WIVELISCOMBE, a market town 6 m. N.W. of Wellington, with a station on
the G.W.R. branch to Barnstaple. Population, 1417. It is a dull and
uninteresting, but clean and comely little place. Of antiquities it has
none, except traces, to the S. of the church, of a bishop's palace,
built by John Drokensford in the 14th cent., some windows of which have
found their way into neighbouring houses. The church is a tasteless
building, erected in 1829, with a showy semi-Italian interior. It has
an odd-looking S. aisle, containing a somewhat dilapidated monument,
with recumbent effigies of Humphrey Wyndham and wife, 1622-70. In the
churchyard is a time-worn cross, with an almost defaced effigy (cp.
Fitzhead). In the main street is a modern town hall and market house.
The town lies pleasantly in the lap of the surrounding hills, which
furnish many a pleasant ramble. A mile from the station, on the way to
Milverton, is a British camp, and a Danish camp is said to have existed
on the site of a neighbouring mansion. _Waterrow_ is a hamlet a couple
of miles to the W. on the Bampton road, lying at the bottom of a
picturesque combe, through which flow the beginnings of the Tone.
_Woodspring Priory_ (formerly _Worspring_, and perhaps containing the
same element as _Worle_) is about 5 m. N. of Weston, and is best
reached from Kewstoke, either by the shore as far as Sand Point, or by
a lane that leaves (L.) the road to Worle. It was a priory of Austin
canons, who were established here in 1210 by William Courtenay, whose
mother was the daughter of Reginald Fitzurse, one of the murderers of
Thomas à Becker, whose death the foundation was originally meant to
expiate. The remains, now used as farm buildings, consist of a church,
a chantry, a court-room, and a barn. The church, dedicated to the
Trinity, St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr, is approached through a Dec.
arch (14th cent.), which leads to an outer court at the W. of the
building. On the W. wall, flanked by angle turrets, will be seen the
outline of a Perp. window, and three niches with nearly obliterated
figures. From this outer court an inner court is reached, having on the
N. of it the S. wall of the church (with two large windows), at right
angles to which the dormitories extended (the mark of the gable is
still visible on the wall). Beyond the E. wall of the court are
supposed to have been the chapter-house and the prior's residence. At
the E. of the nave of the church is the tower, which was originally
central, the chancel having been destroyed. It is 15th-cent. work, but
is believed to case an earlier 13th-cent. core. The vault has fan
tracery. N. of the church are the remains of the chantry (now a cider
cellar), originally founded by Robert Courtenay, father of William,
showing on the outside three Perp. windows and buttresses, and
containing the shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury, with a ruined piscina
on the pier of one of the pillars. S.E. of the church is the court-room
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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