highly visible from the main street in Bridport, and its significance extends back to around the 11th century. The hill takes its name from the "Colmer Tenement". The family were tenants of the Dukes of Somerset and Earls of Ilchester in the 17th and 18th centuries and the Rev. John Colmer was the rector from 1805–06. During World War I 12 Scots Pine trees were planted on the summit by Major W P Colfox MC in memory of 12 local men who were killed in battle, and the hill now forms an iconic subject for artists and photographers. Church The parish church of St John the Baptist is in Early English style and cruciform shape, it has a nave, transepts, south porch and square tower with six small bells and a clock. The registers date from 1558. Records show that the first rector arrived in 1325. In the north and south transept there are spyholes, known as squints, through which the congregation could see the priest at the altar. The stained glass in a memorial window in the church was designed around 1884 by William Lethaby, who later became Professor of Ornament & Design at the Royal College of Art. Principal houses The principal houses in the village are Symondsbury Manor, Shutes Farmhouse and the Old Rectory (now known as Oakhayes). Like many so-called manor houses, this one has not formed the administrative centre of the manorial landholding. It was not until the 20th century when the then owners, the Colfox family, had collected together much of the previously manorial land that the house acquired this title. In 1975 the house was separated from the land and sold to Peter Hitchin. Originally a medieval farmhouse, it was heavily remodelled by Crickmay in the late 19th century for the Symonds Udall family to whom Thomas Hardy and William Barnes were regular visitors. Shutes Farmhouse, originally a medieval hall house, was built from trees felled in 1449. Symondsbury was held by the Abbey of Cerne until dissolution, whence it passed to the Dukes of Somerset and this was the administrative centre of their manorial landholding. In 1672 the Duchess of Somerset, to clear the debts of the late Duke, sold much of Symondsbury in nearly two dozen lots to various tenants, but retained Shutes Farmhouse (the Colmer tenement) as the centre of the residual manorial holding which along with the Lordship were