Jack Horner’s Plum
Mells, just a few miles west of Frome, is widely held to be among the most beautiful villages in somerset. If the cottages with their ‘holy greyness’ were not enough, there is the magnificent Church of st Andrew where one corner of the burial ground is littered with the graves of the great and famous. Here we find the earthly resting places of Ronald Knox, the Roman Catholic priest and scholar, lady Violet Bonham-carter, a selection of Asquiths as well as siegfried sassoon. It was their connections with the Horners, who owned the adjoining manor, that brought them to this corner of somerset.
And with the Horners comes a link to that well-known nursery rhyme. local tradition maintains that Mells Manor is none other than ‘the plum’ in that ‘little Jack Horner’ rhyme. The tale holds that Jack Horner was steward to Abbott Richard Whiting at the time of the Dissolution. He was despatched to london with the deeds to a number of manors that were part of the rich demesne of Glastonbury Abbey, all in an attempt to placate Henry VIII. Jack Horner held back one of the deeds, which turned out to be none other than ‘the plum’ of Mells Manor.
If the manor is where the aristocrats ruled supreme, the rocky and wooded valley of the nearby Mells stream was home to the Fussells. These were industrialists, ironmasters to be precise, a complete contrast to the landed gentry up in the village. In the valley a complex site was established in 1744, a quarter-of-a-mile long and containing canals, weirs, underground water-courses and vast arches that housed waterwheels. The Fussells took over what had become a derelict site in the 19th century and built their fortune upon scythes, axe heads, shovels, reaping hooks and all manner of edging tools.
Away from Mells and the Mells stream and the wrangles between the local gentry and the new money, the walk climbs gently onto Barrow Hill, bringing expansive views across this quiet corner of somerset, quiet until the sirens sound at the nearby quarry warning of an imminent explosion! The barrow in question has long gone, with just a shallow depression marking the site. Nearby, the Os map shows an intriguing ‘Bull Pit Ground’. One local expert suggests a Bull Pit was an excavation that led to disappointing results. look carefully nearby and that chimney stack is all that remains of a failed attempt to mine coal in the area. The seams were poor and the shafts flooded.
At the end of the walk, thoughts will inevitably turn to food and drink and in Mells you are spoiled for choice. There is the award-winning Mells Cafe attached to the village shop, a cafe that was opened by Mary Berry in 2011. Nearby is the Walled Garden Cafe, described as an “outdoor cafe in amongst the flowers”, although the cafe is closed until April. And minutes away is the Talbot
Inn, with its
website talking of “a traditional yet stylish former coaching inn”. Forgetting all of the hype and marketing blurb, all three are quite superb. As the saying goes “you pays your money and you takes your choice”.
Getting there
■ Leave the A362 Frome to Radstock road one mile outside of Frome and follow an unclassified road into Mells. Drive through the village to the Talbot Inn, beyond which there is roadside parking on the left.
■ 1. With your back to the Talbot Inn, turn left and immediately left again into New Street and walk up to Mells Church. Walk around to the back of the church and follow a yew-lined path to a gate and field. Cross this field to a stile in the top field boundary, before crossing the next field to a gap opposite. Turn left in the following field and walk around two of its sides to a gap in the field’s bottom left corner and a lane. Follow this lane around to the left for 650 yards up to Conduit Bridge and Colliers Way. Continue following the lane uphill for 200 yards before turning right to follow a signposted footpath into a field. ■ 2. Bear left and walk across the middle of this hillside field to a gap in the end field boundary. Cross a track to a stile opposite before following the right edge of the following field to a stile in the end field boundary where the field has narrowed. Bear left in the next field to a gateway before following a farm track for 150 yards to a footpath on the right. Follow this path along to a field and continue to a large wooden barn. Once past this barn, veer left onto a farm track and continue for 350 yards to a gate. Follow the track ahead to another gate and a hilltop field. ■ 3. Follow the left edge of this field to its left corner before turning right to find a stile in the end field boundary. Cross this stile and follow the right edge of the next field to a stile and a woodland path that drops down to a hillside field. Follow its right-hand boundary down to a gate and stile before following a track down to a road. Turn right and follow to reach a junction in 700 yards by a former chapel on the edge of Great Elm. Turn right and follow this road for 200 yards to a path on the left immediately past the driveway leading to Old Court Farmhouse. Take great care on this section of road, switching to the left-hand side as you approach a blind bend. ■ 4. Follow this path down to a road, turn left and walk around to, and across, the Mells Stream. Once across the river, turn right and walk along to a railway before turning right to cross a river called Fordbury Water. Follow this river down to its confluence with the Mells Stream, turn left and follow the