Just past Taunton Dean services (I think),heading towards Exeter, look left on the top of the hill is a tower. It’s either covered in scaffolding or looks really funky. I’ve driven past it many times and always wondered what it is?

Wellington Monument

Nice one…thank you.
Will google it now to see what it’s all about?

It was to celebrate the Duke of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo but I was under the impression the Duke of Wellington had no connection to the area. He was born in Ireland, so when he was made a duke he couldn’t be the duke of somewhere in Ireland so picked Wellington in Somerset as that sounded a bit like Wellesley.

Never mind the tower,is Humprey the camel still there?

🙂

Sorry to say, no he isn’t, nor is the T Rex who used to be on the other side ☹

In fact the Wicker man is looking a bit ragged as well, time Morrisons took up the baton to repair him.

Never mind the tower,is Humprey the camel still there?

I used to drive down to Saunton/Cornwall 30 times a year. If I didn’t see the camel it was a bad omen for the surf/wind.

looking at where it is, you’d think there would be some good riding.

there isn’t.

Was traditional to wave at the camel and salute the wicker man.

Sorry to say, no he isn’t, nor is the T Rex who used to be on the other side ☹

This makes me sad,always looked out for it on my way to or from Plymouth.

I had to stop and take a photo because my kids thought I was making it up 🙂

That Morrisons depo is so chuffing huge, that having an interesting ‘statue’ standing tall in the flatlands there would no longer have the same impact anyway.

Wicker Man Mk1 was burnt down by some local scallies. The replacement had a moat dug around it to prevent it happening again!
Bridgwater in a nutshell.

Unfortunately the wicker man is likely to be taken down as he’s too expensive to maintain. The strategic land company that brought that whole Little Sydenham Farm area forward for resi and the logistics site coughed up for it originally but has long moved on.

You can go up inside it, the view is nice enough

Lost count of the number of times I drove past both of those particular landmarks over the course of the two years I was driving for BCA. Did have to divert off the motorway once and ended up driving near to the Wellington Monument, but I’ve never actually been up to it. I remember seeing a fantastic photo once of the Somerset Levels covered in fog, the only two things showing above it were Burrow Mump and Glastonbury Tor, in line with one another, and after checking maps, I’m pretty sure it was taken from the Wellington Monument, but it’s a long way to drive to try to take a similar photo.

By one of those odd coincidences, there was a feature on BBC Points West this evening about the Wellington Monument, which is undergoing restoration. There’s eight miles of scaffolding surrounding the monument, and the stonemasons working on it are having to climb up it every day, one bloke has climbed the equivalent height of Mount Everest, and is now going back down again. He’s fed up with stairs, he’s thinking about buying a bungalow! 🤣
Phenomenal amount of work, repairing the stonework, costing around £3million.

The scaffolding did look very impressive against the early morning skyline. Good work scaffolding fella’s.