Hutton, a Somerset Village

Hutton a Somerset village Hutton a Somerset Village Contents Page Introduction 4 Chapter 1 “In the Beginning” 5 Chapter 2 The Early Years 17 Chapter 3 The Court and its Occupants 23 Chapter 4 The Church 36 Chapter 5 The Victorian Church Clock 48 Chapter 6 The Bells of St Mary the Virgin 50 Chapter 7 The Village School 55 Chapter 8 The Buildings of Hutton 82 Chapter 9 The War Years 92 Chapter 10 Post War Years 105 Chapter 11 Flora and Fauna 133 Designed by North Somerset Graphics Unit (01934) 634 919 6527 6/00 1 Acknowledgements This book has been produced by the Hutton Britain in Bloom Committee with the financial support of The Hutton Millennium Committee and The Millennium Awards for All scheme We are indebted to the following people who, although they do not live in the village, have helped in many different ways. Photographer Peter J. Nicholls L.I.I.P., M.M.P.A. who donated his services free in taking many of the photographs in this book. Mrs Liz Green for the details of the Churchyard survey. We should like to acknowledge the tremendous contribution made by the following Photography John Carrott, for providing many of the old photographs from his personal library, together with the technical services to scan the photographs and negatives ready for printing. Authors The majority of the chapters in this book were researched and written by Mr John Chatburn. Mr Arnold Bridge provided “In The Beginning”. Other contributions by John Carrott, Jan Porter, Doris Lovell & Olive Loveridge 2 We thank all those villagers who provided information, and the loan of photographs, without which it would not have been possible to produce this book. Special thanks must go to Muriel & Les Light, Bill Parsons, Desmond Phippen, Bill Amesbury, Haddon Banister and Vincent Hemming. Proof Reading Our thanks also go to Brenda Hague for her assistance in the preparation of this book. Editors Charmaine Johnson and Terry Porter Extracts reproduced from Domesday Book: Somerset (general editor, John Morris; volume editors, Caroline and Frank Thorn, 1980) by kind permission of the publishers, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., Shopwyke Manor Barn, Chichester, West Sussex PO20 6BG 3 Introduction The idea for this small book about Hutton grew from the rules being changed for the judging of the Britain in Bloom Competition. When we needed to add an environmental project to our entry for the competition – part of which was the Millennium Walk – we decided to print a leaflet on the principle landmarks around the village. This made us realise just how much interesting information there was about our village. It took much midnight oil (and a little red wine!) on behalf of the team to try to keep up with deadlines, and then not always successfully. This was not intended to be a definitive history of the village, but it does bring together some of the facts, figures and anecdotes from a variety of sources. We hope that you will enjoy reading it and will forgive any errors we may have committed! The Editors The village photograph 1919 4 Chapter 1 “In the Beginning” he parish of Hutton extends from the top of Bleadon Hill in the south to Cross Rhyne in the north and westwards Tfrom east of Elborough to Winterstoke road. The original village was mainly a linear development east-west along the slightly higher and relatively level land between the slope of the hill and the more marshy area to the north with some scattered settlements on the slopes of the hills. It is possible that the linear development may also have followed a line of springs as suggested by the presence of several old wells within the village such as the wells at the top of Sutherland Drive and the bottom of Eastfield Road. To a large extent the development of the village has been influenced by the underlying geology of the area, which began many millions of years ago. About 4,600 million years ago the Earth condensed from a cloud of dust and gas and has been evolving and changing ever since. This early Earth was cold but compression due to gravity and radioactivity of the heavier elements caused it to heat up to a molten state and the lighter materials to move towards the surface. This process resulted in the differentiation into crust, mantel and core. As the Earth slowly cooled land was formed, the oldest rocks which have been found (in Canada and W.Greenland) are about 4,300 million years old and consist of metamorphosed sediments. 