SOUTH SOMERSET NEWS: Medieval history comes to life at Ham Hill

THE Friends of Ham Hill and the South Somerset District Council countryside ranger team are looking forward to welcoming visitors for a day of fun and games in celebration of the Medieval Village of Witcombe.

Witcombe Valley, part of Ham Hill Country Park, is a fabulous 100 acre sweeping valley that up until the 16th Century was the location for a small hamlet of around 10 houses each farming a small plot of land.

The villagers farmed the steep slopes of the earlier Iron Age hillfort and the community centred around a pond in the valley bottom. By the early 17th century, most of the village had disappeared and today all that remains are the grassy house platforms and the silted up pond.

Together the Friends and Rangers at Ham Hill have worked over the past year to pull together a project to dig out the medieval pond and to resurface the currently piped stream down through the valley bottom of Witcombe. The project will restore the valley to a more natural landscape, enhancing biodiversity and helping people belter understand and visualise the original village in the valley.

On Saturday, September 3, 2016, there will be a celebration of the project with a fantastic medieval fair on the hilltop of Ham Hill overlooking the Witcombe village. Historical re-enactors, medieval games, food and family fun will all be on offer from 11am until 4pm. Information about the stream project will be on show and we hope to start the project by the cutting of the first turf of the new stream.

The council’s leisure and culture spokesman, Cllr Sylvia Seal, said: “Witcombe Valley was purchased by SSDC in 1996 with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to conserve the important heritage landscape and add it to the Country Park at Ham Hill.

“It seems fitting that 20 years later we are embarking on a new page of the valleys history by resting its landscape and helping people to understand the now lost community. We look forward to welcoming you to the fair in September and hope you enjoy seeing the valley project take shape.”

PHOTO - TOP: How Witcombe may have looked hundreds of years ago.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Witcombe today from the air.

Friends chairman Mick Wooden said: “Witcombe stream is an ambitious and exciting project that shows what can be achieved with the help of a committed community group. The Medieval Fair will be a fun day for the whole family and a chance for the local community to learn about its heritage.”

The entire project has been funded with a £18,100 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund with additional money from the Friends of Ham Hill and the Waitrose Community Matters project.

Ham Hill ranger Paul McNeill added: “The practical stream creation part of this project is an exciting opportunity to carry out habitat restoration on quite a significant scale.

“A contractor will be used to start the works and then our dedicated team of volunteers will help with finer landscaping and marginal planting to support the establishment of native species along the streams course. If anyone is interested in joining us for practical days on the project through the early autumn then please contact us.”

You can contact the ranger team at Ham Hill via email at countryside@southsomerset.gov.uk or by phone on 01935-823617.

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