High Ham and Somerset – For the fainthearted . . .

Holding back the waters

BBC Somerset carried pictures of flash flooding in the county. Turning to the Flood Information Service, the area threatened seemed extensive. From Yeovil, which lies on the border with Dorset, to Steart, where the River Parrett reaches the Bristol Channel.

Flooding is possible – be prepared

Flood alert for Rivers Yeo and Parrett, downstream of Yeovil to Steart
Updated 12:12am on 10 May 2023

Flooding is possible in this area. Monitor local water levels and weather conditions. Avoid using low lying footpaths or entering areas prone to flooding. Start acting

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Colouring maps

On Facebook, my number of ‘friends’ numbers no more than a few dozens, most of whom are family members scattered across various parts of England. However, as well as keeping in contact with cousins, Facebook does offer the chance to follow random pages. One of the pages which seems always fascinating is ‘Simon shows you maps.’

On Monday, the map showed the wettest and the sunniest places in Great Britain. Sharing it with friends, I commented that Miss Rabbage would have been delighted with such a map. Our village is …

Lights in the sky

it has been unseasonably cold, hard to believe it is the Easter holidays.

In the clear coldness of the spring evening, the red lights marking the transmitting station on the Mendips were sharply visible. At 1,001 above sea level, the mast stands 924 feet high.

The mast was constructed in 1967, before the boy’s seventh birthday, its building being a source of wonder to someone who could spend hours staring out into the darkness.

The line of red lights warning approaching aircraft of an obstacle ahead sometimes had about them …

A chapel free of shadows

The April sunshine fades quickly, the shadows stretch long along the road. There are memories come of childhood games of trying stepping on the shadows of others and imagining, Peter Pan-like, being able to lose our shadows.

Walking down the road, I can recall the names of each family who lived here when we moved in 1967, those whose evening quietness would have been disturbed by the shouts of children.

The end house belonged to Maggie Barnard. There was the terrace of four newer council houses: Clark, Hawker, Brooks and …

Centuries of relatives

The mid-term break means a flight to Bristol on Friday and a return to our local community in Somerset where I identify myself as a member of the Crossman family from which my mother came.

It is a family with a long connection to the area. The name is said to be Saxon. The family were yeoman farmers and Parliamentarians during the Civil War. The names in the parish register go back to the 1620s, ecclesiastical records show the presence of Crossmans in the area in the 13th Century.

Stocky …

Travelling from the Junction

Yeovil Junction is a storybook station. It is scenic, it is timeless, it is friendly. It is a place where one can carry travellers’ bags onto the platform and install the travellers in seats on the waiting train. Strangely, it is the terminus for some services from London.

It was in the county of Dorset until 1991, when government legislation transferred a few hectares of land from Dorset into Somerset and moved the station into the same county as the town from which it takes its name.

Yeovil Junction was …