Donyatt
| Donyatt | |
| Somerset | |
|---|---|
 Church of St Mary, Donyatt | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST338140 |
| Location: | 50°55’34"N, 2°56’51"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 347 (2011) |
| Post town: | Ilminster |
| Postcode: | TA19 |
| Dialling code: | 01460 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Somerset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Yeovil |
Donyatt is a village in Somerset, standing at the source of the River Isle five miles north of Chard. The village had a population of 347 in 2011. The parish includes the hamlet of Peasmarsh.
Parish church
The parish church, St Mary, is a 15th-century rebuild of earlier church, where the first recorded rector was in 1255. It is a grade II* listed building.[1]
History
The village was recorded as Dunnyete meaning Dunna's gate in 725.
In the Domesday Book a park at Donyatt was held by Drogo from the Count of Mortain.[2]
In 1328 it was the birthplace of William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, whose family held the manor and built a castle or fortified manor house. It had a manorial chapel and it is from this that a Sheela na Gig was recovered and is now incorporated into a private house.
The almshouses in Church Street date from 1624,[3] and were founded under the will of John Dunster of London (died 1625). Next to them is the old school house, which was built in the early 19th century,[4] and the old school which dates from 1871.[5]
The Old clay puddling house, a circular thatched building, is a former pottery dating from the 18th century,[6] when there were also woollen-mills in the village. Thirty-three examples of pottery from Donyatt have been identified from five sites in Virginia and Maryland.[7] They were part of a wider pottery industry during the 17th and 18th centuries. Sites from which were excavated in the 1960s and 1970.[8]
The "Sea Bridge" carries the road over a stream. It was built in the 18th century with three semi-circular arches.[9]
Donyatt had a small halt along the Chard Branch Line just before Ilminster, which served the local community, it was constructed from sleepers laid horizontally and pegged together to form a basic platform structure, a small over canopy "shed" served as a shelter during the winter months, access to the platform was gained by crossing over the bridge and accessing an inclined path. The Halt is next to some Second World War defences used on the Taunton Stop Line, with anti-tank traps around the station. During the threat of invasion, an inspection post could be quickly set up between Donyatt and Ilminster to stop and check the trains before proceeding on the down line "to" and "from" Chard. This was achieved by placing a barrier on some cut out stones entering the Donyatt Halt, you can see these if you wonder why there are two opposite stones on the cycle path, one will have a hole cut into it to act as a pivot for the barrier.
In 2017, the village was part of an ITV News special, focussing on the 2017 United Kingdom general election and how it had repercussions for residents of the area.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Donyatt) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057074: Church of St Mary (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ Bond, James (1998). Somerset Parks and Gardens. Somerset Books. p. 25. ISBN 978-0861834655.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1174641: The Almshouses (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057076: School House (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057077: The Old School (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057080: Old clay puddling house (Grade II listing)
- ↑ Coleman-Smith, Richard; Kiser, R.Taft; Hughes, Michael J. (Sep 2005). "Donyatt-type pottery in 17th- and 18th-century Virginia and Maryland". Post-Mediæval Archaeology 39 (2): 294–310. doi:10.1179/007943205X62679.
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 191796 – Donyatt Pottery
- ↑ National Heritage List 1295611: Sea Bridge northwest of Sea Mill Farmhouse (Grade II listing)
