Somerset Feature. The Travel & Leisure Magazine

on your doorstep

A poetic Chuck Andolino

From King Arthur to Guy the Gorilla, Alex Johnson gets on his hobby horse for a canter around the delights of Somerset.

Keith Gough

Keith Gough

Andrew Eason

I Main picture: Glastonbury Tor I Above left: Wells Cathedral I Top right: Carnival time I Above right: Cheddar Gorge

M

y childhood memories of Somerset largely involve Ian Botham and Viv Richards belting the ball around the outfield (or indeed over it). Then in my thirties I became interested in making my own cider and Somerset offered me plenty of sampling opportunities. But now I have a young family I’ve finally got to know the county for a wider range of attractions, from its gorgeous coastline to its fantastic carnivals. And if you were in any doubt that the traditional English seaside holiday is in danger, then this is the place to come to keep you optimistic. If you are considering heading to the beach, probably the best known spot is Weston-super-Mare with its long, long stretches of sandy beaches as well as Grove Park, home to Jill’s Garden, a celebration of the life of television presenter Jill Dando who grew up here; Minehead offers similar attractions plus an attractive new promenade and is one of several convenient gateways into Exmoor (see below); and Burnham-on-Sea which is also home to

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Teri’s

I West Somerset Railway

the popular Haven Holiday Park (www.havenholidays.com) which offers special activity programmes for children as well as plenty of live entertainment in the evenings. And at Clevedon you can hop on board a pleasure steamer from the Grade I listed pier for a little cruise. The coastline certainly has plenty to offer. Kilve Beach is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and one of the spots where you can see the impressive lines of rocks bumping against each other, full of fossils (and there are some great rock pools here too). The coast is obviously also a great place for birdwatching opportunities if you are a twitcher, especially Bridgwater Bay.

Greener Options For something a little greener, head upwards and inland. There are plenty of lovely walks in Somerset which has over 9,000 rights of way adding up to 3,750 miles of rambling possibilities, a mixture of signposted and part sign-posted walks, including: G South West Coast Path - this runs for hundreds of miles from Minehead right

Thankful villages During the carnage of World War I, there were amazingly a few villages in England and Wales who lost no menfolk during the fighting – all those who went to war also returned. There were seven in Somerset: Aisholt; Chantry; Chelwood; Rodney Stoke; Stocklinch;Tellisford; and Woolley.

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Keith Gough

Top Tips

on the edge of Exmoor National Park to Poole Harbour in Dorset. The web site at www.southwestcoastpath.com is a fantastic resource with lots of information about the scenery, wildlife and history of the area G The Parrett Trail (www.riverparretttrail.org.uk), slightly longer than the Coleridge Way but which can similarly be walked in sections, runs from Dorset into the south of Somerset: artists have created small feature ‘clues’ along the track referring to the landscape, its animals and its history which is great for children to spot G The Liberty Trail links Ham Hill to Lyme Regis and celebrates the story of the half dozen dissenters who joined the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 G Taunton to Bridgwater Canal towpath which you can dip in and out of, especially good for picnics G The Macmillan Way, a series of shorter walks (two to six miles long) in and around the Quantock villages. G The Coleridge Way (www.coleridge way.co.uk), a lovely 36-mile route through the countryside where the romantic poet Coleridge lived and worked taking in heathland, moorland, heavily wooded valleys and pleasant villages including the infamous Porlock… Porlock is permanently linked now to Coleridge as being the village from where the man came to disturb Coleridge’s brainstorming during the writing of Kubla Khan ('In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome decree…’). It’s actually one of the many lovely villages which is worth a wander in Somerset and a previous winner of the county’s Best Large Village competition.

Although not widely known now, Somerset is the place where pretty much all of the country’s willow comes from, used in everything from pick your own baskets to coffins and even an enormous open air structure: artist Serena de la Hey (www.serenadelahey.com) constructed a 13m Willow Man sculpture in 2000, rebuilt after an arson attack and which still stands in a field near the M5 motorway near Bridgwater. The main willow fields are in the area known as the Somerset Levels, great places for spotting wildlife and which are drained by a clever system of small canals known as ‘rhynes’. You can find out more about willow and even join a willow sculpture workshop at the Willows and Wetlands Visitor Centre, home of willow specialists P. H. Coate & Son (www.englishwillowbaskets.co.uk) or if you’re really keen stay at the B&B converted withy barn The Willow House (www.thelinenpressvintagebarn.co. uk) at Stoke St Gregory.

