Mark Horner Memorial

Image: © Roger Gittins Taken: 17 May 2009

Viewed from another angle and nine days later than Image There is an inscription on the inside rear wall which reads "For the use of Mells Village in memory of Mark Horner 1908". The following is an account by grand nephew Raymond "Mark Horner (formally my great uncle, though he died of scarlet fever as a teenager) was a great favourite in the village by all accounts. When he died his parents, Sir John & Frances Horner, erected two memorials to him: one this shelter, and the other the water fountain and trough on Mells Green which has become thoroughly dilapidated and which I am planning to restore. They were both designed by Lutyens and the lettering for both was done by Eric Gill. The inscriptions on both state that the memorials are for the use of Mells Village. The use of the fountain was obvious: there was no running water at Mells Green at that time. The shelter was meant to be just that: a place where the villagers could meet and sit in the shade near the stream. There was no Post Office or shop there when it was put up (the present shop was an ordinary cottage), but as you know it's where six roads meet and so a good focal point of the village". Thanks to Raymond and Parish Council http://mellsparishcouncil.org.uk/ Clerk June Costelloe. Both Mark and his father, Sir John Horner (1842-1927), are buried in the local churchyard. Ancestor Jack Horner was reputed to be "Little Jack Horner" of nursery rhyme fame. http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=25449 http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-people/memorials/290-mells-church-in-the-great-war.html

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