R.A. Salvatore

Once again, I had the Veggie breakfast. This time without the avocado, it was much more to my palate.

After breakfast we checked out and dragged our luggage through the city centre to the car park. We loaded the car and then drove to Wells to visit the Cathedral to get another stamp in my Cathedral passport. We found the Cathedral was a lot busier than it had been on our previous visits. Even busier than it had been during an Easter visit.

Inside the Cathedral there were a lot of tourist groups making it difficult to see and enjoy the normally serene surroundings. I missed seeing the quire because, as I passed the first time, it was full of tourists so I decided to wait until I passed it on the other side. Unfortunately, when I got there the quire had been closed for choir practice.

During our visit the finishing touches to the Mythical Creatures adventure for children (of all ages) over the summer months was in its final stages of completion. Some of the mythical creatures were not hard to miss, we were greeted by one in the nave of the Cathedral. The creatures were drawn from works in the Cathedral’s chained library.

Our visit to Wells brought back happy memories of our stays in a lovely Wells B&B as well as regrets that our planned Easter visit in 2020 was cancelled due to Covid.

Later, we stopped at Gloucester services and were interested to note that the northbound side of the carriageway was not quite as good as the southbound side.

In Wells and Gloucester services we purchased food for both our Saturday and Sunday evening meals. So back home after unpacking bags we were able to enjoy ‘fine dining’; salmon with lemon and chive mayo, cubed potatoes and pea shoots. It was the second best meal of the week.

Lorraine Hansberry

The part of the wells can be found is a complex of small pools and channels, fed by an underground river. The sluice gates regulate the flow of water into the moat and other water channels. Water can sometimes be seen bubbling up in the clear water of the wells.

Bishop Law enclose a group of three small well springs to create a new pond. On a still day this pool perfectly mirrors the cathedral.*

After heavy rain the flow of water increases, and local flooding becomes a risk. The palace gardeners can open sluices to let more water into the moat so the pool doesn’t overflow.*

*From a signboard next to the sluice gate

In 705 King Ine if Wessex hear these Wells to Aldhem, his bishop, so that he could build a minster. The Saxon minster lay just south of the present Cathedral. A stream from this well flowed close beside the minster. Water might have been taken from the stream for use in some church ceremonies.

The wells’ unceasing flow through the city would have seemed very significant in the middle ages.

“The Book of Revelation (cc 21-22) describes the vision of the city of God:

Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and flowing crystal clear. Down the middle of the city street, on either side of the river, were the trees of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations.”

Wells, with its ceaseless waters, could be seen as an earthly reflection of this perfect city. *

*From a sign board next to the well

The designer of Stoberry garden, Frances Meeres Young who with her husband owns the house and garden has written a short history of the estate.

Stoberry Park  and Garden- A Landscape Transformed

Stoberry House and Park occupies the site of a former Mediaeval field.

Stoberry is approached at the head of College Road. It was built by Peter Davis, one of the resident gentry. In 1718 he began to acquire parcels of land. On this, he built himself a new Mansion, Stoberry, set in landscaped grounds. The name was antiquarian in inspiration deriving from an earlier name of the open field which was Stabergh. It was built and lived in by 1745.

The House was demolished in 1957 and used to stand where our pond-garden lake-is now situated; the present Stoberry House was originally the coach house.

“A whole new chapter in the family’s life began, arriving in Wells from Botswana and transforming an English jungle into a fantastic garden – a piece of paradise from a wilderness, filled with black sheep and barbed wire, left to run wild the untamed garden was awaiting transformation”, wrote garden journalist Mervin Hancock.

On viewing Stoberry for the first time, my first reaction was to turn around and flee, but my husband fell in love with the view and the position, so persuaded me to reconsider and imagine a vision that
could be created on the large blank canvas. So, we started gardening at Stoberry in 1997.

To the East of the House is the Walled Garden. Part of this used to be a very rough area, used for sheep and full of thistles and nettles, now the open part of the Garden – with one area leading you through to a view of the next. There is a new rose garden, which is sheltered and enclosed in a peaceful corner, allowing you to sit and enjoy the fragrances and the scent of the Clerodendrum. The sunken garden is a much more contained area, luring you to explore and wander.

When I started to think about of the design for the Garden, the advice given to me by friends was to break it up into several ‘rooms’- which I know would have worked successfully – but I feel we are so lucky to have space, and with my African background, I wanted to enjoy this. Gardening is great fun. Everyone’s opinions differ about the way a garden should look. I have always felt it is a bit like cooking…. some people like spicy food, others bland, and who is to say which one is right! For me living as far as possible in balance with nature is important.

You can read the rest of what Frances has to say about the garden transformation in a small online booklet. The book also shows the original house, the current house and garden before and after it was renovated.

• Stoberry Garden Booklet

Information in the Gazebo next to the pond explains that the owners had an unexpected surprise whilst creating the pond area. Until 2002 that part of the garden consisted of rubble and rough ground following the demolition of the original house in the 1950s.

The Garden Pond seemed to be an ideal way of recapturing a semblance of wonder that this location has to offer, situated as it is with such a wonderful backdrop.

The pond was originally going to extend over the area where you will see a rectangular formal pond. During the excavation stage on the large pond, the digger driver uncovered the corner of the capping to the well: a domed roof structure, but that was all that existed between us and the bottom! This is the first we knew of the existence of the well, and it was quite a frightening moment when a open hole appeared in the ground and we discovered that the well is 60 ft deep, and with 15 ft depth of water, and people would have been walking over it for year.

• Stoberry House Bed and Breakfast Accommodation and more…