An interesting exhibition

There’s an interesting exhibition on in our county town of Taunton, marking the 340th anniversary of the Monmouth Rebellion. It was a really significant uprising in 1685, after the death of Charles II in January, when the king’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, James Scott disputed the right of his uncle, now James II, to be king. I have never studied this period in history and yet it such an important part of our country’s story. I didn’t really realise how ignorant I was until I read Damien Boyd’s novel, “Down Among the Dead” which is set partly on the site of the Battle of Sedgemoor where the last and decisive engagement between forces loyal to James II and rebels led by the Duke of Monmouth took place on 6 July 1685 (Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerset).

The exhibition, as I mentioned, is on in Taunton, so having checked the museum opening times, 10 am-5 pm, we leapt into our car and headed off down the M5 motorway. We had a good journey south, unlike the drivers of the vehicles heading north – the motorway on that side was really crowded, almost at a standstill in places. We headed into Taunton, found a parking place in a carpark and went to pay. What joy when a passer-by told us parking is free on Sunday! We sauntered over to the museum, stopping to admire a display of old double and single-decker buses on the way… only to find the museum isn’t open on a Sunday! What numpties! (Numpties are silly-billies, idiots who don’t read information properly!)

Fortunately we were amused not annoyed, we like Taunton so we had a wander about,  photographed some old buses, and had a coffee and a sandwich before sauntering back to the car. We didn’t risk the traffic on the motorway, so country roads took us home. We will try again next week!

https://www.damienboyd.com/down-among-the-dead/