Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

A very happy Christmas and New Year to everyone.  Lots of love to you all. 😊

 

 

 

Mills in Axminster, Devon - Part One: Castle Mill

Castle Mill is situated at the lowest point of Castle Hill, where it is thought that an actual castle once stood. I have been unable to find any history or information about the mill at all. I'm assuming that its name derives from the name of the street, and that the crenellations on the front part of the building were added for the same reason. There is another, more workaday, part of the building behind the front edifice, which I have been unable to get a clear look at, although it can partially be seen from the nearby railway bridge, below.

I came across this whilst having a mooch down to the bridge over the railway lines, looking for WW2 pillboxes, which I couldn't find. I later discovered they weren't there because I had the wrong bridge! 

I later found out that the ground floor of the front building is used by a pet food company, but the site looked a bit derelict and unused, which was why I decided to investigate and take a few photos. 

 

What looks like empty pet or bird cages outside the entrance, below. At that point I still thought it was disused, until...

...a rather large dog (or there might have been two) started barking when I went towards the door and the owner came out. He kindly allowed me to continue taking photos of the building close-up, once I'd explained why I was there.

I did have some information from Axminster Museum (now moved to a new building and renamed the Axminster Heritage Centre) concerning three mills in the town. There was this one and the nearby Brush Works, plus another one in the town - which I haven't yet ascertained its whereabouts, although it's also near behind Castle Mill - as well as two outside the town at Weycroft and Millbrook. Unfortunately, I've just looked through all my notebooks going back twenty years and can't find it! So, that's it for now and if I do find out anything else I'll add it to this post. Cheers. :)

 

 

 

Bridge Toll House, Axmouth, Devon

A toll bridge until 1907, the little toll house still remains and is on the Seaton side of the river near to the Boat House (the former Devon Dive building) - although that stretch just this side of the bridge is actually part of Axmouth village - and is now a residential house called Bridge Cottage. 

Oddly enough, this isn't a listed building even though it's a historical building with lovely and quirky architecture. Built in 1877, as part of the toll bridge which replaced the ferry crossing, it was eventually made redundant when tolls were no longer needed. 

The Lord of the Manor at that time was S. Sanders Stephens. He paid £2,200 towards the sum of £5,000 raised to free the bridge from tolls. Interestingly, Mr Stephens owned the company Stephens Ink and lived at the nearby William and Mary style house, Stedcombe Manor...known by locals as 'The Inkpot', both because of the shape of the house and the ink association.

This is one of the Blue Plaque buildings in Seaton, which can also be seen in my article about them here. I had a walk down to take some new photos and was seen by one of the family living in the house and he asked why I was taking photos. As it happened I used to know the chap, although I hadn't seen him for a good twenty years or so, and we had a chat after he'd realised who I am and that I wasn't up to no good! ;) 

A view of the harbour from the toll house, above.

A hedge runs from the toll house to the start of the bridge, which is inhabited by lots of lovely sparrows. I tried to take a photo of them but they vamooshed over the hedge so quickly that I couldn't even get a shot of them taking off.

And lastly, another photo of the harbour from the left side.

Bridge Toll House, Sidmouth, Devon

 

Like all toll houses, this one has a character all of its own. Built in the Neo-Classical Greek Revival style for the newly erected Waterloo Bridge over the River Sid in 1817, it is a Grade II Listed building.

A single-storey house, it has this wonderfully grand pediment supported by Doric columns and some lovely tall octagonal chimneys.

When the Sidmouth and Honiton Turnpike Trust was disbanded in 1888 both the toll house and its gate were made redundant. It was eventually acquired by Sidmouth Council, repaired and upgraded with central heating, and is now residential.

You can just about see the toll gate in the photo below, at the other side of the house. Having been left in a nearby field it was found and restored in the 1970s, and is now situated at the entrance to a river walk called The Byes.

