Lamyatt
Somerset







Lamyatt, a  small village in the Mendip district, is close to Castle Cary and Bruton.  It sits on the side of Creech Hill where there are the remains of a Romano-British temple at Lamyatt Beacon. The Domesday Book refers to the village as Lamieta, which has been taken to mean  "Lamb's Gate."  However, The Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names  suggests the origin of the name is the Old English "hlamm geat."  "Hlamm" refers not to a lamb, but to something which bangs or crashes, so something like, "hinged gate" might be a more likely origin.

  The church of St Mary and St John was built in the thirteenth century.

Like the nearby village of Evercreech, Lamyatt was royalist during the Civil War. The 19th century school has been converted into a modern village hall used for many community events.

The 2011 Census recorded a population of 183. Until the Covid-19 lockdown the village had a cider co-operative which produced its own cider from local orchard apples under the name Bullbeggar after the spirit said to roam Creech Hill at night.



The village tapestry hangs in the church.

Lamyatt men who returned from the Great War

Edwin Bennet              RGA     
William Garland          HMS Wallington
Frederick Garland       SLI & Northumberland Fusiliers
Frank Gilham              HMS Diana
Ernest Goodland         Glosters
Herbert Goodland       SLI
William Goodland       SLI     
William James             Royal Irish
Joseph Kelly               SLI
Dan Mundy                 RE
Edgar Newport           RAF
Ernest Padfield            RE
William Sheen             SLI
Frank Trask                Royal West Kents



Text by Gill Lindsay, pictures by Jen Richards.

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