Wellingtonia 113

Captured heading north out of Crewkerne on the A356, just before its junctions with the A303, at the turn off for Stoke sub Hampden. A little to the west of the Ham Hill which gives us the famous Ham Stone, for which see references 2 and 3. An interesting and unusual place which we have visited in the past, but of which I cannot yet find any trace in the archive.

Being near the start of a long journey in a not very familiar vehicle, I did not feel like stopping for proper confirmation and evidence, but I thought this snap from Street View would do for now, pending our next visit to the area.

Marked by the orange spot left in the map above, lifted from reference 3. A map in which the label for the A356 has slipped onto the much larger A303.

PS 1: further investigations reveal that the hill was visited in 2011 and noticed at reference 4. Quite a long time ago now.

PS 2: along the way I got the idea that Eric Gill sculpture outside the church of St. Thomas at Hanwell, noticed at reference 5, was carved from Ham stone, with Gill observing in a letter to the architect (Maufe) that the large design with large detail was what was needed with this rather soft stone. But checking, I find that memory has got this quite wrong and the stone in question was Weldon stone. Perhaps this was a case of wishful thinking: the brain knew I was looking for connections, so obliged. Just the sort of thing that Gemini would do.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/06/wellingtonia-112.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamstone.

Reference 3: https://www.somerset.gov.uk/locations/ham-hill-country-park/.

Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/08/andover.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/st-thomas-hanwell.html.

Reference 6: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/stones_ahrb_2005/cfm/Public/details/RockDetails.cfm?RockCode=WELDON. Not particularly helpful here, but the best that I could do.

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