the Town near Bound’s Lane.
Chard began as a Saxon settlement. The settlement centred round the Church and the area is still known as ‘Old Town’. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 Chard had a population of about 150. To us, it would seem tiny but by the standards of the time, it was a fairly large village.
Then in 1234 Bishop Jocelyn of Wells created a new town north of the village. In those days trade and commerce were increasing rapidly and many new towns were founded in England. The Bishop laid out streets and leased plots of land where men could build houses. Soon there were weekly markets in Chard and annual fairs. (In the Middle Ages fairs were like markets but they were held only once a year and they attracted buyers and sellers from a wide area). Since he owned the land the Bishop could make money by charging stallholders at both the market and the fairs. By then Chard was a busy little town, though it only had a population of a few hundred. From day to day it was governed by a portreeve assisted by 2 bailiffs and between 1313 and 1328 Chard sent MPs to parliament.
In the later Middle Ages, like many Somerset towns Chard became wealthy because of the wool trade. By 1394 there was a fulling mill in Chard. (Before wool could be woven it had to be cleaned and thickened. Beating it in water with wooden hammers did this. The hammers were worked by watermills). In time several more watermills were built in Chard. The Church of St Mary was built in the early 15th century.
Frome was one of the largest towns in Somerset until the Industrial Revolution, and was larger than Bath from AD 950 until 1650. The town first grew due to the wool and cloth industry; it later diversified into metal-working and printing, although these have declined.
At the time of the Domesday Survey, the manor was owned by King William, and was the principal settlement of the largest and wealthiest hundred in Somerset. Over the following years, parts of the original manor were spun off as distinct manors; for example, one was owned by the minster, later passing to the Abbey at Cirencester, which others were leased by the Crown to important families. By the 13th century, the Abbey had bought up some of the other manors (although it did let them out again) and was exploiting the profits from market and trade in the town. Local tradition asserts that Frome was a medieval borough, and the reeve of Frome is occasionally mentioned in documents after the reign of Edward I, but there is no direct evidence that Frome was a borough and no trace of any charter granted to it. However, the Kyre Park Charters of Edward’s reign note a Hugh, lord of Parva (or little) Frome, as well as other witnesses. Additionally, Henry VII did grant a charter to Edmund Leversedge, then lord of the manor, giving him the right to hold fairs on 22 July and 21 September.The parish was part of the hundred of Frome.
Former Wool Drying House, now part of The Black Swan Arts Centre
Hales Castle was built, probably in the years immediately after the Norman conquest of England in 1066.The circular ringwork is 120 feet (37 m) in diameter and stands on the northern slope of Roddenbury Hill, close to the Iron Age Roddenbury Hillfort, to the south-east of Frome. It comprises banks and outer ditches and has an unfinished bailey.At a similar distance to the south-west of Frome stands Nunney Castle, “aesthetically the most impressive castle in Somerset,” built from 1373 onwards, surrounded by a moat.
In 1369 there is a record of ‘three tuns of woad’ being purchased by Thomas Bakere of Frome,probably from France. Such a large quantity of the blue dye suggests a well-established trade for local dyers and clothiers. A 1392 survey of the town mentions tentergrounds: fields of racks for drying the cloth and five fulling mills.Where originally wool was exported to Flanders and Italy, more was increasingly retained at home for the production of cloth. Woolens such as broadcloth and the lighter kersey became primary products for the area. Surnames such as Webbe (weaver) or Tayllor appear in the early 14th century and there are explicit references to cloth makers in 1475.By 1470 Somerset was the largest producer after Suffolk, making most of the undyed white broadcloths.The industry had become the town’s principal base of employment.
