The Club’s annual summer outing attracted over 30 participants, who enjoyed the foray into Somerset and spent the morning at Dunster before going to Minehead to take a steam train ride to Bishops Lydeard.
An early start was the order of the day and despite traffic flowing freely, it took over two hours to reach Dunster, where the coach driver treated us to an impromptu tour of the town whilst searching out the coach park. Most people headed off to the National Trust owned Dunster Castle, a former motte and bailey castle which is now a country house. The castle sits on the top of a steep hill called the Tor and commands views over the surrounding countryside. Over the years it had been fortified and at the end of the 14th century the castle was sold to the Luttrell family, who continued to occupy the property until the late 20th century.
The medieval castle walls were mostly destroyed following the siege of Dunster Castle at the end of the English Civil War and the architect Anthony Salvin was employed to remodel the castle. In 1976 Dunster Castle and most of its contents passed to the National Trust.
The self- tour of the house took over a couple of hours and included some unusual leather hangings of Anthony and Cleopatra and ornately decorated living and bedrooms. This left little time to explore the extensive gardens and their many features including an 18th century working water mill. Then it was time to grab some lunch before taking the bus to Minehead to catch the West Somerset Railway steam service to Bishops Lydeard. After rushing around, the 1415 train was delayed for an hour due to a line fire and this provided the opportunity to seek some shade by the seafront and enjoy a locally made ice cream.
We boarded the 1515 steam train and took in the sights, as well as the smell of coal and steam, as the train wound its ways through ten stations along its twenty mile journey through the Somerset countryside and coastline. Even with the air conditioning set to maximum (windows opened as far as they permitted) the summer heat couldn’t be escaped and thoughts turned to the poor engine driver and fireman working in such hot conditions.
On boarding the bus for the return journey the thermometer showed 38 degrees centigrade and this didn’t fall much below 30 C by the time we had reached Bristol, an hour later. Understandably people felt rather subdued and soporific but had enjoyed a memorable day out.