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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 19 April 2008 |
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 Welcome to the new Bruton Musuem website. We are currently in the process of putting the finishing touches to the site. If you have any suggestions, questions or comments please use the Contact Us page to get in touch.
Photo's of up coming and current exibitions can be found in the Gallery. Information on events can be found in the Events section. While general reading and information can be found in the Information Section. Highlights From the site:
Bruton Museum is one of over 40 Somerset museums taking part in the entry free Roadshow.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 21 April 2008 )
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
The small Somerset town of Bruton probably started as a Celtic Settlement although there is no absolute proof of this.
What is known shows a history (but not necessarily settlement) from the time of flint axes, one is supposed to have been found just to the North of the present town near the site of an iron age fort on the top of Creech hill (creech comes from the Celtic for hill which gives us "hill" hill). In the days of the Roman Empire there was certainly a Temple on Creech Hill, near the Iron Age Fort, and a villa at Discove (birth place of Thomas Ludwell) to the South of the town where traces of a Roman pavement were found in 1711 -- folklore has it that this is what gave Discove it's name, in truth though Discove existed by Domesday called 'Dinescove' or 'Dignescove'. In the 18th century a 'pig' of lead (unfortunately since lost) was discovered near Redlynch. It weighed some 50 pounds and measured roughly 21 inches long by 31/2 inches wide by 2 inches thick. Inscribed "IMP DVOR AUG ANTONINI ET VERI ARMENIA CORUM" which roughly translates as "The lead of the two joint rulers Antonius (Marcus Aurelius) and Verus called Armenian (A.D. 164-9). Whether these discoveries indicate a settlement or merely points on a road from the lead mines on the Mendip hills to the Dorset coast we don't know.
About 5 miles to the Southwest of Bruton is Cadbury Castle, the reputed site of Camelot, to the Northwest is Glastonbury, the fabled Avalon, which would suggest that it is possible that King Arthur may have visited the town at some time in the 5th or 6th century. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 31 January 2008 )
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Read more...
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The Domesday book Bruton says: |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
"The King holds Briwetone. King Edward held it.
There are 5 burgesses. 1 swineherd, 6 mills, 5 Carucates of arable. 38 acres of meadow, 1 wood 5 miles long & 1 mile wide.
In demense are three curacates, 5 servants, 4 coliberts, 26 cottars, 28 villeines & 18 plough teams"
This would make Bruton a reasonably sized settlement for the time. A curacate was the amount of land that could be ploughed by a plough team in one year, approximately 120 acres. Thus some 600 acres were under cultivation.
The large wood was probably Cogley wood which now runs to about 350 acres and would have been much larger in the 11th century. Beyond Cogley is Selwood often referred to as Bruton forest, although now many separate areas of woodland, it is possible to see that the forest covered an area something like 15 miles long by 5 wide. Sometime shortly after the Domesday book was compiled the King granted the Manor of Bruton to William De Mohun who also owned the neighbouring Manor of Brewham. Much of Bruton manor was eventually incorporated into the priory estates during the 12th century.
In 1142 William de Mohun (grandson? of the above) Lord of the Manor at Bruton founded an Augustinian Priory, giving them the Manor. This may have replaced an earlier Benedictine Monastery. The Augustinians were technically not monks but Canons, all being in Holy Orders. It is still noticeable on the modern map of Bruton how the River Brue formed a natural boundary between the townspeople (North of the River) and the various eclesiastical property (South of the River). Prior to 1900 there was effectively nothing in the way of dwelling houses to the South but all on the hill to the North. Unfortunately nothing of the main Abbey buildings has survived to modern times but traces can be found in various buildings in and around the town, whose builders "rescued" various windows, arches etc. after the Abbey was pulled down in 1786 by the Hoare family of Stourhead fame who had purchased the Abbey from the Berkeley family after the Bruton Branch died out. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 January 2008 )
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