On 12 April 1477, a widow, Ankarette Twynyho was taken from the manor house known locally as the Old Nunnery in Lower Keyford, accused by George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence of the murder of Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence, who had died in 1476, probably of childbed-fever after birth of a short-lived son. At Warwick, she was charged with “having…..given the Duchess Isabel ‘a venomous drink of ale mixed with poison’ of which the Duchess has sickened from 10th October to Christmas, when she died. Ankarette protested her innocence, but a packed jury condemned her. She was sentenced and drawn to the gallows…..and hanged all within three hours.” Clarence himself was imprisoned in the Tower shortly afterwards and was executed for treason early in 1478. Ankarette’s grandson Roger Twynyho received from Edward IV a full posthumous pardon for Ankarette. The petition he submitted to the king later that year describes fully the circumstances of the case, well illustrating the quasi-kingly high-handedness of Clarence.
The Tarr Steps is a clapper bridge across the River Barle in the Exmoor National Park, Somerset, England.They are located in a national nature reserve about 2.5 miles (4 km) south east of Withypool and 4 miles (6 km) north west of Dulverton.
A typical clapper bridge construction, the bridge’s listing assesses it as medieval in origin. The stone slabs weigh up to two tons each. The bridge is 180 feet (55 m) long and has 17 spans. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Much of the woodland was once coppiced, primarily to provide charcoal for the local iron smelting industry.
The name “clapper bridge” comes from the Medieval Latin “claperius” which means “pile of stones”. It is an ancient form of bridge constructed with large unmortared slabs of stone resting on one another; this is the largest example of its type. There are 17 spans across 50 metres (55 yd), the top slabs weigh 1-2 tons and are about 39 inches (99 cm) above normal water level. The largest slab is over 8 feet (2.4 m) long and is about 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. This is one of the best known monuments on Exmoor. Its age is unknown, as several theories claim that Tarr Steps dates from the Bronze Age but others date them from around 1400 AD. It has been restored several times in recent years, following flood damage. Over the years the damage provides a good indicator of the strength of each flood. Some of the top slabs have been washed away in extreme flood conditions and they have now all been numbered to facilitate replacement. The Exmoor National Park web site says
“The stones forming the spans weigh between one and two tons each and have on occasions been washed up to 50 yards (46 m) downstream. A distinctive feature of Tarr Steps is the slabs that are raked against the ends of each pier to break the force of the river and divert floating debris. Despite this, much of the damage has been due to debris such as branches floating down with the flood and battering the bridge. Debris used to be removed once a year by farmers from the Dulverton and Hawkridge sides of the river but since the flood of 1952 it has been trapped by cables strung across the river upstream of the bridge”.
In RD Blackmore’s classic romance, Lorna Doone, he refers to “a certain wise woman, well known all over Exmoor by the name of Mother Melldrum.” In winter, she lived in the Valley of the Rocks, on the north coast of Devon, near Linton. But her summer residence was “a pleasant cave, facing the cool side of the hill, far inland near Hawkridge, and close above Tarr-steps, a wonderful crossing of the Barle river, made (as everybody knows) by Satan for a wager.”
So you really should check your souls when crossing the Tarr Steps.
“Edward Blake a solicitor in Crewkerne, and his family, lived on Market Street, near Falkland Square (also Blake related).His son Edward Blake was killed on 31st July 1917 aged 20.There is a memorial window in the Unitarian Chapel on Hermitage Street to him and the men of Crewkerne, which was made by his sister Peggy Dicken.
Edward spent many summers after the war searching for his sons remains.His body was never found and his name is recorded on the Menin Gate in Ypres.Ted was my grandfathers cousin.” (Rob Davis)
Lt Edward Blake with his parents, Edward & Alice Blake in Crewkerne
The Battle of Pilckem Ridge
The opening phase of the 3rd Battle of Ypres (31 July – 2 August 1917) afterwards became known as the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (it was named after a feature that was one of the key targets for capture on the first day). I Corps of the French 1st Army successfully attacked in the most northerly sector, capturing Bixschoote and Kortekeer Kabaret. In the Fifth Army sector to the immediate south, the British XIV Corps, including the Guards Division and the 38th (Welsh) Division, successfully managed to take Pilckem Ridge. XVIII Corps were also able to make good progress in the area around St Julien. Further south again, II and XIX Corps attacked across the Gheluvelt Plateau, making some gains but encountering determined German resistance and counter attacks. To the south of Fifth Army was General Plumer’s Second Army; while IX and X Corps operated on the front opened out in June by the Battle of Messines, II Anzac Corps attacked German lines around Warneton.
