Pubs

The Sun Inn: traditional English town pub +44 1749 813493

The Seymour Arms at Witham Friary: traditional old West Country village pub & stuck in a time bubble since WW2, serves the local and notable Roger Wilkins farm Cider (approximately 10 miles ) +44 1749 850742

Local Food Shops

Church Bridge Stores is next door. General store/Post Office/friendly/local produce/great wines and spirits/tobacconist/confectionery/greetings & postcards +44 1749 812339

The Spar on the High Street. Mini Mart that accommodates Bill the Butcher’s counter, good locally grown vegetables, cheeses, apple juice & ciders +44 1749 812339

The Chapel: great bakery, restaurant & takeaway sourdough pizzas +44 1749 814070

Bruton Wholefoods on the High Street +44 1749 814811

Godminster: local Cheddar, horseradish vodka/gifts +44 1749 813733

The Sanctuary: on the High Street, a hair, beauty, holistics and alternative health salon +44 1749 814992

There is a fantastic fish stall that sets up in the car park opposite the church every Friday morning between 8am and noon, bringing spanking fresh sea fish, crustaceans and other shellfish from Brixham

Gilcombe Farm Shop: about two miles away, stocks organic meat and dairy products from their own 300-acre farm; you can also buy raw milk (unpasteurised) there
+44 1749 813825

Westcombe Dairy in a hamlet about three miles from Bruton. They make a number of different cheeses, including Duckett’s Aged Caerphilly, Westcombe Cheddar and Somerset Ricotta, all of which can be bought from their farm shop
+44 1225 448748

“A truly artisan Cheddar from Somerset with a deep and complex flavour. Cheese has been made at Westcombe since the 1890s and they now remain as one of the last three traditional producers of Somerset Cheddar. They have the status of PDO, but the Calvers are one of the last three families, along with Jamie Montgomery and the Keens, to make traditional Artisan Somerset Cheddar.” Winners of Best Cheddar at The British Cheese Awards 2017.

Restaurants

The Chapel: bakery, coffee bar, pizzeria, fresh modern British cooking, wine shop, cocktails, terrace +44 1749 814070

Matt’s Kitchen: open Wednesday to Friday evenings, two simple well-cooked dishes every night, one vegetarian choice, BYO
+44 1749 814070

Hauser & Wirth: art-filled brasserie & cocktail bar. Modern European cooking using local produce. They have their own farm and use their own meat and vegetables
+44 1749 814060

Evercreech Plaice: fish & chip shop, Evercreech (approximately four miles)
+44 1749 830395

The Talbot Inn: great small country pub and delicious food in Mells (approximately 13 miles) +44 1373 812254

Excursions

Frome has a buzzing town centre with cobbled pedestrian streets and plenty of small local shops, restaurants and pubs. It also has a great reclamation yard tucked behind the train station

Castle Cary is a pretty small town of a similar size to Bruton and has lovely local shops, bakeries, a butcher’s, ironmongery, pubs, small restaurants and a great wine shop, The Somerset Wine Company +44 1749 813825

Bruton Abbey was a medieval Augustinian priory, of which a wall remains in the Plox near Packhorse Bridge (it is designated as a Grade I listed building and a scheduled ancient monument)

The Dovecote, originally built in the 15th and 17th centuries, was originally attached to Bruton Abbey, but was used by the Berkeley family to house doves and wood pigeons

King Alfred's Tower, also known as The Folly of King Alfred the Great or Stourton Tower, is a folly tower in the parish of Brewham, a few miles from Bruton, and was built as part of the Stourhead estate and landscape. The tower stands on Kingsettle Hill and belongs to the National Trust

Stourhead is a 1,072-hectare estate at the source of the River Stour in the south-west of the county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about 2 ¹⁄₂ miles north-west of the town of Mere and includes a Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, gardens, farmland and woodland.

Hauser & Wirth is a Swiss-owned contemporary and modern art gallery, garden, restaurant & bar

Bruton Museum, where you will find fossils, Roman & Saxon artefacts, relics of the old church and abbey. Objects from the wool, silk and other local industries. Also, learn about some of the notable people who have lived in Bruton including writer John Steinbeck and sculptor Ernst Blensdorf. A desk belonging to Steinbeck, who spent time writing in Bruton in 1959, is a highlight

Sexey's Hospital in Bruton was built around 1630 as almshouses. The west wing and chapel have been designated as Grade I listed. The east wing and gateway are Grade II listed. Hugh Sexey was a local landowner who came from humble origins and attended Bruton Grammar School. By the age of 43 he had been appointed as Royal auditor of the Exchequer at the courts of Elizabeth I and then later to James I of England.