04 Dec Wellington House Sign
The Wellington House information board in Wellington Playing Field was recently replaced thanks to a generous donation from our friends at Carly Press.
As the previous sign was a few decades old and not erected by Wellington Town Council originally, we were unable to do a simple re-print. We have stayed true to the original design but have used more recent photos of St John’s Church, the tomb of Sir John Popham, and Wellington Monument. As well as this, we have edited the text to have some more detail and have added two new photos to the board, showing the foundations of Wellington House exposed when the Playing Field was created in 1952.
In the photos from 1952 you can see two children posing among the ruins. When we contacted Somerset Heritage Centre for permission to use these photos they were actually able to put us in touch with one of their subjects – the young boy in these 1952 pictures is Roger David, a local man who still lives in Wellington.
Roger’s niece invited us to speak with Roger about what is was like to see the foundations of this once-great house. Roger was 9 years old at the time the pictures were taken but even after so many years he had clear memories of what it was like when the fields were dug up. Here are some of the questions and answers from when we spoke with Roger:
Q: Why were the foundations of Wellington House exposed? were people surprised?
A: The areas was being levelled to create the playing field. Before this it was a meadow with some lovely wildflowers and I remember cattle being grazed there. The men with the bulldozer were surprised when they hit stone. It was local lore that Wellington House was sited there once upon a time but there were no plans available and it was known that the stones of the house were scrapped and taken to build elsewhere in the town – nothing went to waste.
Q: Did many people come to see the foundations?
A: No, they were not exposed for very long. This was in a time before there was a respect for local archaeology so what was found was quickly catalogued then demolished and buried to keep the project moving forward.
Q: What was it like seeing this? Did you fully comprehend what you were seeing?
A: I don’t think I fully understood the significance at the time as I was only young but it is something I remember clear as day. We lived just around the corner and used to play in that field so me and my sister were very fortunate to be some of the few people who saw these walls when they were dug up. As I said, the stones were not on view for long and were quickly knocked down and buried.
Roger also enjoyed discussing Wellington throughout all periods of history from the Romans to the present day, it was wonderful to have a chat with him and we must say that he has a fantastic memory and have encouraged him to get in touch with Transition Town Wellington to be a part of their oral history project.
We did some digging (pun intended) into the history of the house and the excavation in 1952 and found out some of the following facts:
- The excavation was carried out between 9th and 16th October 1952
- The walls were constructed from Triassic sandstone and archaeologists queried if it was sourced locally in North Curry
- The walls were between 3ft and 4ft thick in places
- There were small finds in the area such as pottery, bricks, and tiles
- This excavation only covered a small portion of the building so it is not possible to determine the extent of the building, as some of the structure may have been beneath what is now Court House.
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