Well Well Well(s)

Despite living so close to Wells it's a city I've never really visited other than to visit the bank in the High St and occasionally do a bit of shopping.

The first surprise was that a large supermarket was being built on the car park I usually use and  how much it was now going to cost me to park for the morning. Oh well.

I joined a group for the City tour

First though we had the pleasure of the local Town Crier drumming up some business for the market.

I don't think the Poet Laureate need worry - nor Pam Ayres!

Wells is Somerset's only city and either Britain's smallest or second smallest depending on what definition you want to use. Settlement dates back to at least the Roman times and very likely a lot earlier.

 Wells is of course famous for the Cathedral. Parts of the building date back to the tenth century and the west front is claimed to be  the finest collection of statuary in Europe. Although there are some modern ones, nearly   300 of its original medieval statues remain.

The statues and carvings tell various biblical stories. Just as a sample here is Eve tempting Adam with an apple - complete with the serpent curling above their heads.

Tucked around the side is the second oldest working clock in the UK ( the oldest is on Salisbury Cathedral). Whether you can rightfully claim this for a clock with a Victorian mechanism and a replacement central dial seems to me rather a stretch but there you go.

The original mechanism is safely in the Science Museum in London after having a narrow escape from the scrap metal merchant.

Despite the grandeur of the Cathedral I think this was my favourite part . Vicar's Close. A wonderful cobbled street lined with Grade 1 listed houses.







It claims to be the oldest residential street, dating from 14CE. Originally 44 houses, there are now 27, a change which resulted from the reformation and the permission for clergy to marry.



and finally I had to include, of course, a holey stone.

This is a hoker or oath stone through which farmers would shake hands to clinch a deal. Obviously at some time it has also done duty as a gate post.

It's also been moved - it was originally sited on Tor Hill but apart from that there seems to be little information on it.

In search of more holey stones..

Well the snow has gone, to be replaced by high winds and thunderstorms. I'm not sure which is worse. After a fairly wild night, the morning dawned with high winds and blue skies. Could have been worse.

I'm on a theme here and another holey stone was on the agenda - this time the Long Stone at Minchinhampton.

For a change, this one should have been easy to find but we still managed to drive past it the first time....

Yes fairly obvious from the road isn't it! Never mind. We found somewhere to pull off the road and walked back to find it.

Access is very easy - there is a gate but as the wall is currently being rebuilt it wasn't really necessary. There are 3 holes in this stone, and it has the usual healing legends attached to it. Passing children through the holes was said to cure rickets. They'd have to be very small children, there is just about enough room to pass an adult hand through - may be just inserting the affected limbs through the holes would be enough?

This is another stone that is said to get up and wander around. When the clock strikes midnight, this one gets up and heads for Minchinhampton spring for a drink.


There is a second stone a few feet away

This one has actually been built into the dry stone wall. So is this the remains of a burial chamber? A circle? or just some standing stones. There are barrows all over the place so it seems that the area was in ritual use at some time.




Speaking of barrows, there was one just across the road so it seemed sensible to go and try and find it. This proved equally easy to find. A most unusual day!

Sadly it is badly damaged with most of the middle now missing. It's also fenced off with the green tape and we didn't approach too closely as it is on private land.

I think you can just about see some of the stones here but without clambering all over the barrow it is hard to be sure. Reports on the condition of the chambers are very mixed, from being present and correct to not being there at all anymore. Sadly I am not able to say one way or the other