There are plenty of nice short walks starting from Porlock weir as well as a fabulous restaurant, Andrews on the Weir (www.andrewsontheweir.co.uk) which overlooks Porlock Bay. Not all of Coleridge’s work was interrupted. He wrote the famous Rime of the Ancient Mariner after a trip to nearby Watchet which has lovely old narrow streets and is one of the stops on the West Somerset Railway (www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk), a country branch line of the old Great Western Railway along which run various historic steam locomotives. There are 10 stops in villages and towns in the area and a range of themed trips as well as the timetabled departures. It tends to be the wide open spaces that grab the attention in Somerset, such as Exmoor. It’s true that this is a lovely quiet

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Of course you can buy cheddar cheese everywhere from Andalucia to Zanzibar nowadays, but Somerset is the home of the real deal and to be precise the three farms of Montgomery’s at North Cadbury, Keen’s in Wincanton, and Westcombe Dairy close to Shepton Mallet.These are the last three farms in the county preparing the traditional recipe onfarm. The name comes from the village of Cheddar and dates back at least to the 16th century. Cheddar cheese became very popular in the late 18th century and farmers formed ‘cheddar clubs’ to increase production to meet demand. A traditional cheddar varies in weight up to 25kg. Naturally it’s a popular accompaniment to local ciders. You can buy these traditional cheeses from The Cheese Shed (www.thecheeseshed.com) or direct from Keen’s, still a family business (www.keenscheddar.co.uk - where you can find out more about cheddar).

I Somerset countryside

place to roam around from its heather-covered moorlands to the seaside cliffs and as a National Park it’s carefully monitored and protected which is good news for the thriving flora and fauna, such as the Exmoor pony, which make their home there. But there are smaller jewels in the crown too such as Hestercombe Gardens (www.hester combe.com), a 50-acre Grade I listed garden which includes a Georgian landscape garden and formal gardens designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and planted by Gertrude Jeykll. Rare Lesser Horseshoe bats nest here too and you can see them via a remote camera link. Of course there are plenty of manmade attractions too such as the fabulous ruined castle at Nunney and the smallest city in England, Wells, with its spectacular cathe-

YOUR Somerset Facts Somerset is easy to reach by car or coach and there are also regular

daily train services to mainline stations at Taunton,Yeovil Junction and Castle Cary. More details from National Rail Enquiries (08457 484950). If you prefer to fly, there are airports at Bristol and Exeter. If you’re thinking of taking your dog to the beach, check on local restrictions. For example, at Weston-super-Mare between Royal Sands and the Grand Pier there’s a dog free zone from May to the end of September, whereas dogs are allowed free roam all year long at Berrow and Brean beaches. Food and drink play a large part of the Somerset experience and the Levels Best project aims to provide a guarantee of high quality (www.levelsbest.co.uk): anything with a Levels Best label means it has been produced by people who practice conservation land management, are supporters of animal welfare, rear native breeds of livestock and whenever possible plant and use traditional varieties of plants and seeds within the 260 square miles of the Somerset Levels and Moors area. Two very useful sites are www.visitsomerset.co.uk run by the regional tourist board which has a good listings guide to all types of accommodation in the county, and www.hiddensomerset.co.uk, a not for profit co-operative initiative run by local residents.

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Ian Cattemull

Cheesey

dral built between the 12th and 14th centuries on the site of a seventh century church. The fabulous west front is full of hundreds of statues and carvings and inside is one of the oldest working mechanical clocks, dating back to the 14th century.

‘It tends to be the wide open spaces that grab the attention in Somerset...’ Somerset is also the home to many traditions and customs, such as the bizarre ‘Hobby Horse’ which parades though Minehead’s streets every May (www.mine head-online.co.uk/hobbyhorse.htm) and the various autumnal Somerset Carnivals which involve huge illuminated processions organised by individual Carnival Clubs as well as plenty of fireworks. 2008 dates are still to be confirmed but last year’s began around 7pm and finished a couple of hours later at most locations, starting from the last week in September and ending in the middle of November.

Glorious Glastonbury Finally, there are the numerous legends surrounding certain places in Somerset. Glastonbury Tor is rumoured to conceal a hidden entrance to the underworld while the last remains of King Arthur are said to have been discovered here by monks (the great man is supposed to have lived at Cadbury Castle, the location of the legendary Camelot, and whatever the truth of the matter, it’s certainly an impressive prehistoric camp). The story also runs that Joseph of Arimathea planted a holy thorn tree here. All of which is great, but when you add the cider and the cricket on top, it’s really TL somewhere special.