Dunkeswell

A pleasant country lane leads past Dunkeswell Abbey of which only the 15th-century gatehouse survives, the rest of the site now occupied by a Victorian church of no great charm. A couple of miles further and the road climbs up the hillside to Dunkeswell itself. This little village lies in the heart of the Blackdown Plateau and its main claim to fame is a 900-year-old Norman font in St Nicholas’ Church on which is carved a rather crude depiction of an elephant, the earliest known representation of this animal in England. Almost certainly the stonemason had never seen such a beast, but he made almost as good a fist of it as he did with his satirical carvings of a bishop and a doctor. The font was originally located in Dunkeswell Abbey.

To the west of the village, Dunkeswell Memorial Museum stands on the site of the only American Navy air base commissioned on British soil during World War Two. It is dedicated to the veterans of the US Fleet Air Wing 7 and RAF personnel who served at the base.