Folly Farm, Somerset

The Anglican Parish Church of St Nicholas and the Blessed Virgin Mary at Stowey within the English county of Somerset dates from the 13th century. It is a Grade II listed building.There may have been a wooden church on the site at the time of the Domesday book, although the first written record from the Bath cartulary is of 1235. The oldest part of the current stone church is the chancel at the eastern end, which now contains the altar and has a small priest's door, above which is a small carved figure. The nave was added in the 14th century. The three-stage tower, which was added in the 14th or early 15th century, is supported by diagonal buttresses and has a stair turret in the northeast corner. It has six bells which are regularly rung for services. Five of the bells are from the local foundry of the Bilbie family, to which a sixth from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was added in 1991. The church, which is adjacent to Stowey House, is built of the same local red sandstone, with alternating lias and red sandstone bands to the nave. It has a tiled roof above the chancel, while the nave and north porch have a slate roof. The church was altered in the 17th century, and in the 19th it underwent a Victorian restoration that included replacement of part of the roof and removal of the double-decker pulpit and a gallery. Inside the church are wall paintings by Henry Strachey from the early 20th century. There are life-sized representations of St Nicholas and St Mary on either side of the altar. Also in the chancel are paintings of the miraculous Feeding the multitude and of disciples on the road to Emmaus. The Last Judgment is pictured over the chancel arch with an equal number of angels of light and darkness.There are also wall monuments from the mid-18th century by Thomas Paty and other sculptors, commemorating the Jones and Sandford families. The font is from the 14th century. The organ was installed in the 1930s and electrified when electricity was brought into the church in 1965. Above the entrance door is a funerary hatchment which was made to celebrate the restoration of Charles II in 1660.During the 16th or 17th century, the parish was a chapelry of Chew Magna. The parish is now part of the benefice of Clutton with Cameley, Bishop Sutton and Stowey within the archdeaconry of Bath.

Sutton Court is an English house remodelled by Thomas Henry Wyatt in the 1850s from a manor house built in the 15th and 16th centuries around a 14th-century fortified pele tower and surrounding buildings. The house has been designated as Grade II* listed building.The house is at Stowey in the Chew Valley in an area of Somerset now part of Bath and North East Somerset and near to the village of Bishop Sutton. The house is surrounded by an extensive estate laid out as a ferme ornée, part of which is now the Folly Farm nature reserve. The estate is boarded by the villages of Chew Magna to the north, Cholwell to the south, Clutton to the east and the reservoir Chew Valley Lake to the west. Since the early modern period the house has been the country seat of several prominent families including the St Loes, one of whom married Bess of Hardwick. They lived at Sutton Court and expanded the property in the second half of the 16th century. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries it was owned by the Strachey baronets and their descendants until it was sold in 1987 and converted into apartments. In the early 1980s the house was used as a film location for the BBC Look and Read series Dark Towers, a series very popular to this day in primary schools.

Stowey is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Stowey Sutton, in the Bath and North East Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It lies within the Chew Valley, south of Chew Valley Lake and north of the Mendip Hills, approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Bristol on the A368 road Weston-super-Mare to Bath. Stowey and its neighbouring and larger village, Bishop Sutton, form the civil parish of Stowey Sutton.

Cholwell is a historic hamlet and manor in the parish of Cameley, Somerset, England. The manor house, Cholwell House, was rebuilt in 1855 by William Rees-Mogg (1815-1909). It is a Grade II listed building.

Stowey-Sutton is a civil parish in the Bath and North East Somerset District of Somerset, England within the Chew Valley. The parish contains the villages of Stowey and Bishop Sutton having a population of 1,361.The civil parish was created in 1949 from the former civil parish of Stowey and part of the civil parish of Chew Magna.

The Church of St James is a redundant church in Cameley, Somerset, England, dating from the late 12th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It is dedicated to St. James of Compostela. The church was declared redundant on 1 January 1980, and was vested in the Trust on 18 March 1981.There are fragments of wall paintings on the nave north and south walls dating from the 12th to the 17th centuries. One of the earliest is a jester or knave on the north wall who has a hare-lip and forked tongue and is holding a scroll. The north post of the chancel arch has a depiction of the three lions of the Royal Arms of England, which suggests royal patronage. On the south post is a coat of arms with two red chevrons, which is believed to be of the St Maur family (which later became the Seymour family). Almeric de St Maur was master of the Knights Templar in England and a signatory on Magna Carta. This arms represents evidence of the link between Cameley and Temple Cloud to the Knights Templar.The fine early-17th-century representation of the Ten Commandments over the chancel arch is framed in twining leaves with cherubs' faces peering out. These remained hidden behind whitewash until the 1960s leading John Betjeman to describe it as "Rip Van Winkle's Church". The west gallery is dated 1711 but with Jacobean style balusters and attached Charles I coat of arms. The south gallery is dated 1819. There are two early-19th-century monuments to the Rees-Mogg family on the north wall of the nave, and a brass plaque commemorating the nine people from the village who died in World War I. The church is surrounded by trees. The tower, probably from the 15th century with 19th-century restoration, is built of red Mendip stone which contrasts with the local blue lias limestone of the rest of the church. The tower contains a bell dating from 1779 and made by William Bilbie of the Bilbie family.Several of the monuments in the churchyard are Grade II listed.

