Parson'S Steeple (20 Metres North East Steeple House)

ST52NE 2/153

WEST CAMEL CP STEART HILL

Parson's Steeple (20 metres North-east Steeple House)

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• II

Commemorative obelisk-type monument. Late C18. Local stone cut and squared, roughly coursed. Rectangular plan base with sloping buttress on South side; semi-circular arched deep recess on North side, with impost corbels, occupying half the total 6 metres height of the monument; taper starts on East and West sides only from springing level to about 30Omm width at the top; any termination now missing. In the recess a shaped niche where the inscription stone, described as "long since lost" in 1953, was set: it read "In memory of Henry Parsons, who died 24th September 1794 aged 84". Parsons was a noted eccentric who lived at Naish's Farm (qv), and built this monument during his lifetime, planting trees and shrubs around it. He was by legend, buried here without sacred rite: no record exists in the parish registers. (E.M. Garrett, The Story of West Camel, unpublished MS in Yeovil Reference Library, 1953).

Listing NGR: ST5773725822