St Michaels Hill in the 1940s when the hill was grass covered and the (hat-like) shape of the hill was clear. The timber Norman keep once stood on the summit the perimeter defended by palisades. The stables, garrison and store buildings would have been on the lower terrace.
Such a vantage point must have been valued in pre-Saxon times. The Saxons found a stone cross here which they venerated as a sacred Christian relic. The Normans took the place over in 1066 and decided to build a castle here and renamed the place the steep hill (Mons Acutus). The locals were angered by this lack of respect for a holy place and attacked the new castle but their revolt failed.
The castle was not needed for long and in 1102 a monastery was founded at the bottom of the hill, the castle was cleared and a chapel built there. It was dedicated to St Michael the archangel, leader of the heavenly host, often the saint chosen for hill top locations.. Glastonbury Tor and St Michaels Mount in Cornwall are other examples.
The chapel stayed there until at least 1630.. even after the priory was put out of action in 1538, during Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the monasteries.
About 1600, the Phelips family (who had purchased the monastic land from the crown) built the magnificent Montacute House out of the local golden-coloured Ham stone. It was built next to the village reusing much of the stone from the ruined monastery which in its day had taken materials from the castle.
By 1760, the hill was valued as an (eye-catcher) for the house.. something to look up to. A spiral track lined with trees was designed to enable easy access to the top of the hill. Here they built a prospect tower and above its door, in Ancient Greek, they inscribed the word (periscope). You can still climb up the towers stone spiral stair to the top.
Todays conservation management of the hill is a battle with trees and scrub. In the 1940s the hill was grass covered and grazed by sheep but grazing stopped and it became overgrown with scrub woodland.
There has been very little archaeological excavation to help understand the massive earthworks created over 900 years ago, but Its always worth looking in mole hills and rabbit burrows. In the disturbed soil was some of the rubbish the Norman garrison had left behind.. fragments of cooking pots and splinters of animal bone, left-overs from their meals. Such scraps enable you to touch the past and to realise that there is still so much more that can be learned about this place.
St Michaels Tower is now owned by the National Trust, which acquired Montacute House in 1931.
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