Old Church Farm.
Old Church Farm is in the High Street
and is opposite the village hall.
It used to be a working farm, now it is
just a house. The house is made entirely
out of stone, with wood and some glass
in the windows. Some parts of Old
Church Farm were built before Victorian
times.
The cemetery is at least 200 years old, although some of the graves might
be older. The ground in the cemetery is very uneven so digging the graves
must have been very hard. The cemetery is right next to the village hall, a
farm and the church. In the middle of the cemetery is a memorial.
The High Street used to be Ashcott’s main road. The new main road is very busy and
scary. It is a very narrow road. It's usually crowded with cars and traffic. In 1940 when
most of the houses were built, the main road didn’t used to be there. Many cars pass the
Ashcott Inn, my house and F Griffiths & Sons whilst driving down the main road to where
they want to go.
The Copse, which is now a house, was the home of the Ashcott policeman a long time
ago. That’s why its called the Copse. You might think it got its name because the bushes
and the trees in the garden. The house is at the end of Middle Street.
I go to parties in the Village Hall made in 1987.
It is 23 years old.
The Ring O’ Bells has not always been a pub - it was a
blacksmith’s. The pub is a place where people go to
drink and to eat. I think it is called the Ring O’ Bells
because it’s near the church.
The Ring o Bells has a different menu
at different times of the year.
Headway Hairdressers is not far from the main road, it's at the bottom of the hill. The
shop is nearby. This old looking building, now headway hairdressers, has been running
for many successful years and has many proud and happy customers. My aunty works
there.
This terrace of cottages has some of the oldest buildings in
Ashcott. They have very small windows because they would
have to pay some tax for windows. They also have very nice
gardens at the back. This terrace of cottages is at the top of
Chapel Hill on the Meare road. It is also opposite Ashcott
School. The three houses joined together used too be all
one house with a barn at the side.
Here we have my school. It’s called Ashcott Primary School, and its where most children in the village
go to school. There are only four classes in the school, so two year groups are in the same classroom.
The school offers many activities like: country dancing, gardening, football, choir, music and sports.
Our school is closely linked to a school in Africa called Tigoi. Our teachers have visited Tigoi and
have shared our work and gifts.
The new Ashcott School was opened by Miss Isobel Freakes, on 28th October 1986. But in 2009 two
classrooms, an ICT suite and an office were opened on May 1st by Mr Pat Mann a former
Headteacher. Now the school is much bigger and has been in the papers.
The Old School is at the bottom of the
hill. It has been changed in to three small
houses and the end one used to be the
school hall. The girls wore knee lengths
skirts with button-up shirts and the boys
wore trousers and button-up shirts. The
school had lots of Head Teachers. Some
of them were: Mr Crowther, Mr King and
Mr Mann.
Here is F Griffiths and Sons. They are a family run business, stocking a large range of meat. It used to have an
abattoir but now it’s just a butcher’s shop and they have all their meat killed then brought in. All of the meat has a
label on it telling you where it was kept and slaughtered. This shop, in Ashcott, is next to the main road. They
have shops all over the West Country, for example in Street and Wells.
This shop is the only shop in Ashcott.
It’s run by Mike. Mike is a friendly
man. As you can see they sell lottery
tickets. Its near the main road. This
main road is very busy. LONDIS is an
amazing shop.
This old Chapel was built round about 100 years
ago. A couple of years later, it was turned from a
Chapel into a Sunday school for Victorian children
to go and learn.
Up the road from the old Chapel is Ashcott School, the school
that I go to. The street that leads up to the school is called
Chapel Hill.
On the High Street, there is one of the oldest houses in the
village. It is called Church farm. It’s called Church Farm
because its built opposite the Church and it used to be a farm
house. You can tell it is old, because it has leaded windows..
Hillhead Farmhouse
A long time ago there were many farms in Ashcott.
Nowadays, the farm houses are just peoples’ houses
and most of the farmland has been built on. Hillhead
Farmhouse is beside the main road near the village
shop. It was built in lots of different parts from stone.
One of the oldest parts was built in the 1600’s and
one of the newest parts was built in the early 1900’s.
Last century the down stairs bathroom used to be a village dairy where people would go
with their jugs and they would fill them up with milk. The house used to be just one room
upstairs and one room downstairs. The farm animals would stay downstairs and people
would sleep upstairs, because the animals body heat heated upstairs. There are two old
barns nearby and one used to be a hay loft. In the garden there is a big bell well, which
would be used for drinking, watering crops, for the animals and cleaning. Captured Polish
soldiers were sent there to help on the farm in the Second World War. Up until the mid
1980’s there was still gas lighting, which was very smelly and not very bright. The garage was
used to store farm machinery. There is an old pig sty at the bottom of the garden.
A long time ago this was an old sweet shop. Grete Dodge was the
owner. She sold sweets , tobacco and matches. Only one room
was the shop. The sweets were kept in jars. The house was built in
1750 and had a flagstone floor with a wooden beam in the shop.
The old sweet shop is High Street.
If you’re new to Ashcott, the signposts will help
you find your way around. Even though Ashcott
is quite small, you can still get lost. The
signpost are at junctions around the village.
They also tell you how near to other places you
are. For example, Meare is three miles away.
The farm below is Charity Farm. It used to
be called Poor Estate Farm until the
owner died and gave it to charity - that’s
how it got its name.
This is Ashcott Farm. Home to many cows.
Also known as friesens.
It is not a farm any more it is now a
cattery.
This building use to be a house but now it is
a barn for cows because they changed it
because of an infestation of rats and made a
house opposite.
The church dates from the early 12th century, around 1168. It’s at the end of the High Street. Every Sunday
they have a service there, and, every now and then, they have funerals and weddings. The church is built of
blocks of stone. At the moment they’re having building work done on the inside.
There are three bus stops
in Ashcott, one at the Post
Office , one at the school
and one at the bottom of
the hill.
There are two types of bus
routes. There is Webber Bus,
which goes through the little
lanes of Ashcott and First Bus,
which drives on the main road.
The buses drive through
Taunton ,Bridgwater ,Street,
Moorlinch, Sutton Mallett and
Chedzoy.
This used to be the village forge. The
blacksmith worked here. The forge is
on the old main road of Ashcott, the
High Street. In the forge they made
metal things like horse shoes, nails ,
screws and candle stick holders.
The Old Coach-house is at the bottom
of Ashcott, on Middle Street. It is
where the Lord of the Manor kept his
horses and carriages. It used to be a
barn! It is next to Manor House.
The village hall is a place were lots of sports and activities take place. It was
built in1987, but before that it was called The Church Room because that’s
where they had the old Sunday School. Local people came to help build it. A
local farmer built the balcony and stage. It took 30 people to lift the stage and
balcony into the newly built hall. It cost about £120,000 to build the new hall.
The village hall had a concrete floor instead of wood, but they put the wood
floor in afterwards.
The houses here used to be an orchard. They are in
Ashcott, a village in Somerset, on High Street. Also they
are across the road from the Ring O’ Bells, a pub. The
houses next door used to be a farm building and the
orchard was owned by the farm. But now they are just
normal houses.
We hope that you have enjoyed finding out about our village
and that you will perhaps be able to visit the village in the
future.
All photographs were taken by pupils from Class 4 and the accompanying text has been researched and written by them.