Come on now, own up. Who has never heard of Numpnet Thrubwell? This is a small village and civil parish in dairying country on the western edge of Bath and North East Somerset, in the county of Somerset, England. It is about 15 km south-west of Bristol.
The name is believed to mean ‘the Grove at the village well’ from the Celtic nemett and the Old English wiell.
Within the parish, the Fairy Toot is an extensive overall barrow, formerly a chambered cairn which is a scheduled ancient monument.
It is a mound about 60 m long, 25 m wide and now 2.5 m high retained by a stone wall.
The Fairy’s Toot is a damaged burial chamber which was said to be the home of fairies and goblins, and to be haunted – strange noises have been heard here.
Someone has written a poem which gives some idea of the prevailing attitudes of those who live there
If you find life a race, you just can’t stand the pace,
Come with me to the West Country – the perfect hiding place…
Pack your bags, and make your way to Somerset, and I will lay
Ten-to-one you’ll wanna stay down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
There’s not a pub, there ain’t a shop, you never see a traffic cop
Drink up, and no-one says “stop”, down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
That’s where the cider’s strong, the day’s forty-eight hours long!
They’ve got frogs as big as dogs, that harmonise in song!
The pheasants all take part in shoots, the big barn owls don’t give two hoots,
All the fleas wear hobnail boots, down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
Now they don’t care for house or car, as long as they’ve a cider jar
They’ve never heard of Ringo Starr, down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
You never hear of rain or snow, no hail or sleet, or rough winds blow…
But you can hear the grasses grow, down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
Rabbits there as big as sows, the hens there look the size of cows
All the pigs do Irish jigs, and pigeons pull the ploughs!
So leave me there, let me grow fat, and live and laugh, and after that,
Bury me in a cider vat, down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
Sleepy Nempnett Thrubwell, dear old Somerset.
This was our first visit and the area to my delight was only accessible by small single track lanes, so thank goodness we didn’t meet something coming the other way.
I’m very glad the event was sign posted because the GPS was absolutely useless because that particular postcode is very large and so the GPS kept on asking me to go down farm tracks and dead ends so I just switched off and we followed the signs.
The entrance was an inauspicious set of buildings which turned out to be a farm. It was to have been in the village hall but at the last moment a local farmer, realizing the weather might not be good, offered his very large cow sheds so the whole thing was set up over 48 hours which to me is a minor miracle.
We entered shortly before two pm thinking we might be the first and there might be half a dozen people there but no, there were already many cars and it was obvious that the village had turned out, pretty much everyone was there (total population about 300) including a number of visitors that I detected were farmers. They have a certain look – the combination of being fit, being tall, and being very well built.
I’m also getting very good at spotting farmers wives. They are accompanied by their happy children and are certainly used to tough conditions because they give the aura that you don’t mess with them and who would want to indeed. These images are in no particular order but I am sure you will get the idea.
an area in the cow shed that had been turned into a servery, Tea and cake, cream teas and if I recall, some pizza
This farmer is very responsible and health food conscious and we were delighted to see slogans all over the place. This one says 100% grass fed beef, the way nature intended
There is an excellent community atmosphere and people just muck in and help. I also decided to return a few trays but unfortunately tripped on the floor and smashed a cup
Wonderful male choir composed out of area locals who go around singing old songs such as Beatle songs and Beach Boys songs. I noticed that some of them stumbled with their words but their enthusiasm more than made up for this. I believe they’re going to be at Clutton Flower Show next Saturday.
Another poster, you can’t get clearer than that can you
Francoise is a great collector of beads and such bric a brac so she found a crystal pendulum which I think was two pounds
A lovely area where children could drive around to their hearts content, some were pushed around by their parents but they had a lovely time shrieking with joy
The amazing farmer had constructed a maze for children out of bales of hay. It was not as sophisticated as Hampton Court Maze but it would be delightful for four children up too five years of age. Well done that man
How to host a murder event. This sort of book would not be published these days, a sign of the times past
A lovely touch where young children could play hide and seek and bounced around in their own delightful way. I love the sheer joy on the faces of these children
This farmer is very well organized. The farm was clean and tidy.
Another example of the above, this young lady is not quite sure what is happening and behind her there is a young lad who has almost submerged himself in the hay
You will never forget that this is a farm complete with tractors and bales of hay. Most of the people have an agricultural background so they fitted in very well and I’m so glad it was transferred from the Village Hall
On Saturday the 6th of September there is the famous Bridport Hat Show which we went to a number of years ago so seeing the hats we decided to buy a couple for fun. I bought the blue one at the bottom. I put it on and got a few funny stares from people but who cares. The cost of the hat was three pounds.
This was a general view of the hall with the men singing at the right and everyone eating their cream teas and sitting round at the tables. It was clear that most people knew others and there were very few sitting on their own, some of them were family members some of whom had duties elsewhere so they were sitting waiting
Here is a side shot of The Choir. I took a audio recording and I’m going to try and turn it into aerial. I also took a couple of videos and I just have to find out how to export a file larger than 50 megabytes from my phone. Fastmail.fm will not accept these large files.
What a lovely picture this is. It is clear that the farm itself is a campaigning or organization. Whether they can persuade Starmer to reverse his agreement with Black Rock and force farmers out of business remains to be seen. I’m not holding my breath
Impulse purchase took me back to my childhood
I believe the person who put the whole show together was called Rosemary and she did a brilliant job. I bought from her a print of an original drawing of Winnie the Pooh, by Ernest Howard Shepherd (1879-1976). This is a sketch from a series of illustrations from the book Winnie-the-Pooh published in 1926. The original drawings were provided by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
My conclusion on this delightful visit:
There is something that cannot be manufactured and it was clear about the majority of these people knew and loved each other. You can tell it was not a survivalist economy by the way these people were happy and positive and pleased to give of themselves in whatever way was required.
This is how society should be in general and whatever happens on a world scale, if we can keep the village spirit going then we will have achieved something.
That would indeed be my ambition in life.
Brian
PS The organiser gives grateful thanks to George and Meg for letting us use the farm.
