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Montacute is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, west of Yeovil. The village has a population of 831 (2011 census). The name Montacute is thought by some to derive from the Latin "Mons Acutus", referring to the conically acute St Michael's Hill dominating the village to the west. An alternative view is that it is named after Drogo de Montagu, whose family originated from Montaigu-les-Bois, in the arrondissement of Coutances. Robert, Count of Mortain held Montacute after 1066, and Drogo was a close associate of his.
The village is built almost entirely of the local hamstone. From the 15th century until the beginning of the 20th century it formed the heart of the estate of the Phelips family of Montacute House. The village has a fine Middle Ages church, and was the site of a Cluniac Reforms priory, the gatehouse of which is now a private house.
At the centre of the village is a large Town square known as the 'Borough' around which are grouped picturesque and a Public house, the Phelips Arms; there is a second public house and hotel situated in the village, called the King's Arms.
Originally called Logaresburgh by the Saxons, it was later known as Bishopstone ("Bishop's Town", i.e. "estate belonging to the Bishop") or Biscepstone which name survives today as the street named "Bishopston". The last Anglo-Saxons to own it before the Norman Conquest of 1066 were Tofig (d.1043), then successively his son Athelstan (or Æthelstan) and his grandson Asgar. Tofig was a staller (placeman or court office-holder) to Danish King Canute.Williams et al., A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain, page 229. Local tradition remembers Tofig as "Cnut's standard bearer". In 1030 (1035 in some records) following a series of dreams in which the Devil told him where to dig, a local blacksmith found buried on St Michael's Hill a black flint crucifix or Holy Rood. (Some early versions state two black flint crosses were found, one large, one small. Another variant is that the second cross was wooden, and accompanied by a bell and a book/copy of the gospels.) Tofig loaded the life-sized cross (or crosses) onto a cart, and then named a series of possible destinations owned by him. The oxen pulling the wagon (six red and six white in one version of the tale) refused to move until he said Waltham in Essex, where Tofig already had a hunting lodge. The Waltham Chronicle, ed. Watkiss and Chibnall, page 15. They then started, and continued non-stop until they reached Waltham, and where they stopped Tofig decided to build an abbey at the site – this became Waltham Abbey. In the meantime, Tofig rebuilt the church at Waltham to house the cross, on which he bestowed his own sword, and his second wife Gytha (or Glitha), the daughter of Osgod Clapa, adorned the figure with a crown, bands of gold and precious stones.Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective, page 119.
The cross became the object of pilgrimage, notably by Harold Godwinson. It was at Tofig's wedding at Lambeth on 8 June 1042 that King Harthacnut suddenly died of a convulsion "while standing at his drink".Barlow, The Godwins: The Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty, page 109. "Holy Cross" became the battle-cry of Harold's armies at the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings. The Holy Rood is said to have foretold Harold's defeat at Hastings: on the way there from the Battle of Stamford Bridge he stopped off at Waltham Abbey to pray, and the legend is that the cross "bowed down" off the wall as he did so, taken as a portent of doom. There have been suggestions that the smaller cross became the "Holy Rood" which was carried to Scotland from Waltham Abbey by St Margaret. There has been further speculation that the site the relics were excavated from was the burial site of Joseph of Arimathea.
On Tofig's death in circa 1043, his estates passed to his son Athelstan (or Æthelstan) and then to his grandson Asgar. Following the invasion of 1066 it was held by Robert, Count of Mortain, who built the motte-and-bailey Montacute Castle on St Michael's Hill (the Mons Acutus) in 1068. The site of the castle was a deliberate affront to the defeated Saxons, because it was the site where Tofig had discovered the "Holy Rood" crucifix. Robert later founded the Cluniac Reforms priory on an adjacent site. The parish of Montacute was part of the Tintinhull Hundred.
Montacute Castle was besieged by Saxon rebels from Somerset, Dorset and neighbouring areas in 1069 and its relief required the assembly of a considerable force, drawn chiefly from the Norman garrisons of London, Winchester and Salisbury. This army was led by the Norman bishop, Geoffrey of Coutances, whose large landholdings were also threatened. The rebels were taken by surprise and bloodily defeated, putting an end to the revolt. Joseph Bettey has suggested that "the devastation in the surrounding area which followed the English defeat may explain why so many manors in south Somerset are recorded in the Domesday Survey as having decreased in value". The English dead were buried in a mass grave to the west of the village in a sloping field now known as "Under Warren". Village tradition has it that two hilltop fortifications were built: first a wooden clamshell fort with motte & bailey, later replaced by a stone castle. However little evidence to prove the existence of either structure exists, except a note in the parish records that two loads of stone were taken from the site by the neighbouring parish of Martock. A church or chapel dedicated to St Michael later replaced the castle. Excavations of the hilltop have been limited and inconclusive.