On the whole, British progress on the 31st July was solid, if not spectacular. An advance of around 2,700 metres had been made for the loss of just under 32,000 men [1]. However, the degree of success was mixed and not all of the offensive’s objectives had been achieved. 3rd Ypres would continue until November, wth the next stages being the capture of Westhoek on 10th August and the Battle of Langemarck on the 16-18th August.
The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Ieper (West-Vlaanderen)
Amongst the others that died on the 31st July was the Welsh-language poet Ellis Humphrey Evans, also known as Hedd Wyn. He died on Pilckem Ridge while serving with the 15th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers [2]. He was posthumously awarded a bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod in September 1917.
The 8th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry
The 8th (Service) Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry had been formed at Taunton in October 1914 as part of K3. Eventually, the battalion joined 63rd Brigade, which was at first part of the 21st Infantry Division, before transferring to the 37th Division in July 1916.
As part of the 37th Division, the 8th Somersets took part in the latter stages of the Somme campaign in 1916 (Battle of the Ancre) and the Battle of Arras in 1917. In June 1917, the battalion moved to Flanders, being based in the area around Kemmel, south-west of Ieper. In the early morning of the 31st July, they were part of the Second Army (IX Corps) offensive south of Ieper. The 8th Somersets’ war diary provides a brief outline of what happened on the day [3]:
31.7.17.
3.50a.m. Commencement of first phase by 8th Bn. Linc. Regt and 4th Bn. Middx Regt cooperating with 19th Div. on their left, in attack on RIFLE FARM.
During this phase enemy put down moderate barrage on our front line and support trenches, causing a few casualties. 2nd Lt H.R. Kirk being severely wounded, and dying shortly afterwards.
5.0a.m. C.C. 8th Somerset L.I. informed by Liaison Officer at Bn. H.Q. that RIFLE FARM had been carried at 4.20.a.m.
7.50a.m. Commencement of second phase “D” Coy 8th Somerset L.I. cooperating with two companies 8th Bn. Linc. Regt on their left, with “C” Coy on their right, advanced to clear BEEK WOOD of the enemy, and to establish a new line from the WAMBEEK just S. of WAM FARM to a post to be established by 10th Bn. York & Lanc Regt South of GRASS FARM.
9.0a.m. A/Capt Hunt retuned to Battn H.Q. wounded in left arm and reported success of attack to Western outskirts of BEEK FARM enclosures and that his Company were digging in.
10 a.m. Pigeon report received from Capt. H.G. Baker M.C. O.C. “D” Coy that two platoons had gone forward to clear BEEK enclosures and that the remainder of his Coy were digging in on the left of “A” Coy in touch with LINCOLNS that all Officers of “A” Coy had become casualties, Capt Hunt and 2nd Lt. Kirk and 2nd Lt. Adams wounded. That “A” Coy was not in touch with “C” Coy on the right but that they were visible digging in the other side of a small ridge.
1.5p.m. Report by runner from Capt. Baker that 2nd Lt. Blake “D” Coy had been killed, that the remainder of the two platoons that had gone forward had returned, that posts had been established at N.W. and S.W. corners of enclosures.
3.p.m. Report by runner from 2nd Lt Wood “C” Coy that Capt. Baker M.C. O.C. “C” Coy had been wounded, and that he was digging in and was in touch with York and Lancs Regt on Right.
