I woke up early enough to post the link to my Morning Prayer video in honour of Saints Simon and Jude, and then we had a farewell breakfast with Kath before she set out. The South West was threatened with a day of heavy rain, but fortunately it held off in the morning for her return drive to Kenilworth. We went for a walk around the port before lunch, and I decided to go to Cleeve Abbey, having discovered that it was only a few miles away, on the edge of Washford, the village linked to Watchet by the old Mineral Line footpath. Clare didn't fancy making the effort to go there as she had her daily swimming hour slot at four, so I decided to go alone.
As I arrived there the rain started in earnest, rather challenging weather for photography, and I got off to a bad start, dropping my Sony Alpha 68 DSLR from its bag as I struggled to close my top coat. Fortunately, no damage was done, except that the SD card dislodged from its slot and I didn't notice until I'd take about a dozen photos and saw the 'no card' warning message on the back screen. Once I'd re-inserted the card I had to double back and re-take the pictures I thought I'd lost.
Using my Wales CADW membership card, about to expire next week, allowed me to get in for free. I would have been willing to pay as the whole site is remarkable and worth a visit. It was a Cistercian house dating from the turn of the thirteenth century. The reformation saw Abbey church razed to the ground and its ground plan is marked in the grass on the north side of the site. A great deal more remains, however. It is said to be the most complete set of monastic ruins in England, with the Gate House, Chapter House, Refectory, Dormitory and Sacristy intact. The structures have been re-roofed and the 15 century Refectory windows are glazed, protecting its ancient timbers with a carved angel at the base of each rib. It must be used as a local venue for concerts, banquets and other productions.
The outer Cloister walls and ancillary rooms are still in place, although the covered inner walk way of the cloister has gone, and the ancient kitchen was remodelled and extended by the seventeenth century tenant farmer who worked the land. There's one complete tiled floor recovered from the site of a long demolished building which housed it. This is now protected by a modern building that permits visitors a close inspection. That there's so much of the ancient structure remaining is because Henry VIII sold it and the surrounding terrain to one of his nobles who saw its potential for transformation into a grand manor house, once the church's construction materials had been recycled.
Ownership passed to the Lutterell family of Dunster Castle in the nineteenth century, and the Abbey was partly ruinous by then, but Henry Lutterell was a conservationist sympathetic to retaining it 'as found' rather than 'restoring' it or adapting it further than its 17th century tenant had. It passed to the Crown in 1950, and is looked after very well by English Heritage. As there was so much under cover, I only got wet when I went outdoors to take pictures. One of the guides confirmed that the old Mineral Line track ran up the valley to the south of the Abbey, following the river course. He pointed out the line of trees along the edge of the woodland across the field on the north side and said that the track was walkable in only a few stretches uphill nowadays.
I drove back and arrived at half past four just in time to go with Clare to the pool and watch over her while she swam, with the sound of rain pelting down on the roof of the pool, as it continued to do until gone nine, when I went out for a walk around the port during a short respite from the rain.
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