A HISTORY OF D UNST ER A HISTORY OF D U N ST E R AND OF THE FAMILIES OF MOHUN ^ LUTTRELL BY SIR H.C.MAXWELL LYTE,K.C.B. Deputy Keeper of the Records. PART II I L L us T RA TED LONDON THE ST. CATHERINE PRESS LTD 8 YORK BUILDINGS, ADELPHI 1909 t^ CHAPTER X. The topography of Dunster, The station of the Great Western Railway bearing the name of ' Dunster ' is actually in the parish of Carhampton. A little to the south of it stands Marsh Bridge, formerly of some importance as situate on the road between the Haven, or sea-port, of Dunster and the town. It was reckoned to be in Dunster, and in the middle ages the commonalty of that borough was responsible for its maintenance. ^ Higher Marsh, now a farmhouse close by, seems to occupy the site of Marsh Place, the cradle of the Stewkleys, who eventually became rich and migrated to Hinton Ampner in Hampshire. Further south are several scattered houses, dignified collectively by the name of Marsh Street. There were formerly two public approaches to the town of Dunster from the north. One of these, known in the fourteenth century as Brook Lane, diverged from the highroad between Carhampton and Minehead at the western end of Loxhole Bridge, formerly Brooklanefoot Bridge, which spans the river that there divides the parishes of Carhampton and Dunster. ^ The other, skirting round the eastern side of Conigar, was a southern continuation of Marsh Street, and was anciently known as St. Thomas's Street, ' D.C.M. XII. 4. Wills, vol. iii. p. 195. * D.C.M. I. 4 ; Somerset Medieval 330 A HISTORY OF DUNSTER. ch. x. from a chapel on the north side of it, dedicated to that saint. ^ After the disappearance of the chapel, the street gradually acquired a new name. In 1735, Dr. Poole was fined 6s. %d. by the court of the borough " for causing cobb to be made in the street called Rattle Row, otherwise called St. Thomas's Street, in the common highway leading from Dunster town's end to Minehead. " Brook Lane and Rattle Row were alike superseded, soon after 1830, by a broader and easier ascent to the town, about midway is still >... between them. The course of the former latter marked by a right of way for pedestrians ; the is closed. Near the place where the two roads from the north converged stood of old ' le barrys, ' which was pre- sumably one of the boundaries of the space available for markets and fairs. In the reign of Henry the Seventh, there is mention of ' le est baryer ' and ' le west baryer. ' "" The rising ground to the right of the former has for some time been known as ' the Ball. ' In 1743, John Delbridge was presented at the local court for making an encroachment on the ' lady's waste, by building on a place called ' the Ball. Few street views in England have been more often drawn, painted, and photographed than that from this spot, with the Luttrell Arms Hotel on the left and the Market-House on the right, backed by the wooded Tor and the Castle. The main street of Dunster running southward from the Ball, has, in the course of centuries, borne various names. In the reign of Henry the Third, Reynold de Mohun styles it North Street (yicus del Nord). ' In 1362 and 1432, it is called ' Chepyng- ' XIX. ' See above, page 277. D.C.M. XII. 4 ; 4. » D.C.M. xui. I. a X H CH. X. A HISTORY OF DUNSTER. 331 strete, ' rendered in Latin as ' Vicus Foralis. ' At a later period, the old English name was supplanted by ' an equivalent in the form of ' la Market Streete, which occurs in 1478. Eleven years later, it is called * Eststrete. ^ In 1648, there is mention of ' the ^ markett streete of Dunster called the High Streete.' ^ Savage, in 1830, describes it as ' Fore Street. ' A little to the south of the Ball stood the Corn Cross, mentioned in 1705 as close to the Wheat Market. To the east of it was a building known as the Tub House. The whole site is now quite bare. Nothing is known as to the exact date of the erection of the octagonal Market-House which is one of the most picturesque objects of the sort in England. It may, however, be ascribed to George Luttrell, the first of that name. The sellers of cloth or other merchandise formerly stood under its shelter back to back and carried on their business with purchasers outside. One of the rafters still has a hole through it made by a cannon-ball from the Castle during the siege in the middle of the seventeenth century. The roof must have been renewed after this, for the vane bears the initials of the second George Luttrell, with ' the date ' 1 647. Some shambles were erected in the Market Street of Dunster in 1423, with timber from the Hanger Park close by.