5.40p.m. Pigeon report from Capt. Baker that platoons sent forward had retired, that posts were established N and S of BEEK FARM that 2nd Lt. Blake had been killed, that his platoon had suffered many casualties and that it was at that hour impossible to bring in wounded.
About 8p.m. message received from Heavy Artillery Reserves that enemy were massing for counter attack E. of BEEK WOOD. Our guns opened and the attack did not materialise.
Captured positions consolidated during night.
Coys reorganised and posts established.
“B” Coy moved up to fill gap between “A” and “C” during night from old shell hole line. “C” Coy 10th York and Lancs Regt came into that line in support of 8th Som. L.I. 1 Coy 10th Bn. R.F.’s [Royal Fusiliers] in reserve under command of O.C. 8th Som. L.I.
Comparatively quiet day no counter attacks.
Battn relieved by 13th Bn. R.F.’s after dark without incident.
All but one of the 61 members of the 8th Somersets that died on the 31st July 1917 have no known grave and are commemorated on Panel 21 of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ieper.
The British expected little German resistance following a week-long bombardment. Instead, the Battle of the Somme became, as war poet Siegfried Sassoon described, a “sunlit picture of hell.” Of the 120,000 Allied troops—including those from Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Newfoundland and Canada—who launched the initial attack, nearly 20,000 were killed, most of them in the first hour, and another 37,000 were wounded. Thirty-seven sets of British brothers lost their lives on the battle’s first day, and one man was killed every 4.4 seconds, making July 1, 1916, the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army.
In the belief that Britons would be more likely to volunteer to serve in World War I if they could serve alongside their friends, co-workers and neighbours, the British Army encouraged the formation of so-called “pals battalions,” which included groups ranging from London stock brokers to professional soccer players. The terrible losses sustained by these close-knit battalions at the Battle of the Somme, however, devastated the populations of entire communities. In the space of 30 minutes on the battle’s first day, 584 of the 720 members of the Accrington Pals were killed or wounded. The 600-man Grimsby Chums sustained more than 500 casualties on the battle’s opening day. As a result of the horrendous losses, the British Army gradually folded the “pals battalions” into other units.
1st Somerset Light Infantry War Diary
Z Day: fine and warm
After a very intense bombardment, at 7.20 a.m. a large mine was exploded under the Hawthorn Redoubt.
Practically no casualties were suffered while in assembly trenches.
At 7.30 a.m. the attack was launched. The 11th Brigade advanced in magnificent style in following order from right to left: 1st East Lancashire Regt., 1st Rifle Brigade, 6th Warwicks. In second line: 1st Hampshire Regt., 1st Somerset LI., 8th Warwicks. Battalion advanced on a front of one company. Leading battalion advanced in lines, 2nd line of battalions in lines of sections.
The battalion advanced in four lines.
1st line 2 platoons A Company on right, 2 of B Company on left
2nd line 2 platoons of A Company on right, 2 of B Company on left
3rd line 2 platoons of C Company on right, 2 of D Company on left
4th line 2 platoons of C Company on right, 2 of D Company on left
The 10th and 12th Brigades were behind the 11th Brigade. The advance was carried out excellently to start with and a severe barrage was not encountered. Shortly after heavy rifle fire was opened and machine guns from both flanks. The 1st East Lancashires and 1st Hampshires were unable to get beyond the enemy’s wire. The battalion had to ease off to the left, owing to the ridge which it should have crossed being swept by machine guns and quite impossible and found itself in the German trenches in the neighbourhood of the Quadrilateral. The Warwicks gained their objective but were unable to hold on there. The 4th Division was greatly handicapped owing to the fact that the 31st Division on the left was unable to make progress and that the 29th Division on the right was unable to capture Beaumont Hamel. It is impossible to get a detailed account of the fighting that ensued but the situation after the first hour or two was that men of various battalions in the Division were holding part of the Quadrilateral and were engaged in a fierce grenade fight. Our men were for some time severely handicapped by shortage of grenades, but these were afterwards sent up.
