XXXVl. THE UPPER YEO VALLEY. 



THIRD SUMMER MEETING. 



The Upper Yeo Valley. 



Wednesday, Wih September. 



The Members and their guests, who met at Pen Mill Rail- 

 way Station, numbered about eighty, including the three 

 Members of the Executive and four Vice-Presidents. 



Trent Church. 



The party drove first to Trent Church, where they were received by 

 the Rector, the Rev. T. G. Wilton, who described the chief features of 

 interest. Among these were the oak screen of the 15th Century, the 

 carved bencli-ends of a century later, the chauntry chapel built in 

 memory of John French, a parishioner, who was Master of the Rolls 

 under Henry VI., and three pre-Reformation bells. The Register 

 contains a reference to the battle of Babylon Hill in 1642. 



The Rev. E. H. Bates Harbin then contributed some notes on 

 John Coker, the supposed author of the " Survey of Dorset," and 

 showed that the history was in fact written by Thomas Gerard, a 

 resident of Trent. After the exterior of the church and the spire had 

 been inspected, Mr. Alfred Pope drew attention to the mutilated 

 shaft of a cross, standing upon a circular calvary of 12 feet in diameter, 

 and mentioned a tradition that the cross had been moved from the 

 village into the churchyard. 



The Rector next pointed out the chantry priest's house, a beautiful 

 little dwelling with 15th century windows, and the larger " Church 

 House," said to have been once a refectory, but for the last 300 years 

 the home of successive churchwardens. 



Trent Manor House was then visited under the guidance of Mr. E 

 A. Rawlence, who related to the Members the stirring incidents of 

 the year 1651, when Charles II. took refuge with Colonel Wyndham 

 after the battle of Worcester. Mr. Rawlence led the way to the King's 

 chamber and the actual hiding place beneath the floor, which latter 

 had been recently discovered during the structural alterations then 

 in progress. 



Wyke Grange. 



A pleasant drive brought the party to the moated farmhouse which 

 '■s said, probably with truth, to have been used by the Abbots of Sher- 

 borne as their summer quarters. The manor was afterwards held by 

 the family of Horsey for a long period, and some documents relating 



