Another bright sunny morning as six of us met at the village church to take in a walk around the Pen pits end of the sprawling historic village of Pen Selwood.
Leaving the church In a northerly direction we headed off down country lanes towards Pear Ash, past a beautifully restored barn and we soon heading out across fields towards the woods of the Stourhead estates. The track followed the edge of the wood line of Bottle Hill and dropped down past some of the Pen pits to a beautiful Ford on the top reaches of the river Stour, where the obligatory selfie was posed for.
The Pen pits are a series of old Iron Age and later Roman earth workings found in 2 areas of Pen Selwood. A particularly gritted stone, a type of Greensand found in this area was excavated and use for the crushing of cereals and other tough foodstuffs for making into flour or other consumption. The stones known as querns were placed one on top of the other, the bottom one ideally having a concave shape, and the top one was then rubbed to crush the seeds into a fine dust. The pits are pretty unique in that there have been no further excavation since the end of the Roman times in the fifth century so are still in good condition. Other tools such as mortars and whetstones were also manufactured at the quarries. The sites are now designated scheduled monuments.
Continuing our walk along the Stour we worked our way though some woodlands back on the Monarchs way again, and below the Motte & Bailey that unfortunately is now in private hands, before crossing back from Wiltshire into Somerset coming out into one of the most picturesque coombes in this part of county.
We passed by a row of cottages where on one wall was a series of memorials to members of the Silk family and also on the driveway 2 or 3 large Easter Island figurines. Back into the woods with more of the pits to our left and a steady climb up the edge of the Coombe. Brian picked up a piece of local rock and it was clear to feel the grit within the hard stone, easy to see why it was so valued in Iron Age and Roman times. On reaching the road, a short walk back round the country lanes soon had us back at the church, completing a very pleasant 3 mile route.
A short drive back into Wincanton for a first class full English breakfast courtesy of Kath and Brian. Talk soon turned to next weeks offering and I think it’s fair to say we could be in for a surprise at Trevor’s. Bockwurst, bratwurst and sour kraut all appear to be in the offering, only time will tell what we get.
More walks around Pen Selwood can be found here
Rhododendrons in Pen Selwood church yard.
Comentarios