UPHILL

UPHILL 55

aloud for a complete investigation and thorough planning. Another Cleeve Abbey, almost, is perhaps asking to be added to our national treasures. UPHILL (D ., Opopille—? Hubbds Creek: cf. Pylle, Pille=creek. The Knoll close by explains the popular corruption).—The only thing “uphill” is the remains of the originally Norman church on the end of the knoll. There is a ferry (6d.) across the Axe to Brean Down. The chief interest of Uphill is purely antiquarian. It is fairly certain that under the name of Axium this was the harbour from which much of the produce of the Roman lead mines on Mendip was exported. The land route was by the road which has been traced for fifty-five miles from Uphill to Old Sarum, near Salisbury. It is a pretty piece of road between Bleadon Hill, practically Mendip end, and the sea flats. Just beyond Bleadon village a bridge crosses the Axe, and a minute later on the left Crook’s Peak opens up, as it looks across to the group of pines that marks out Bleadon Down. BANWELL {? pers. name, and well).—About five miles E. of Weston is Banwell; but the most effective way to see this picturesque village leaning up against its island hillock is to approach it from the N. across I he flats, when there comes into view a noble lofty church and an old turreted building to the E. of it. I Unwell is quite rich in interest: it has, besides the < Imrch and old manor-house, a prehistoric camp, a I ruck way, called a Roman road, a mysterious turf i mss, and some caves. It is, moreover, the site of a Saxon monastery given by Alfred to Asser, like < nngrcsbury. The church is fine. Its tower, with

W E S T O N-S U P E R-M ARE

54 W E S T O N-S U P E R-M ARE
S. of the low promontory of Middle Hope which ends westward in Sand Point. Turn N. over the flats from the village of Worle. Was the irony of deterioration ever better exemplified than in this thoroughly ecclesiastical and picturesque farmhouse? The nave, north aisle, and tower of a church, with some additions on the N. side, are used as a house. The place was founded (i 210) as a small Priory of Austin Canons by William de Courtenay, a descendant of de Tracy, one of *the four murderers of Thomas a Becket, possibly in expiation of the ancestral crime. The infirmary has been converted into a cart house, and the kitchen attached to it has been unearthed. The monastic barn on the N. side is in good preservation, and reminds us of the Bishop’s Barn at Wells, at any rate in size, being over 120 feet long. However, it is not cruciform, having a door only on the S., which is supported by massive buttresses, round in the lower part and rectangular above. Between the buttresses on the S. side are three pointed doors beside the central one. A most interesting survival! Ferns and ivy growing up the walls add a glamour to this venerable fourteenth-century structure. There is besides, on the S.W., a chapter-house (with stone seat all round), which shows traces of a gabled porch at its W. end; and here, the result of recent excava tion, are seen the wall-footings of several chambers S. of the site of the chancel and Lady-chapel. These latter together measure 57 feet by 21 feet. A delicate E.E. tower arch on this side is blocked up. The present owner, Major Vernon Hill, has done most praiseworthy work in excavating, but the place flie