Happy Wednesday

Just lately, due to lack of time to walk together during the week, Steve and I have taken to getting up earlier and walking before work. This morning was just lovely (but not long enough!).


This was part of a walk I did with a friend yesterday. We walked through the fields to get to the same point, but today time was precious. For those fibery people amongst you, I thought you would apreciate the following group of pictures, taken just feet from one another. We also saw a fox bounding across a field, but I just wasn't quick enough with the camera!

There is a great history to the farm where the alpaca were.

We didn't really go far enough for you to see the oldest part of the buildings properly, but the tallest gable, which you can see behind the conservatory is from a more ancient time. It is a private home and farm, so I am not going to name the property this time.Having researched the history of the site, I have discovered that it has quite a past! For anyone living in Somerset, you might even be able to guess where it is!


The first written evidence for the place goes back to 579! In 1539-1707, it was owned by The Duke of Somerset, Sir Edward Seymour, brother of the famous Jane Seymour, who of course married King Henry VIII. Sir Edward Dwyer, and Elizabethan poet also owned the estate at one point, as did the Thynne family of Longleat (famouse for it's free ranging lions, and now a thenme park). For those of you who enjoy classical novels, Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones, was born here in 1707. From the late 1700's it passed into the hands of several gentleman farmers including Thomas Hawkins, the palaeontologist who discovered fossils of the ichthyosaurus.


In the 1830's a large part of the main buildings including the chapel, were demolished, but by 1830 it was looked upon as the best farm in Somerset and employed over 40 labourers, growing wheat, dairy and beef cattle, and sheep.