STOKE ST MARY AND DISTRICT HISTORY GROUP
STOKE ST MARY HISTORY GROUP
Annual General Meeting, 4 April 2023
Chairman’s Report
After the long pause in History Group activities caused by the pandemic, the year since the last AGM has seen a return to a more familiar pattern of talks, events and meetings. The world continues to work out its new version of normality, but in the midst of so much that is changing and uncertain the past retains its ability to fascinate, enrich and enlighten. The History Group is now in its 15th year of existence.
At the AGM on 26 April 2022 Dan Broadbent, Historic Heritage Officer with the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme, spoke about the Scheme’s aims and achievements. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, it brings together 23 projects ranging from the restoration of hedgerows, historic features and traditional orchards to work with schools, archaeological excavations and archival research. There is also a wide-
On 26 May, as part of the commemorations in Stoke St Mary for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, a talk was given called ‘Right Royal Somerset’. Using words and pictures it took us on a journey from the Saxon kings of Wessex to the presence at Stoke of Charles Stuart, Prince of Wales, during the third siege of Taunton in 1645 and later visits to the area by other Princes of Wales, including the men who became Edward VIII and Charles III. Following the talk a short newsreel film was shown of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, an echo of the occasion 70 years earlier when many people gathered in the village hall to watch the ceremony broadcast on television.
In sunny weather on 3 July we made our way to Crowcombe in the Quantock Hills. After lunch at the Carew Arms, Bob Croft showed us the progress of excavations in the grounds of Crowcombe Court and described the search for remains of the original manor house. It was a few days after the visit that evidence of building foundations was at last uncovered. To finish the day we visited Crowcombe Church, one of the finest medieval churches in Somerset, and admired what are perhaps the West Country’s most memorable bench ends.
On 24 January, and now with a new king on the throne, a talk was given called ‘The Flight of Charles II through Somerset’. It described the king’s improbable adventures after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 and the bravery of the Wyndham family who for several days hid him in their manor house at Trent, near Yeovil. He eventually escaped by boat to France but never forgot the kindness of those who had helped him when his fortunes were at their lowest point. They included Sir Francis Wyndham, whose memorial is in the church at Trent, and Juliana Coningsby, later Hext, who is buried at Low Ham.
On 15 March the History Group was welcomed at the Newt Estate near Castle Cary to be shown the remarkable Roman museum and villa reconstruction that have recently been completed. The villa is not only the most ambitious such reconstruction in the British Isles but has few rivals in Europe as a whole. It provides a remarkably vivid impression of how Romanised Britons lived 1,700 years ago and even the rain was not able to damp our spirits! We are very grateful to the Newt for their generosity to us.
We continue to be grateful to all those who serve on the History Group Committee, and not least to Stephanie Crockett, our Secretary, on whose organizational abilities we so much depend. We’re grateful as well to Sarah Baddeley who maintains the group’s excellent and very informative website, and to John Pugh, who has been our Honorary Treasurer from the beginning. We’re very pleased that Graham Salter, whose idea it was that the History Group should be formed, continues to be our President and brings his encouragement and enthusiasm to all our endeavours.
Tom Mayberry
Chairman
4 April 2023