A folly tower, built in 1760 by Edward Phelips V now occupies the hill-top. Known as St Michael's Tower it stands on Mons Acutus which was the site of the former castle. The Hamstone tower is about in diameter, and rises before curving inwards to a viewing platform which is reached via a 52 step spiral staircase. It has been designated as a Grade II listed building and scheduled monument. Village legends exist about the tower. One is of the supposed existence of a hidden tunnel between the tower and Montacute House. This has never been found and is more likely to be a folk memory of the remains of the Norman castle. The other is that a daughter of the Phelips family was kept locked in the tower for attempting to marry against her father's wishes.
Considerable motte & bailey earthworks are built into St Michael's Hill, which the Somerset County Archeologist unit incorrectly suggests were wine-growing terraces. The wine terraces were actually on the north flank of the adjacent Hedgecock Hill.
There are two abandoned dwelling sites within the village, both close to Batemore Barn. One is the hamlet of Witcombe/Whitcombe, along the route of the Roman road leading from Batemore to High Wood along the Witcombe valley. The foundations of several buildings still exist there and have been excavated. Locally Witcombe is remembered as a plague village. The other dwelling site is on the north side of Batemore barn, close to the bottom of the ancient hollow-way (now filled in) known as "Foister's Gully". Little remains of this and it has not been excavated, but may have been the residence of highwayman Richard Foister/Foster/Forster, remembered locally as the last man to be gibbeted alive in England. Some of his murders were said to have taken place in the area. Also in the Witcombe valley, high up close to the boundary with the field known as "Fairyland" are the remains of an old lime kiln. Ham Hill stone was burnt to make soil fertiliser, the lime was of poor quality for building due to its high iron content which made mortar blow.
Fulfitt Terrace is an early 20th century council house development on the street named Townsend and is believed to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, council house schemes in Britain. Townsend itself is believed to be Roman in origin and runs into the ancient hollow-way Hollow Lane which runs to the Ham Hill plateau, forming one of the entrances through the hill fortifications.
Montacute is visited by tourists who come to the area, attracted by the nearby Ham Hill Country Park, and Montacute House (now owned by the National Trust) which is one of the finest examples of an Elizabethan era house in England,Nigel Nicolson9780586056042, Hamlyn Publishing Group. ISBN 9780586056042 and several other open to the public in the immediate vicinity.
In 2009 Montacute was identified as having England's longest life expectancy in a report compiled by Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
In November 2014 Montacute featured in the programme 'Hidden Villages' presented by Penelope Keith.
For local government purposes, since 1 April 2023, the parish comes under the unitary authority of Somerset Council. Prior to this, it was part of the non-metropolitan district of South Somerset (established under the Local Government Act 1972). It was part of Yeovil Rural District before 1974.
The village falls within 'St Michel's' electoral ward. Although Martock is the most populous area the ward stretches to the River Yeo beyond Tintinhull in the north. The total population of this ward at the 2011 census was 2,307.
It is also part of the Glastonbury and Somerton county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
In addition to being a scheduled monument, Iron Age hill fort and Roman Empire site, Ham Hill itself is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), local nature reserve and country park. The geology supports a wide range of fauna including mammals, birds, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians living on lichens, fungi, ferns and flowering plants.
Little now remains of the Cluniac Montacute Priory, which fell during the Reformation, except the inaccurately named "Abbey Gatehouse" (a private dwelling) and its attached stew pond and pigeon cote. The former infirmary for the Priory — the Grade II thatched "Monk's House" dating from the 15th century — is also a private dwelling. The actual location of the priory is uncertain: the uneven ground in the field behind the church may be the site, however during the 1975-76 drought cropmarks clearly showed the previous existence of a demolished large building in the field named "Upper Meads" adjacent to Hollow Lane.
A chapel was built on St Michaels Hill, sharing the dedication to St Michael, following the demolition of the castle. Nothing now remains. Hill dedications to St Michael are common in the west country (e.g. Glastonbury Tor, St Michael's Mount) and may indicate a pre-Christian religious origin.
Thomas Shoel (1759-1823), the self-taught poet and composer of sacred music, lived in the village.
The vicar of Montacute between 1885 and 1918 was the Reverend Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923), father of the writers John Cowper Powys, Llewelyn Powys and Theodore Francis Powys. Philippa Powys, their sister and another author, was born in Montacute. Llewelyn Powys, in his "Somerset Essays", devoted a chapter to Thomas Shoel (1759-1823), a native of the village who wrote poetry and composed music including many hymn tunes, some of them still well knownPowys, Llewelyn, Somerset Essays, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1937, pp. 131-151 In John Cowper Powys's novel first Wood and Stone (1915) the fictional village of Nevilton is based on Montacute.Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys. Bridgend: Seren, 1997, p.25.
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