The Church of St Augustine is an Anglican parish church in Clutton Somerset, England. It was originally built around 1290, but much of it has been rebuilt since, and has been designated as a Grade II* listed building. The church is dedicated to St Augustine of Hippo. The tower is made of red sandstone with diagonal buttresses ending in pinnacles and probably dates from 1726. The tower contains two bells dating from 1734, made by Thomas Bilbie of the Bilbie family.Two railed tomb enclosures within the Broadribb family plot are also listed as Grade II, as are a group of three Broadribb and Purnell monuments.In 1780 John Wesley came to the church but was denied use of the pulpit, so he had to preach from a stone in the churchyard.The parish is part of the benefice of Clutton with Cameley, Bishop Sutton and Stowey within the archdeaconry of Bath.

Cameley is a village in the civil parish of Temple Cloud with Cameley, within the Chew Valley in Somerset, and on the northern slopes of the Mendip Hills, in the Bath and North East Somerset Council area just off the A37 road. It is located 11 miles (18 km) from Bristol, Bath and Wells. The nearest town is Midsomer Norton, which is 6 miles (10 km) away. The parish has a population of 1,292 and includes the village of Temple Cloud.

Bishop Sutton (grid reference ST587597) is a village on the northern slopes of the Mendip Hills, within the affluent Chew Valley in Somerset. It lies east of Chew Valley Lake and north east of the Mendip Hills, approximately ten miles south of Bristol on the A368, Weston-super-Mare to Bath road between West Harptree and Chelwood. Bishop Sutton and the neighbouring village of Stowey form the civil parish of Stowey Sutton. The village has a large village hall, a public house (The Red Lion), an organic culinary school and bed and breakfast (Meadow View), a small supermarket, several shops including a Post Office within the village store, a tennis club and a caravan park. Next to the village hall are sports pitches where Bishop Sutton F.C. play. The lake is a popular place for children, adults and the elderly alike with beautiful views and entertainment such as fishing and sailing. There is a museum and tea shop on one side of the lake and a restaurant on the other. The main industry in the village was a coal mine owned by J. Lovell & Sons from 1835 to 1929, which was part of the Somerset coalfield. There was also a large flour mill, part of which was converted into flats.

Clutton is a village and civil parish on the eastern edge of the affluent Chew Valley, close to the Cam Brook river, in the Bath and North East Somerset Council area, within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The village lies east of the A37 road between Bath and Shepton Mallet, and is 9 miles (14 km) from Bristol and Bath, and 11 miles (18 km) from Wells. Close by are the villages of Temple Cloud and High Littleton. The town of Midsomer Norton is 5 miles (8 km) away. The parish, which includes the hamlets of Clutton Hill and Northend, had a population of 1,602 in 2011.

Clutton was a rural district in Somerset, England, from 1894 to 1974. It was created in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894 as a successor to the rural sanitary district. In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972. The parishes in the district became part of the Non-metropolitan district of Wansdyke in the newly formed County of Avon. Avon was itself abolished in 1996 and the administration of Clutton became the responsibility of the new unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset (BANES). BANES took over the parishes of Cameley, Chelwood, Chew Magna, Chew Stoke, Clutton, Compton Martin, East Harptree, Farmborough, Farrington Gurney, High Littleton, Hinton Blewett, Nempnett Thrubwell, Norton Malreward, Paulton, Publow, Stanton Drew, Stowey-Sutton, Timsbury, Ubley and West Harptree. The parishes of Chilcompton, Litton and Ston Easton became the responsibility of the Mendip Council (within Somerset County Council).

The Stanton Drew stone circles are just outside the village of Stanton Drew in the English county of Somerset. The largest stone circle is the Great Circle, 113 metres (371 ft) in diameter and the second largest stone circle in Britain (after Avebury); it is considered to be one of the largest Neolithic monuments to have been built. The date of construction is not known, but is thought to be between 3000 and 2000 BCE, which places it in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. It was made a scheduled monument in 1982.The Great Circle was surrounded by a ditch and is accompanied by smaller stone circles to the northeast and southwest. There is also a group of three stones, known as The Cove, in the garden of the local pub. Slightly further from the Great Circle is a single stone, known as Hautville's Quoit. Some of the stones are still vertical, but the majority are now recumbent, and some are no longer present. The stone circles have been studied since John Aubrey's visit in 1664, and some excavations of the site were performed in the 18th century. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, geophysical surveys have confirmed the size of the stone circles and identified additional pits and postholes. The Cove has been shown to be around 1000 years older than the stone circles, and so date from 4000-3000 BCE. A variety of myths and legends about the stone circles have been recorded, including one about dancers at a celebration who have been turned to stone.