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Montacute is a small village and civil parish in Somerset, England, west of Yeovil. The village has a population of 831 (2011 census). The name Montacute is thought by some to derive from the Latin "Mons Acutus", referring to the small but still quite acute Ham Hill dominating the village to the west. The village is built almost entirely of the local hamstone. From the 15th century until the beginning of the 20th century it formed the heart of the estate of the Phelips family of Montacute House. The village has a fine medieval church, and a former Cluniac priory, the gatehouse of which is now a private house. At the centre of the village is a large square known as the 'Borough' around which are grouped picturesque cottages and a pub, the ''Phelips Arms''; there is a second public house and hotel situated in the village, called the ''King's Arms''. ==History== To the west of the village is the Iron Age hill fort of Ham Hill, a large tribal fort of the Durotriges. The fort was conquered by the Roman Legio II Augusta sometime around 45 AD.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.roman-britain.org/celtic/ham_hill.htm )〕 The Romans briefly occupied the fort, then moved to a more permanent garrison at nearby Ilchester (''Lindinis''), and constructed the Fosse Way Roman Road a few miles west of the village. A Roman villa was excavated near Batemoor Barn early in the twentieth century and an extensive mosaic documented. Never adequately protected, this has probably been damaged by deep ploughing in the last 20 years. Variously called ''Logaresburgh'' by the Saxons, later ''Bishoptone'' or ''Biscepstone'', the estate was owned by Tofig, a staller (placeman or court office-holder) to Danish King Canute.〔Williams et al., ''A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain'', page 229.〕 Following a dream Tofig had in 1030, a local blacksmith found buried within the manor grounds a black crucifix or Holy Rood. Tofig loaded the life-sized cross onto a cart, and he then named a series of possible destinations owned by him.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Castle Montacute )〕 The oxen pulling the wagon (six red and six white in one version of the tale) refused to move until he said Waltham in Essex, where Tofig already had a hunting lodge.〔''The Waltham Chronicle'', ed. Watkiss and Chibnall, page 15.〕 They then started, and continued non-stop until they reached Waltham, and where they stopped Tofig decided to build an abbey at the site – this became Waltham Abbey. In the mean time, Tofig rebuilt the church at Waltham to house the cross, on which he bestowed his own sword, and his second wife Gytha (or Glitha), the daughter of Osgod Clapa, adorned the figure with a crown, bands of gold and precious stones.〔Dodwell, ''Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective'', page 119.〕 The cross became the object of pilgrimage, notably by Harold Godwinson. It was at Tofig's wedding at Lambeth on 8 June 1042 that King Harthacnut suddenly died of a convulsion "while standing at his drink".〔Barlow, ''The Godwins: The Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty'', page 109.〕 "Holy Cross" became the battle-cry of Harold's armies at the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings. The Holy Rood is said to have foretold Harold's defeat at Hastings: on the way there from the Battle of Stamford Bridge he stopped off at Waltham Abbey to pray, and the legend is that the cross "bowed down" off the wall as he did so, taken as a portent of doom.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.red1st.com/axholme/getperson.php?personID=I1748697551&tree=Axholme )〕 On Tofig's death in circa 1043, his estates passed to his son Athelstan (or Æthelstan) and then to his grandson Asgar, before being granted to the Norman Baron Geoffrey de Mandeville by King William the Conqueror.〔Wareham, ''Lords and Communities in Early Medieval East Anglia'', page 113.〕 Montacute is reputed to have been named by Robert, Count of Mortain, who built the motte-and-bailey Montacute Castle at his English seat in 1068. The site of the castle was a deliberate affront to the defeated English, because it was the site where Tofig had discovered the "Holy Rood" crucifix.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Legend of Waltham Abbey )〕 Robert later founded the Cluniac priory on an adjacent site. The parish of Montacute was part of the Tintinhull Hundred.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Miscellaneous/ )〕 Montacute Castle was besieged by English rebels from Somerset, Dorset and neighbouring areas in 1069 and its relief required the assembly of a considerable force, drawn chiefly from the Norman garrisons of London, Winchester and Salisbury.〔 This army was led by the Norman bishop, Geoffrey of Coutances, whose large landholdings were also threatened. The rebels were taken by surprise and bloodily defeated, putting an end to the revolt. Joseph Bettey has suggested that "the devastation in the surrounding area which followed the English defeat may explain why so many manors in south Somerset are recorded in the Domesday Survey as having decreased in value". The English dead were buried in a mass grave to the West of the village in a sloping field now known as "Under Warren". Village tradition has it that two hilltop fortifications were built: first a wooden clamshell fort with motte & bailey, later replaced by a stone castle. However little evidence to prove the existence of the stone structure exists, except a note in the Parish records that two loads of stone were taken from the site by the neighbouring parish of Martock.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/3275.html )〕 A church or chapel dedicated to St Michael later replaced the castle. Excavations of the hilltop have been limited and inconclusive. A folly tower, built in 1760 by Edward Phelips V now occupies the hill-top. Known as St Michael's tower it stands on Mons Acutus which was the site of the former castle. The Hamstone tower is about in diameter, and rises before curving inwards to a viewing platform which reached via a 52 step spiral staircase. It has been designated as a Grade II listed building and scheduled monument. Considerable earthworks are built into St Michaels Hill, and the common belief is that these are the remains of an extensive Motte & Bailey, however a report by the Somerset County Archeologist unit favours their view that these are in fact wine-growing terraces. Montacute is visited by tourists who come to the area, attracted by the nearby Ham Hill Country Park, and Montacute House (now owned by the National Trust) which is one of the finest examples of an Elizabethan house in England, and several other mansions open to the public in the immediate vicinity. In 2009 Montacute was identified as having England's longest life expectancy in a report compiled by Watson Wyatt Worldwide. In November 2014 Montacute featured in the programme 'Hidden Villages' presented by Penelope Keith. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Montacute」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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