* Various pictures and plans made in the early part of the nineteenth century show that they extended some distance southward from the Market-House, thus dividing the street into two parallel ways, the eastern much wider than the west- ern. In the middle was the wooden building known as the Town Hall. There is a record in 1426 of the ' D.C.M. VIII. 2. ' Hundred ofCarhauiptoii, p. 381 » D.C.M. XV. 30 * D.C.M. xi.'3. 332 A HISTORY OF DUNSTER. ch. x. cost of making a new pillory (collistrtgium) in the market-place with timber brought from Marshwood. ^ A prison, or ' stockhowse, ' is mentioned in the seven- teenth century. ^ Each trade had its own section of the shambles, and the lord got rent from all. In the ' seventeenth century, the rate for ' shops inclosed was much higher than that for ' standings ' occupied by butchers, shoemakers and the like. ^ The old Town Hall, the range of shops in the middle of the street, and the open shambles were alike demolished in 1825, when "a new and convenient market house," not remarkable for beauty, was erected by John Fownes Luttrell on the eastern side of the street. * Some medieval shambles may still be seen in the county of ^ Somerset at Shepton Mallet. The first building on the left is the well-known hostelry called the Luttrell Arms Hotels which appears to occupy the site of three ancient houses. In 1443, William Dodesham, son and heir of Ellen daughter and heiress of Robert Homond, conveyed to Richard Luttrell, esquire, two messuages on the east side of the Market Street of Dunster, bounded on the south by a house already belonging to the purchaser, on the north by the road leading towards Marsh, and on the east by the park of the lord of Dunster. The property, which was in the hands of feoffees in 1467, was, in 1499, conveyed to Sir Hugh Luttrell and Margaret his wife in fee, and it thus became an in- tegral part of the demesne of subsequent lords of Dunster. * The arched doorway, with quatrefoils in the span- ' D.C.M. XI. 3. 5 See the illustrations in Proceedings * D.C.M. XV. 30. of the Somerset Archaeological Society^ » D.C.M. XI. 51. vol. liii. * Sa\age's Hundred 0/ Carhamptou, « D.C.M. viii. 2. p. 381. IN THK LITTRELL ARMS HOTEL. fx3^?teiS^ IN THE CASTLE. OXKli.M.WlKI.S, DKXSTKR. CH. X. A HISTORY OF DUNSTER. 333 drels, and the northern wing may perhaps be assigned to the early part of the sixteenth century. The exterior of the latter is richly carved in oak, having a double row of windows with panelling between them, not unlike that of the principal screen in the church. An open roof to the upper storey was until a few years ago hidden by a plaster ceiling. The porch-tower facing the street and part of the adjoining fabric appear to have been built, or very materially altered, between the years 1622 and 1629. In one of the rooms on the first floor, there is a shield commemorating the marriage of George Luttrell of Dunster Castle and his second wife, Sil- vestra Capps. In another room there is a remark- able plaster overmantel of the same period. An oval in the centre of it is believed to represent Actaeon being devoured by hounds. On either side stands a lady richly attired, each, however, showing one leg quite bare from the thigh downwards. Above, two lions carry shields of the arms of England and France. A male figure within a triangle between them may possibly be intended to represent either the King of the day or George Luttrell. The face is almost grotesque. An overmantel at Dunster Castle, obviously by the same hand, bears the date ' 1620,' and there is a third example of his work at Marshwood. The whole building has been an inn for a consider- able period. In a valuation of the year 1651, it is ' described as ' The Ship, and entered as worth 1 6/. a year. At the beginning of 1736, a large new sign- — " 334 A HISTORY OF DUNSTER. ch. x. post made of timber and iron was set up in front of the house and painted by Richard Phelps. The keepers of some other inns and taverns in Dunster may have regarded it as prejudicial to their interests. The following occurs in the record of the borough court held in October of that year ; " We present Philip Harrison for his base usage to the lord of the manor for pulling down and destroying of the sign and sign-post belonging to the house called the Ship Inn in Dunster, being a very great imposition upon the lord of the manor and cost and charge, for which we do amerce " the said Phihp Harrison 5/.