Capt Harington and Lt Greatham were only officers of the battalion there. Both left wounded about 1.30 p.m. CSM Chappell was then in command of men of the battalion in the Quadrilateral. Previous to this RSM Paul came across with the Brigade carriers under a heavy fire. Segt Imber and Pte Hodges did excellent work in signalling from German trenches for grenade, barrage, etc. After dark men of the 11th Brigade were relieved by Royal Irish Fusiliers and withdrew to our own lines. Maj. Majendie arrived about 4.30 with reinforcement officers and took command of the battalion which had been collected together in assembly trenches by RSM Paul. Orders were received about 10 p.m. for 11th Brigade to return to Mailly Maillet as Divisional reserve. 10th and 12th Brigades to hold line. The battalion lost very heavily. With the exception of 2nd Lt Marler , Brigade Dump Officer, no officers with the exception of Capt Acland RAMC who formed up in assembly trenches returned unscathed at the end of the day. Lt Col Thicknesse and Capt Ford (Adjutant) were both killed before our trenches were passed. Battalion casualties were 26 officers and 438 other ranks. Detail of officer casualties as returned from available information.
Killed
Lt Col J A Thicknesse
Capt C C Ford
Missing believed killed
Capt R J R Leacroft
Capt G H Neville
Lt E C MacBryan
2nd Lt G P C Fair
2nd Lt J A Hellard
2nd Lt J A Johnston
2nd Lt A V C Leche
2nd Lt R E Dunn
2nd Lt W H Treasure , 11th TMB
Wounded and missing
2nd Lt H M Tilley
2nd Lt F A Pearse
Missing
Lt V A Braithwaite
2nd Lt G C Winstanley
2nd Lt H E Whitgreave
2nd Lt T M Dodington
Wounded
Capt W W Llewellyn
Capt A J Harington
Lt G V C Greatham
Lt C J O Danbery
2nd Lt R C Strackey
2nd Lt H L Colville , DoW 6th July 1916
2nd Lt A H Collins, Brigade carriers
2nd Lt A R Waugh
Lt R W Shannon
Brigadier General Prowse died of wounds.
Information received that the operations to the south were proceeding favourably.
Also killed
2nd Lt P C Knight
THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE SOMME – THE ATTACK ON BEAUMONT HAMEL, JULY IST, 1916.
IN the Spring of 1916 the 4th Division held the line for two months in front of Hannescamps and Fonquevillers. After three weeks’ training and rest in the neighbourhood of Prouville and Yvrench, the Division moved on May 23rd to the forward area, the Battalion being accommodated in Bertrancourt.
Preparations for the forthcoming Battle of the Somme were already proceeding, and every man was required for working parties.
On June nth the Battalion moved to Beauval for six days’ training for the attack.
From now onwards everybody was working at high pressure, digging assembly trenches, carrying gas cylinders,
R.E. stores, ammunition, grenades, etc., into the line. Every night the whole countryside was alive with working parties, the Serre road in particular being a mass of busy humanity. Owing to the noise and other indications, there can be little doubt but that the Germans knew what we were doing, though, except for an occasional shell or a burst of machine gun fire, they kept remarkably quiet.
On June 22nd the Battalion was ordered to move into billets in Mailly-Maillet, but the village was so congested and so heavily shelled that it was decided to bivouac in a wood just outside.
The preliminary bombardment now started, with occasional discharges of gas, but the German guns remained comparatively silent.
On June 26th C and A Companies went into the trenches under the command of Captain W. Llewellyn. The remainder of the Battalion moved into billets in Mailly-Maillet. The attack was intended to take place on June 28th, but owing to the heavy rain it was postponed until July 1st.
At 10 p.m., on June 30th, the Battalion marched out from Mailly-Maillet to its position of assembly in trenches dug in the area enclosed by Vallade Trench, Borden Avenue and Roman Road.
