Parking is available on Greenway (ST 21675 29627) in Kingston St Mary. All our caches are a short walk from this road.
Please note that parking here during school run times is not advisable (8.30-9.15 and 2.40-3.30) as the road is very busy with parents picking up and dropping off.
As part of our e360 accreditation, we are using our ICT skills to make links with the community by placing caches in and around our local area. We have chosen special places with links to our school. For more information about our school, please visit our website http://www.kingston-st-mary.somerset.sch.uk
This place represents so much that we love about our community and school. The images and atmosphere, along with a carefully tended green, give us quiet reflection in a busy world.
The Village Green, now much decreased in size boasts a seat made locally, which was put in place to celebrate the Millennium. Its iron work shows aspects of life in Kingston St Mary: included is the famous Kingston Black, a very popular cider apple and grown in most of the local orchards, each farm had at least one orchard until about 60 years ago. The symbols on the seat represent our community, past and present.
Close by is the beautiful parish church of St Mary which has a splendid west tower of late 15th century with interesting "hunky-punks" perched high on the corners. (Named possibly because the carvings are squatting on their hunkers- as in one hunkers i.e. squatting and punch meaning short and thick.) They actually serve no function unlike gargoyles which carry off water, but they show that the masons who built the tower in 1490 had a sense of humour. The tower belongs to a group known as "The Quantock Group" and A K Wickham in his book of Somerset Churches says: "There is a mastery and beauty of design in the towers of Ile Abbotts, Staple Fitzpaine and Kingston, which renders them among the greatest masterpieces of English architecture," he adds that of the three "Kingston is the perfected model." The church is entered through a fan-vaulted porch of much charm and beauty. Many alterations have been made through the centuries but it has essentially a 13th century Early English core which was enlarged and transformed in the Perpendicular style 300 years later. The bench ends are fascinating, one is dated 1522 and the designs include oxen and yokes, a weaver's shuttle, rosaries, as well as flowers, foliage and figures. In the south aisle there is the large table top tomb commemorating the Warres of Hestercombe House, which was in the parish of Kingston until quite recently, many of the Warres are buried here. The painted coats of arms record the families into which they married. This is a very special place for our school.
As a Church of England School we celebrate Harvest, Christmas and Easter festivals, along with our leaver's service in July to send the year six children onto the next step in their education.
Permission to place this cache has been kindly granted by The Parish Council of Kingston St Mary.
The children will look forward to reading your online comments during our assembly time.
Congratulations to BusterWalks&Girly2 and HubbyWalks for FTF.