33 
had been covered, from time to time, with coat upon coat of 
yellow and white wash. 
The Village—of Butcombe is very picturesquely situated in a 
secluded nook in the long hill which forms the Southern escarp- 
ment of Broadfield Down, on a brawling brook which runs 
rapidly down to the River Yeo, of which it forms one of the most 
considerable tributaries, turning on its way, at the foot of the 
Village the Mill of which mention is made in Doomsday Book. 
This brook is greatly increased in volume by two remarkable 
springs which have never been known to fail. One of these rises 
in the field behind the Church, the other in the Bristol Road 
-above Yew Tree Batch, and is known as Cleeve’s or Clive’s Well ; 
this well is mentioned “ina Deed in 1360, by which Hathewisia 
daughter of the famous Gurney of the Court at Barrow, confirmed 
her father Robert’s grant to Alexander de Budecombe of lands 
in Budecombe, near Clivewell, for his services in the fields of 
Cressy, 1346.” 
On the boundary between this parish and Nempnett, stand the 
remains of a large Tumulus or Barrow, stated by Collinson to be 
then (A.D. 1791), 60 yards in length, 20 in breadth and 15 in 
height, (now 1873, nearly obliterated), covered on the top with 
ash trees, briars and shrubs. See Collinson, Vol. If. p. 318. 
This is still (1873) called Butcombe Barrow, and by the villagers, 
“Fairy’s Toot.” But the grand mound here described by Collin- 
son has all but disappeared. The ground on which it stood 
became the property of a farmer who planted a lime kiln upon 
it, which still exists, and literally burnt it into lime ; and the 
large stones which formed the roof and walls were carried 
away and used as covers for drains ; so that very little of the 
pile remains. A portion of one or two stones apparently 
‘standing edgewise may still be seen, and may be some part of 
the original structure. Some sheds and a small yard for cattle 
occupy a portion of the site of this stupendous and in a sense 
Cc 
