THE Friends of The Museum of Somerset (FOTMOS) were pleased to welcome Jonathan Holt to their January Zoom meeting to talk about Somerset Follies.

Jonathan is editor of Follies, the publication of the Folly Fellowship, as well as the author of several books on follies in the West country.

Some Folly’s are ornamental, and others are piles of stone.

Virtually all are completely useless, not all were built by gentlemen, ladies were known to build follies decorated with shells.

They were mainly built at the time when Britain had become a rich country: it was the custom for gentlemen to go on the Grand Tour of Europe, and on their return they often wished to replicate what they had seen there. Some follies were built for the relief of hardship – creating a job for unemployed workers.

Jonathan began with the Castle House in Bridgwater, which was built with prefabricated concrete in 1851 by John Board to demonstrate the versatility of concrete.

In recent years, Historic England declared it to be the most endangered historic building in in the South West, and it was recently restored at a cost of £600,000.

Many other follies in Somerset have similarly been restored. There are quite a few at Halswell House at Goathurst – Robin Hood Hut, the Temple of Harmony, as well as the Rockwork Bridge and Screen, and Mrs. Busby’s Temple.

Other follies can be found at Stourhead, Barwick Park, Hestercombe. The House at Jordan’s, Banwell Caves and Ammerdown House.

Some follies have been built in recent times – the three playhouses at Spindle Cottage at Binegar were built to appeal to children, and Wyvern’s Grotto was built at The Newt to showcase local artisans.

Perhaps one of the best folly towers was the one built by John Turner in Faulkland near Bath. It was alleged to have had a chair at the top for people to sit on while they took in the view.

Sadly it was taken down in the 1960s, and the chair was rumoured to have been presented to a nearby church.

The next FOTMOS meeting will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, February 17, at 7.30 pm, when a very short AGM will be followed by Sean Pringle Kosikowsky describing his walk along Hadrian’s Wall.

To join the next FOTMOS meeting, email [email protected]

RESIDENTS at a Wellington care home have been anticipating the joys of warmer weather by creating colourful butterfly-themed artwork to banish any winter blues.

Harriet Burraston, activities co-ordinator at Camelot House and Lodge, said: “All this wet weather we’ve been having has meant we’ve had to postpone some of our outdoor activities, so we’ve been doing butterfly art with our residents as a way of bringing some of the outdoors inside.

“We regularly support our ladies and gents with lots of artistic activities, and the actual process of creating something is much more important than the final product.

“Our aim is to emphasise enjoyment and engagement through a variety of art activities and the butterflies session is a great example of this.

“It’s such a simple activity, using sponges and watercolours, but the results are so colourful and joyful, and butterflies remind us of summer.

“This kind of activity also offers a non-verbal outlet for expression, so is really valuable for residents whose dementia makes speech difficult.

“And for all our residents it was a great session for engaging and sustaining their attention, at the same time as maintaining fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.”

Arts and crafts are part of a busy and varied programme of activities organised by Harriet and her team for the benefit of residents of Camelot House and Lodge.

The home is run by dementia care provider Camelot Care who also runs other specialist homes in Bridgwater and Yeovil in Somerset, and Holsworthy and Plymouth in Devon.

THIS month’s meeting, held at Rockwell Green Village Hall, welcomed members and guests such as the Women’s Institute (WI) county chair and secretary.

The county chair gave a short introduction about the roles of members of the county committee, which include creative arts, sports and leisure, and events.

She also mentioned that there will be free training shortly for WI committee members.

This was followed by an introduction to Sweet Coppin, a group of local clog dancers which consisted of six dancers and four musicians.

They are named after a cider apple and were founded in 1977 in Taunton.

They dance at a variety of events including fetes and fairs, flower shows and competitions.

Wellington WI were treated to a brief history of clog dancing, the origin of which was in the cotton mills of the industrial revolution, it’s a more refined form of Morris dancing.

The dancers were dressed in red and green to symbolise the apples and the tree foliage.

They used various props during their dancing - slings, dongles and garlands of flowers - the latter representing the apple blossom. These props were used to ward off evil and mischievous spirits.

There were three styles of dancing, North West Dancing, Clog Stepping and Soft Shoe.

North West Dancing and Clog Stepping use wooden clogs made of sycamore.

These have a dutch style upturned toe and come as indoor clogs, or outdoor clogs which have an iron horse shoe shape attached to the soles.

All the clogs are individually made for the dancers and can be repaired. The Soft Shoe dancing uses a soft black leather dancing shoe.

The performance of the dances was very energetic, colourful and fun.

Members of the WI were then encouraged to have a go.

This produced an interesting and amusing display which was enjoyed by both the dancers and the audience.

A coffee and cake break was taken, followed by the raffle, after which various club activities and events were announced, such as the Supper Club, Book Group and Repair Café, where volunteers are always welcomed, as are the donations of cake, which is sold and the proceeds donated to the WI charity of the year.

An account was given by the Treasurer of the club’s previous year’s expenditure, and the membership subscription amount for 2026/27.

Our Secretary then spoke about the submissions for the coming year’s national WI resolution vote, which will take place in early February, with the one receiving the most votes nationally being adopted for the coming year,

Visitors will be very welcome to join the Wellington WI for their next meeting on Thursday, February 19, at the Beam Bridge Inn, at 7 pm for a 7.30 pm start.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about, or joining, the Wellington WI, visit their website, wellingtonwi.org.uk, or email [email protected]

ON the eve of Saturday, January 17, Wellington Wassail revellers gathered at the Cottage Inn, before they headed off to the community orchard at Swaine's Lane.

The Cottage Inn was jammed packed with some Wassail revellers choosing to wait outside in the fresh Winters night.

Leading the procession from the Cottage Inn up to Swaine's Lane was the banner bearer, piper and drummer, Mr Double Danger the second.

Greeting them as they arrived was other members of Wellington Folk & Custom Society.

There were lights in the cider apple wassail tree, lanterns, ground torches, and a raised fire pit.

Mr Double Danger the second welcomed and opened proceedings for the ancient ceremony.

Owen Perry explained the Ancient custom of Wassail, from the Anglo-Saxon salutation 'to be well', 'to good health'.

Wassail derived from the Anglo-Saxon word 'Waes Hael'.

Mr Double Danger the second did the countdown with the revellers, then the cheering, banging drums, whistles, bells clapping and shouting to scare away the 'Maulscrawls' to protect the Apple-trees started.

The tree was blessed with cider, then Laura Gilham wise-maiden, put toasted bread and soaked honey onto the tree to attract the good spirit-bird the robin.

Then the toastmaster Debbie Leigh shared with the audience more toast to put in the apple trees in the Orchard, also ribbons shared out to tie in veneration.

The song keeper Richard Wood sang wassail songs and then lead the wassail singers with more wassail songs and festive songs.

Then the group returned to the Cottage Inn.

The Bootstrap Border Morris Team, danced outside in the cottage car park with their wild dances, accompanied by musicians.

This year there was a addition from Bootstrap Border Morris with a Folk play a 'Mummers play' common in England's, pubs, market squares, across the festive period of Winter on years gone by.

Witnessed in the Cottage Inn was the Duke of Wellington in a mock humorous victory over Napoleon, with many more characters.

The evening continued with a folk session in the bar with traditional folk music and also singing.

Mr Double Danger the second would like to thank everyone involved and those who came out on this Winters night to continue this ancient custom.