THE annual Goathurst Village Heritage Trail, on the edge of the Quantock Hills, which began in 2019, returns next month featuring Halswell House and Park together with its 18th century follies, the Temple of Pan, and St Edward’s Church.

Anybody exploring the trail during the festival on Saturday and Sunday, September 13 and 14, will be able to spot the links between them.

The trail has evolved over the years to encompass the house and park and its collection of follies, the Rotunda and Temple of Harmony, the Bathstone Bridge and cascade of lakes situated in Mill Wood, and the Temple of Pan, which is now privately owned but was originally part of the estate.

The bridge in Mill Wood is an example of 1700s ‘folly’ architecture, a dam made to be highly decorative and deceptively look like a bridge, possibly designed by Thomas Wright, of Durham.

The Rotunda, or ‘Mrs Busby’s Temple’, of 1755, and the Temple of Pan, 1751, are also notable examples.

The Temple of Harmony, designed by then-MP Thomas Prowse and completed in 1767, is a scaled down version of the Temple of Portunus, in Rome, with an interior designed by Robert Adam.

St Edward’s Church boasts a ‘collection of high-quality funerary tombs and monuments’ dating from the 16th century, hatchments and other notable items inextricably linked to the Halswell-Kemeys-Tynte families who lived at Halswell House.

Visitors to the church can also see the recently-restored grade two starred listed 18th century monument to the Willis family with its 10-foot high Corinthian column.

Its design is considered of architectural significance within a national context and is described as ‘one of the grandest chest tombs ever seen’.

The church, house, and park will be open from 12 noon to 5 pm, while the Temple of Pan can be visited from 2 pm to 5 pm.