Now where did I hear or come across Farthing Pitts, and what was it apart from the name – or was it only the name which made me note it down for future reference. An added jotting told me it was – or is a hamlet in Wellington parish near Wellington in Somerset. We have friends who live near Wellington, and i may have visited the small town with them. I know I have been to the Wellington Monument, a 175 ft tower commemorating the Duke of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo. The construction of it started in 1817, but it was not completed until 1854 – due to financial constraints. Wellington the place dates back to the 800’s, long before the Iron Duke whose dukedom was from the town, not vice versa.
To return to Farthing Pitts – and I’m sure I’ve never been there either, I have had very little success in finding anything about this apparent village, and from looking at maps have come to the conclusion that it must be a new housing development on the outskirts of Wellington. It is on that very long and very old road, the A38, which I have written about a couple of times before, including this extract from another post:
A short journey out of our village leads you onto the A370, which leads to the A38 which is the longest two digit A road in England. It’s an amazing 292 miles long and runs from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, and parts of it are known as Devon Expressway, Bristol Road and Gloucester Road. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, it was also known as the Leeds–Exeter Trunk Road, when it was linked to the A61. I remember before the M5 motorway was built when the A38 was clogged with nose to tail traffic in the summer, mile after mile of bumper to bumper cars and coaches heading down into the southwest for annual summer holidays. Now when the motorway has problems people divert off and follow the old A road – we used to when we travelled down at weekends from Manchester to Weston if there were hold-ups.
As with many A roads and motorways, they follow the old Roman roads. Over to Wikipedia: “Considerable lengths of the road in the West Midlands closely follow Roman roads, including part of Icknield Street. Between Worcester and Birmingham the current A38 follows the line of a Saxon salt road; For most of the length of the M5 motorway, the A38 road runs alongside it as a single carriageway road.”
So Farthing Pitts – maybe the name was just randomly thought up or generated on a name creating app, Farthing Pitts is modern place and very new, but the road it lies on is extremely ancient!
You may wonder about the connection between Farthing Pitts and my featured image – well, it is somewhat distant. There once was a fabulous folk rock band called Celtic Shambles – Celtic because of the music, shambles because of the way in which it was performed. My photo shows Celtic Shambles, rocking it large in Wellington, many years ago, featuring Terry singing, on the left Mick on balalaika, and on the Bari on drums, bodhrán and spoons, and Amy on fiddle, and Kevin – master of the visual display (a roll of wallpaper with the lyrics inscribed so the audience could join in – and join in they did, with gusto!)
Lois Elsden 