The ten per cent, to be left out of action with Major Majendie, Lieut. Turner, Sec.-Lieuts. De Ritter and Bennet, moved back to the reinforcement camp at Bertrancourt. On this occasion little or no provision was made for leaving out of action officers and N.C.O.’s for the purpose of reforming the Battalion in case of heavy casualties.
A few months later definite orders were very wisely issued denning exactly what officers and N.C.O.’s should be left out of a battle : included in these were the C.O. or second in command, two Company Commanders, and two Company-Sergeant-Majors. The result was that even after the heaviest casualties there was always a nucleus on which to reform.
In addition to the officers who accompanied the Battalion in the assault, Lieut. Shannon, Sec.-Lieut. Collins and R.-S.-M. Paul, M.C., were in charge of Brigade carrying parties.
GENERAL IDEA OF THE OPERATIONS.
The attack on the VIII. Corps was carried out by the 29th, 4th and 31st Divisions in that order from South to North. The 48th Division was in Corps Reserve.
The first objective of the 4th Division was Q6c93-Q6c99-K36c35-K36a82.
The final objective allotted to the Division was R2b30-L26c35.
The 11th Infantry Brigade, under Brigadier-General Prowse, D.S.O., with the 6th and 8th Battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, of the 48th Division, attached, was given the task of capturing the 4th Division’s first objective.
After this had been captured, the 10th and 12th Infantry Brigades were to pass through the 11th Brigade and capture the final objective – the 10th Brigade on the right, the 12th Brigade on the left.
The 11th Brigade attacked with three battalions in the front line – from right to left, 1st East Lancashire Regt., 1st Rifle Brigade and 8th Royal Warwickshire Regt. – to capture and consolidate the line Q5c91- Q5b17 –K35d15-K35d49-K36a82.
Three battalions formed the second line – from right to left, 1st Hampshire Regt., 1st Somerset Light Infantry, and 6th Royal Warwickshire Regt. – with orders to advance through the leading battalions and capture the first objective of the Division Q6c93- Q6c99- K36C35-K36a82.
The frontage allotted to the Somerset L.I. was bounded on the right by a line through Q5a29- K35c60- K35d60-Q6a75.40, and on the left by a line through K35a30-K35a60-K35a85.15-K35d49- K36C36.
THE ATTACK OF JULY IST, 1916 AT BEAUMONT HAMEL.
July 1st was fine and warm. After an intense bombardment a large mine was exploded under the Hawthorn
Redoubt at 7.20 a.m. Fortunately the Battalion had very few casualties while waiting in the assembly trenches, and all ranks were in the highest spirits, eagerly looking forward to zero hour.
At 7.30 a.m. the attack was launched. The 11th Brigade advanced in magnificent style, and the formations were accurately kept.
The Battalion advanced on a one company frontage in four lines, each line in lines of sections. A and B were the leading companies, with C and H in support. The advance started excellently, and the enemy barrage was not severe.
Very soon, however, heavy rifle and machine gun fire was opened from both flanks. The 1st East Lancashires and the 1st Hampshires were unable to get beyond the enemy wire.
The Battalion was forced to swing to its left, owing to the rise in the ground, which it should have crossed being swept by machine guns and quite impassable and found itself in the German trenches in the neighbourhood of the Quadrilateral.
The Warwicks on the left appear to have gained their objective, but were unable to hold on there.
The 4th Division was greatly handicapped by the 31st Division being unable to make any progress in front of Serre and by the 29th Division on the right being unable to capture Beaumont Hamel.
It is impossible to give a detailed account of the fighting that ensued, but the situation after the first two hours was that men of various battalions in the Division were holding part of the Quadrilateral, and were engaged in a fierce grenade fight. Elsewhere our men were back in the trenches from which they had started. Owing to the very heavy casualties and the small number of survivors from this action, it was extremely difficult to discover exactly what happened in the first few hours of the battle. Also the appearance of the ground had greatly altered owing to the prolonged and intense bombardment by our artillery ; whole trenches had been blotted out, and it was a matter of the greatest difficulty for any individual to locate his exact position.
