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| The Grave-free church at Williton - by Rob Farrow [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
[Only a short post this week because I have been away in an electric-free holiday in wildest Wales. On the way back we stayed with relatives who have just moved into Yarde, in Somerset, between the Quantocks and Exmoor. They told me two little bits of folklorish information they had picked up.
The first was about their home hamlet of Yarde, which they where told had been moved wholesale to its present position because a certain local lady of the manor had not liked the peasants spoiling her view. The Archaeologist in me thinks this is unlikely as the buildings are all of different ages, from the 16th to 19th century, and also because they are quite big and well to do houses. However it could relate to some houses in peticular - my relatives house used to be home to a collection of different industries, each with their own room. Perhaps some peasants where moved to the already existing hamlet from elsewhere. Either way the moving of people from their ancestral lands on the whims of an aristocrat is a far from unique story (e.g. at Okehampton Castle.)
The second bit of folklore related to Williton, and a church there. Someone connected to the church was implicated in the murder of Thomas a' Beckett, and as a punishment for this connection the church was not permitted to hold burials. Although all other services continued burial happened in the next church. This is why to this day the church does not have a single gravestone by it...]
Map - Okehampton
Map - Williton
Map - Yarde
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