Incidentally, I came across this when a friend and myself went to Sidmouth for the Sidmouth Folk Week. It was the nearest she could park and we had quite a walk into town, but such a good opportunity to take some photos and enjoy seeing this fab little toll house. :)

 

St Andrew's Church, Charmouth, Dorset

Mention was made of the earliest church upon this site in a charter at Salisbury, dated 1240; namely ''Capella de Cernemue', or the Chapel of Charmouth. A new church was built in about 1503, some of which was saved to be incorporated into the present church; notably the Beer stonework which formed the arch of the northern porch.

Once the congregation became too large for the church, it was decided to add another gallery along the north side in 1817, and in 1835 an aisle was to be added. However, once the architect, Charles Wallis of Dorchester, had inspected the building and found it to be dilapidated and unsafe, he suggested to take down the present building and erect a new one. The present church was subsequently rebuilt in 1836, with some of the materials and monuments from the old church saved for the new one.

A Grade II Listed Building, it was rebuilt in the Gothic Style using the vernacular chert rubble  for the walls with stone dressings and quoins in the Romanesque short and long style. The window dressings are also made from Beer Stone, from the quarry just above the village of Beer.

Although some of the original fixtures have been saved, many have also been lost. A nice little story is how a portion of the oaken rood screen, which divides the chancel from the nave, was found being used as a clothesline prop in a cottage garden. That particular piece has since been installed in the chimney-piece of the Old manor house opposite the church.

At the risk of sounding disrespectful - and please excuse my sense of humour, lol - but the gravestone above always reminds me of Lisa Simpson whenever I see it. I don't recall seeing it close-up, but I did think that the top is the shape of a six-sided star. However, on looking at the photo properly it would have eight sides, not six, so maybe a decoration rather than depicting a Jewish burial as I'd originally thought.

Many of the gravestones look ancient from weathering, but most of them date from after 1836. One of the oldest is dated 1784.  A long row of headstones are ranged along the churchyard wall on the eastern side.

You can probably tell that I was rather enamoured with these. I took some more photos of them on my second visit too, which I'll post at the end with some other photos.

And with more on the western side.

The South door at the rear, below. The North door is the main entrance, which is unusual as it was known as the Devil's Door and never used. North was considered to be the direction of godlessness - which is why women were traditionally seated on the North side! 

Oddly enough, there are quite a few churches in this area that have the entrance on the north. I'm not sure if it was because during Victorian rebuilds and renovations the usage of the doors was changed, and that the superstition was no longer adhered to (being Mediaeval), or whether it says something about the people of the South-West! 

Having visited twice now, once in 2009 and again in 2011, I'm surprised at the small amount of photos I have of the interior. Probably because it didn't really grab me at the time and it hadn't been long since I'd started taking photos of churches along with my usual kinds of buildings, only taking photos of those which stood out and prefering the exterior architecture.

A stepped lancet east window in the early Gothic style with 14th century style screens either side of a retable altar in the later, Decorated style. I can't really tell from my photos, but the screens may be sedilia, or more likely an imitation of them. They provided seating for the officiants during Mass of the time before the Dissolution - now called Communion in the Church of England.    

The interior consists of arcades to either side of the nave with tall, octagonal columns.

 

The roof inside consists of a ceiling canted upwards with arch-braces and iron tie-rods between the ends of what has been made to emulate hammer beams.

The font, below, is a lovely marbled octagonal shape in the perpendicular style.

One of the features which really stood out for me are the stained glass windows. They are superb...so bright and colourful, and my photos really don't do them justice.

Interestingly, the original church had been dedicated to St Matthew, and no-one knows why exactly, but the new church was thereafter called St Andrew's...possibly due to Charmouth being a coastal town with fishing the main local trade at the time.

On that second visit, someone was playing the organ; a lovely lady who kindly invited me to take photos inside the offices beneath the organ gallery.

I particularly liked these memorial windows in the rear offices.

And to finish off, a few more photos outside.

And last of all, I took these photos of the gate with the church in the background. There was a spiders web with a spider in the centre on one of the spaces between the curlicues, but unfortunately it didn't show on the photos, apart from a tiny black speck on the left one.

And there we go! :)