It is worthy of note that during the morning a report was received at Divisional H.O. from an aeroplane that men of the Battalion had reached their objective, and were in Munich Trench. If this report was accurate, it is improbable that any of these ever returned.
Our men in the Quadrilateral were for some time severely handicapped by a shortage of grenades, but a supply was subsequently sent across mainly owing to the gallantry and good leadership of Regtl.-Sergt.-Major E. Paul, M.C., who was in charge of the carrying party. By this time the only officers left with the remnants of the Battalion were Captain A. J. Harington, M.C., and Lieut. G. C. V. Greetham. Both these officers left wounded about 1.30 p.m., and Coy.-Sergt.-Major Chappell was then in command of our men in the German trenches.
Quite early in the attack the six commanding officers of the Brigade became casualties, and after Brigadier-General Prowse was wounded, the Brigade-Major, Major Somerville, took command.
About 4.30 p.m. the officers who had been left out of action arrived in our original front line trenches, and took command of the survivors, who had been collected and reorganised in the assembly trenches by Regtl.-Sergt.-Major Paul.
After dark those men of the nth Brigade, who were in and around the Quadrilateral, were relieved by the Royal Irish Fusiliers of the l0th Brigade, and withdrew to our own lines.
Later in the night it was decided to evacuate the small portion of the German trenches that remained in our possession, and by dawn on July 2nd the British line on this part of the front was exactly the same as it had been before the attack.
Orders were received about 10 p.m. for the 11th Brigade to move back into Divisional Reserve in Mailly-Maillet, and the line to be held by the 10th and 12th Brigades.
The losses of the Battalion were exceedingly heavy. With the exception of the Medical Officer, Captain Acland, R.A.M.C., and Sec.-Lieut. Marler, Brigade dump officer, no single officer, including those in charge of carrying parties, who formed up in the assembly trenches remained for duty at the end of the day. Lieut.-Colonel Thicknesse and the Adjutant, Captain Ford, were both killed before no-man’s land was reached. The Battalion’s casualties were 26 officers and 438 other ranks. The detail of officers’ casualties is given below :-
Killed-
Lieut.-Col. J. A. Thicknesse.
Capt. & Adjt. C. C. Ford.
Capt. R. J. R. Leacroft, M.C.
Sec.-Lieut. G. P. C. Fair.
Sec.-Lieut. H. E. Whitgreave.
Died of Wounds-
Sec.-Lieut. H. L. Colville.
Missing, and, of whom nothing has since been heard-
Capt. G. H. Neville, M.C.
Lieut. E. C. MacBryan.
Sec.-Lieut. J. A. Hellard.
Sec.-Lieut. J. A. Johnston.
Sec.-Lieut. A. V. C. Leche.
Sec.-Lieut. P. E. Dunn.
Sec.-Lieut. W. H. Treasure.
Sec.-Lieut. F. A. Pearse.
Lieut. V. A. Braithwaite, M.C.
Sec.-Lieut. G. C. Winstartley.
Sec.-Lieut. T. M. Doddington.
Wounded and Captured-
Sec.-Lieut. H. M. Tilley.
Wounded-
Capt. W. W. Llewellyn.
Capt. A. J. Harington, M.C.
Lieut. G. C. V. Greetham.
Lieut. C. J. O. Danbery.
Sec.-Lieut. R. C. Strachey.
Sec.-Lieut. A. H. Collins.
Sec.-Lieut. A. R. Waugh.
Lieut. R. W. Shannon.
In addition to the above, Brigadier-General Prowse, who came out to France with the Battalion and later commanded it, was mortally wounded and died shortly afterwards.
