Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

I reckon that the Sunday Times IT bod has been out on the sauce last night, the puzzle did not become visible until 08:58 hrs this morning. The Eastender Himself is a bit cheesed off about this as he likes to get this one knocked on the head early so he can go for Sunday lunch. Near as I can figure it, the most likely answers seem to me to be :

Q1. Christopher Hollis

Q2. Midsomer Norton

(NB for Question 1, Christopher Hollis was known officially as Maurice Christopher Hollis but his bios seem to use the name Christopher Hollis, which he was better known by)

The initial clues place us in the county of Somerset, where some of the local coal mines closed for good c1973. A Palladian style mansion which was constructed between 1721 and 1725 by a bankster financial terrorist called Henry Hoare II (what a great name for someone who creates counterfeit money from thin air and loans it out at outrageous levels of interest ) is Stourhead house (was called Stourton manor). Around 2 miles northwest of the house/estate, lies King Alfred's tower, which from the pictures I saw of it, does indeed seem to be triangular, this was also constructed by the nasty old banker.

Travelling around seven miles north/northwest of the Palladian house brings us to Nunney castle, this was constructed around 1370 by a Sir John de la Mere and bombarded by the Parliamentarians c1645. Some of the references I checked claim that the gun damaged section fell down on christmas day c1910. Two miles north of the castle takes us to the one horse dorp of Mells. Siegfried Sassoon (Mad Jack) the war poet is allegedly buried there as is one Christopher Hollis (born c1902) who lived in Mells for a time and was an MP, a writer for Punch magazine and an author. Mells is said to be where Little Jack Horner is from and the tasty plum he pulled out of the pie was said to be the ownership deeds to Mells Manor.

Five miles north/north west of Mells lies Downside Abbey, built in the early 19th century, it houses a school who's alumni are called 'Old Gregorians'. I looked at several references which say that a saint Oliver Plunkett's headless body is intered there (he was hung drawn and quartered by the vicious government sociopaths of the day) and that the church tower is 166ft high. Depending on which sources you look at, St Oliver Plunkett's feast day can be on the 1st or the 11th of July.

Northeast of Downside abbey is the town of Radstock, which was once home to the Marcroft wagon works which closed c1988. Ludlow, Huish and Coates refer to the coal mines/mining companies which were operating in the area around Radstock, prior to 1973. Two miles north of the Abbey puts us in the town of Midsomer Norton, where the Somerset and Dorset railway line is being restored by the Somerset and Dorset railway heritage trust. According to some sources, the Somerset and Dorset railway was created in 1862 when an act of parliament gave the green light for the amalgamation of the Somerset Central Railway and the Dorset Central Railway.

link to competition:

Sunday Times Where Was I?