You can feel you're stepping back into an earlier England in Somerset. So much of it is still there to be seen. Take Martock, for example. A small town, with some newer outlying houses, but at its centre is a beautiful cluster of seventeenth and eighteenth century town houses, together with medieval houses around the large hamstone church. The finest of these is the Treasurer's house opposite the church, originally built in the thirteenth century but with later additions and adaptations. This little town was clearly a significant place in this earlier England, with prosperous farms and links to royalty. The Treasurer of Wells Cathedral, whose house is now managed by the National Trust, was also rector of Martock Parish Church. The kitchen (above) adjoining the house provided hospitality for visitors and festive occasions, as well as serving the more modest needs of the Rector when he was at home.
On what is now the town hall, I noticed a wall plaque of the Boer War, recalling not the human cost, but the enormous number of horses killed in those three years of bitter colonial fighting. The stone water trough given in memory remains, a reminder that all wars pass, eventually, into distant memories, but leaving suffering in their wake for generations.
