8. Master’s weekend in Somerset

On Friday 16 September, 18 of us foregathered at the historic Castle Hotel for our weekend in Somerset. The hotel is noted for its fine dining (‘far too good for Taunton’ in the acerbic wit of a noted satirist, who is not popular locally) and after welcome drinks we were served a superb dinner which prepared us well for the events to come.

 

The following morning we strolled across to Taunton Castle itself where we were treated to a wonderful talk by author and historian,Tom Mayberry MBE DL, on a suitable watery topic, the history of the Somerset Levels. Many of you will remember the dreadful flooding of a decade ago; Tom’s talk reminded us that this was nothing new – the Levels are in part below sea level and have been subject to recurring periods of inundation over the past 10,000 years. Man’s response to this through history has been rich and varied. It includes neolithic wooden trackways (such as the Old Sweet Track); King Alfred who used the isle of Athelney as a secure base from which to build the Kingdom of England; the massive drainage works (including re-rerouting several rivers) by the monks at Glastonbury; down to Monmouth’s rebellion where a major factor in his ultimate defeat at the battle of Sedgmoor was the inability to find a route over the rhines at night. One message is that the Levels have always been managed but it is difficult to fight nature.  


After that we decamped to the recently updated Museum of Somerset (see picture of some of us examining the wonderful mosaic of Dido and Aeneas, recovered from a wealthy local Roman villa).


Late afternoon we made our way to the award winning Sheppy’s cider museum and orchards. A guided tour of the orchards, the cider presses etc and the museum ended with a tutored cider tasting. It started with the type of scrumpy which would have been drunk like water by farm labourers and moved on through a variety of blends and single apple ciders. See the intensity with which we followed the instructions of our guide below. It was nice to see the same sophistication being introduced to the very British drink of cider as is apparent with wine in France and elsewhere.


The day ended with a splendid dinner at Sheppy’s featuring a variety of local dishes (including pork with apple and apple cake with custard) and accompanied by cider and/or wine.


The formal weekend ended after breakfast the following morning and I believe a great time was had by all. True to our Company ethos, we sought throughout to conserve as much water as possible by drinking wine or cider.


Georgina and I were so pleased that so many were able to join us. It was lovely to be able to showcase one of the many beautiful parts of our country.  

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