There is little more to add about this attack, which was a complete, but a glorious, failure, and in many ways as creditable to those, who took part in it,- as many subsequent successes. By the light of experience gained later, there is little doubt that the lack of a creeping barrage, which at the time had not been evolved, allowed the Germans to make full use of their numerous machine guns, and accounted to a great extent for our lack of success.
The importance of systematically dealing with the German dug-outs as the advance proceeded was not at the time thoroughly realised: there were several instances of Germans emerging from their dug-outs after the British had passed, and firing into their backs.
After the attack of the 11th Brigade had broken down, the l0th and 12th Brigades were ordered not to advance, but one or two of the battalions had started, before the orders reached them, and they fought alongside the 11th Brigade in and around the Quadrilateral.
The following day, July 2nd, was devoted to replacing deficiencies of equipment and reorganising the Battalion.
The ten per cent, reinforcements rejoined. In addition to those who had been left out of action, two officers returned to duty, Captain C. J. Peard, who had been Town-Major of Mailly-Maillet, and Sec.-Lieut. Tanner from the Divisional School.
Lieut.-Col. J. A. Thicknesse was buried on the evening of July 3rd, in the Military Cemetery, close to the Sucrerie, East of Mailly-Maillet.
In his Parish Magazine of October 1914 the Reverend Lewis, gripped by the sanguine mood of the time, rejoiced that “of our brave men as yet, thank God,none have been killed.” By March 1915, just two soldiers from the town had died. On May 25th came the first of the few military burials in home soil, when Private Albert Taylor was laid to rest in the town cemetery. His hearse was followed by a long mourning cortege, blinds were drawn and the town hall flag hung at half-mast.
Albert Edward Taylor was a private in the Somerset Light Infantry, whose 1st Battalion served on the Western Front in Flanders and France continuously through the four years of the war. He was born in 1879 in Crewkerne and died of wounds on the 14th May, 1915 during the second battle of Ypres at Frezenberg.
The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April – 25 May 1915 for control of the strategic Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the previous autumn. The Second Battle of Ypres was the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front.
Captain Alfred Pollard VC provides a vivid first-hand account:
“Dusk was falling when from the German trenches in front of the French line rose that strange green cloud of death. The light north-easterly breeze wafted it toward them, and in a moment death had them by the throat. One cannot blame them that they broke and fled. In the gathering dark of that awful night they fought with the terror, running blindly in the gas-cloud, and dropping with breasts heaving in agony and the slow poison of suffocation mantling their dark faces. Hundreds of them fell and died; others lay helpless, froth upon their agonized lips and their racked bodies powerfully sick, with tearing nausea at short intervals. They too would die later – a slow and lingering death of agony unspeakable. The whole air was tainted with the acrid smell of chlorine that caught at the back of men’s throats and filled their mouths with its metallic taste.”— Captain Alfred Oliver Pollard, The Memoirs of a VC (1932)[10]
The Germans reported that they treated 200 gas casualties, 12 of whom died. The Allies reported 5,000 killed and 15,000 wounded.
This information was shielded from the British public for as long as possible. In fact, by November 1915, the newspapers published a plea from King George for even more recruits, and around 500 more men from the town and district joined up. Conscription, which excluded farmers but not agricultural labourers, increased the tally in 1916. High levels of enlistment were something to be proud of. “Few towns of its size can compare with Crewkerne in the matter of recruiting,” boasted a town Councillor.
But, by July 1917, Reverend Lewis is striking a different note: “Scarcely a weekpasses that we do not hear of another Crewkerne man who has made the greatsacrifice.” And he observes tragically that: “the streets and places where men foregather,formerly so thronged, are now so nearly silent.” By September 1918, he is sounding desperate:“We may confidently hope that the vast American armies…will free the world from the nightmare which it has been enduring.”
Finally, the War Memorial was to list 127 men from Crewkerne who paid the ultimate sacrifice. The age range spreads from married men in their early thirties down to mere boys of 16. It’s an appalling statistic from a small town.
Bristol Historical Society 