A Day Out With Siegfried Sassoon.

Siegfried Sassoon's grave,

On Tuesday I managed to have a rare little trip outside Westbury. Curly and I set off at 11.00 in his van. I suggested that we visit the village of Mells which is about ten miles from Westbury. It is a charming little village. The war memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens who was one of Britain’s most distinguished architects. I think he also designed the Cenotaph in London and many other famous landmarks. New Street has some wonderful little houses, some dating back several centuries. In the churchyard of St Andrews church, I found the grave of Siegfried Sassoon the World War 1 poet. He was also a famous novelist who wrote the autobiographical Memoirs Of A Fox Hunting Man. 

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war in his "Soldier's Declaration" of 1917, culminating in his admission to a military psychiatric hospital; this resulted in his forming a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the Sherston trilogy.

Houses in Mells.

I am not an expert on him by any means, but I do have an interest in the graves of famous people. His family still live in this area. I remember reading in the local paper quite a few years ago about his grand-children being tragically killed in a car crash while returning from a music festival.

The Horner family lived in Mells which is where the children’s nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner originated. The Talbot Inn in Mells dates to the 13^th century and has a fine reputation. It was too early in the day to visit though. The church was also closed which was a bit disappointing because it contains much of interest. The large house nearby called Mells Manor is the home of Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith. His great-grandfather H.H Asquith took Britain into the Great War in 1914 but was forced to resign in 1916.

Wine in Cheddar.

After our visit to Mells we drove across the Mendip hills through many picturesque little villages until reaching Cheddar where I enjoyed a glass of chardonnay and Curly had a cup of tea. As we were leaving Cheddar it began to rain. We decided to head for Weston Super-Mare to see the sea. That was a mistake. We followed the signs for parking in Weston and ended up in a multi-storey carpark. You had to take a lift down to ground level. When we emerged from the lift, we found ourselves in a garish shopping mall. It was horrible, anyway we found the sea-front, but it was really windy. I had to take my hat off before it blew away. The rain was coming down steadily. We went in a fish restaurant and sat in a window seat and observed the rain falling on the empty desolate beach. The tide never seems to come in at Weston. On the bright side the food was nice, and I had another glass of wine. We decided to call it a day and drove home and got to our local pub by 5.00. During the drive I entertained Curly by playing albums by Iggy Pop, Dr Strangely Strange and Fairport Convention. He seemed to like the Fairport album which was Liege & Leif, so I’ll play him more of that sort of stuff next time.

Empty beach at Weston.