West Monkton

To reach our final village, Pilton, we must leave our straight route at East Pennard and travel almost due north for a couple of miles or so. Pilton is a large but quite dispersed village beside the Glastonbury to Shepton Mallet road, and we are now some six miles from the former. The parish church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, developed from the Norman period onward through the Middle Ages, and is down in a dip at the junction of several streets. The church has an attractive Norman south door, with corbels with heads of a bish- op and two angels inside the porch. Inside there is an Easter sepulchre, and the nave and north aisle have Somerset-style timber tie-beam roofs with carvings of angels. Next to the church there is the manor house. It was established in the 13th century as a residence of the Abbots of Glastonbury and added to by them for the next couple of hundred years. After the Dissolution, it passed into private hands and what we see today from the outside is the result of various alterations made during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including some by one of the Earls of Hereford who owned the place in the 17th century. In the yard at the back there is a rare survival, a dovecote dating from the 13th or 14th century.
An extract from from"Glastonbury Photographic Memories".

An intriguing photograph - are the men beside the pile of stones carrying out repairs or new construc- tion? It looks as though they may be finishing work on the wall in the foreground, perhaps linked to the new frontage for the main building constructed around this time. The wall was probably demolished when the factory was extended in 1933.
An extract from from"Glastonbury Photographic Memories".

Now around to the south-west side of Glastonbury, where Wearyall Hill lies between the town and the river Brue. The name is a corruption of ‘Wirral Hill’, a deer-park established by the Abbots. This view, from the north, is across country- side, whereas today the foreground is occupied by housing and an industrial estate. The Glastonbury Thorn on the hilltop left of the wood is missing from the photograph. Although this is said to be the original Thorn, the photograph shows how it needs to be re-grafted every century or so.
An extract from from"Glastonbury Photographic Memories".

A view that has changed more than in the previous two. The two 18th century buildings on the left are still there, as is the smaller one beyond. The next one, however, has been replaced by the junction with The Archers Way. Then, the tall building belonging to Brooks & Sons the Drapers, who boast of being established in 1831, has been replaced by the Post Office, which has a datestone GR 1938.
An extract from from"Glastonbury Photographic Memories".

Nearby, just into the High Street, there is another building of similar antiquity, the Tribunal. It dates from the early 15th century and is so- called because it was thought to be the courthouse of the Abbots. In fact the earliest use of the name was only in 1791 and the place is now considered to have begun merely as the house of a wealthy local merchant. It was later used by the infamous Judge Jeffreys when he was trying support- ers of the Duke of Monmouth after the failure of the Duke’s rebellion. The origi- nal timber front was replaced with stone around 1500. This is an interesting pre- Museum shot, with the building showing signs of dereliction in the windows and roof. The emblems over the door are the Tudor Rose and the Tudor Royal Arms.
An extract from from"Glastonbury Photographic Memories".