East Pennard, Somerset

B and I are tired of being stuck indoors and feel we must resume our trips regardless of the weather. But this weekend's trip was beset by weirdness. We had to conclude that Somerset is worse for it than Wiltshire. First stop was to be the church at Lamyat. It's a stupidly tiny village but we couldn't find the church. I convinced myself it couldn't be where it turned out to be, and drove up an absurdly steep hill instead. Lamyat is at the foot of some very strange topography, the sort of hills that make you think 'they're a bit odd looking'. These weird hills are landmarks for miles around.

As we drove up it we knew we were going the wrong way. The hedges were starting to move in on both sides and the road disappearing under mud. At the top was a 90 degree bend, most curious. We felt a bit freaked out. We turned round and drove back down.

If we'd continued straight up the hill, it turns out we'd have got to the top of Lamyat (Lamyatt) Beacon, the site of a Romano-British temple, built about 300 CE and used for a few hundred years. Some little bronze figurines and limestone carvings of gods were found there. There were also burials of cast red deer antlers near to human burials... very curious. There was also a clay statuette of a ram with tightly culed wool, which was felt to be even older (the finds are described in an article in Britannia v17, 1986).

Anyway, none of that explains our inability to find a church, or repeatedly get lost in Bruton, or how we stopped to buy a local map in Castle Cary (the bookshop curiously had none) before finding two local maps in the car.

Finally we made it to East Pennard, where Mr P. had promised a "remarkable" late 12C font with human-headed birds. Sounded fantastic. Having struggled for a while trying to get in the wrong door, we finally made it in. To be disappointed.

I can see that this might be Norman, I mean look at the empty arcade at the top of it. And the foliage tail. But surely it's seriously seriously late. Look at that face - it looks like tinkerbell. It's got a finely modelled face, nothing like the sort of faces we were expecting. The whole thing was too elaborate, too asymmetrical, too thin. Not enough genuine passion in it. The arcade is so flat and even, it's boring. The faces round the bottom (the 'toes') look like gargoyles. You don't get Romanesque gargoyles, you get amazing and amusing corbels.

I don't want to talk about this any more. I was looking forward to something chunky and good and drawable. But it was uninspiring. You may call this opinion controversial but I'm sticking to it.