5 This early land mass eventually split into two, one part known as Laurasia and consisting of North America, Europe and Asia north of the Himalayas drifted slowly northwards. Once the Earth's surface had cooled below 100ºC seas could form and the presence of water allowed sedimentary rocks, which are the major rocks of the Hutton area, to form. Hutton Village The high land to the south of the village is part of the western end of the Mendip Hills. The oldest rock in the hills (excluding the Silurian volcanics, see Fig 1. which are in the eastern Mendips near Frome) is the Devonian Old Red Sandstone. The Devonian Period started about 405 million years ago and lasted for 50 million years. During this time Britain was about 10° south of the Equator with an arid climate but subject to occasional flooding by rivers or shallow seas. These sandstones are not visible in the Hutton area; the nearest places they can be seen are on Wavering Down or on Blackdown, especially at Beacon Batch. At the end of the Devonian Period the land sank or the sea rose and the Carboniferous Period began and lasted for 65 million years. This period can be split into three groups. The lowest is the limestone series, the middle group is the quartzite or Millstone Grit series and the upper, which is by far the largest, is the Coal Measures. The middle and upper series are not present in the Hutton area but the quartzite of the middle series can be seen at Brandon Hill in Bristol where the quartzite is known as Brandon Hill grit; coal was mined at Nailsea, Bristol and Radstock. The Carboniferous Period is represented in Hutton by the lower or limestone series and forms nearly all of the easily visible rock 6 in the area. It is well displayed in the quarries at the lower end of Windmill Hill, Canada Coombe and Upper Church Lane, and at numerous outcrops in the fields and woods. Limestone is made of calcite which is the stable form of calcium carbonate. It was used to build many garden walls and older houses throughout the village. Some of the limestone is stained a deep reddish-brown; this is due to iron as will be mentioned later. Some of the rocks in the walls and quarries show lines, streaks or blobs of a white or sometimes colourless material. This is almost always calcite which is a purer form of limestone which has crystallised in cracks, joints and fissures in the rock from lime- rich solutions. Very occasionally the crystalline material may be quartz. Some limestones may show fossils. The two most commonly seen are crinoids (also known as sea lilies) but they were animals not plants, and early shell-fish which occur as curved white lines usually 5-8cms long (but they may be longer or shorter) where the shell has been replaced by calcite. More rarely but still present in Hutton are fossil corals of both solitary and colonial types. Note: fossil corals and crinoids can easily be found among the stones on the beaches on the north side of Middle Hope. The crinoid fragments most commonly found have the appearance of a column of stacked plates usually around a few millimeters to one centimeter in diameter and several centimeters in length. The dull grey limestone, which forms the bulk of the walls and buildings in Hutton, is the Black Rock limestone, which is at the bottom of the Carboniferous Limestone series. It was deposited in fairly muddy water about 350 million years ago when Britain was moving northwards across the equator. In Hutton the bulk of the Black Rock limestone is at the top of Bleadon Hill, extending roughly 400-500m either side of the Roman Road. 7 At its northern and southern margins there is a band of Black Rock Dolomite of variable width. The dolomite is similar to the Black Rock limestone except that some of the calcium has been replaced by magnesium and it can be easily recognised by its brownish colour and the fact that where it is exposed on the surface it tends to split into roughly square sections. The carboniferous limestone in the three Hutton quarries was formed in clear shallow water, probably only a few meters deep and is known as the Burrington Oolite. An oolite is a form of limestone composed mainly of small spherical particles cemented together. The particles resemble fish eggs and are usually less than 1mm in diameter. They are formed of concentric layers of calcium carbonate deposited around nuclei such as grains of sand or shell fragments as they rolled around the sea floor. Fig. 2 Oolith & Crinoid During the Lower Carboniferous period there was some volcanic activity in the region, the remains of lava from the undersea eruptions can be seen in the cliff at Spring Cove, Weston and on the beach and on the north side of Swallow Cliff, Middle Hope. The middle and upper parts of the Carboniferous are not represented in Hutton but during this time the sea level fell leaving large areas of swampy land subject to occasional flooding, which eventually became the coal measures.

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