St Beuno's Church
St Beuno’s Church in Culbone is said to be the smallest parish church in England still in regular use. Long before Christianity reached these shores, Culbone was a centre for pagan worship and some sources claim that Joseph of Arimathea passed this way with the infant Jesus on his journey to Glastonbury. Around 400-500 AD, a small group of Welsh monks set up a community here and a few hundred years later, the church was first built.
The church was used in the television version of R. D. Blackmore's ‘Lorna Doone’, starring Richard Coyle and Amelia Warner, for John Ridd's wedding. Nestled in woodland, this enchanting church in its gorgeous location is accessed on foot via the coastal path-with lots of uphill sections- making it a really tranquil spot. When we arrived, the vicar was just leaving and asked us to make sure the door was shut behind us to prevent local wildlife from getting inside!
Everything is squeezed into the tiny building with the pews offering very little leg room. A leper’s squint, which would have allowed those with this disease to get a glimpse of the service, can still be seen and the Norman font also remains.
The church is a lovely space to spend time, its solitude adding to its air of calm-time seems to stand still here. It makes you wonder about all those who have come to worship here over the years and the dedication of those who still do. However, this walk also has another literary link.
As you climb up the South West Coast Path from Porlock Weir, passing the Toll house and on to Culbone Church, you pass through two short tunnels. These were once part of the grand Italian garden at Ashley Combe House. The house was originally built in 1799 as a hunting lodge.
Lord Byron’s daughter, Ada, the famous mathematician now known to us as Ada Lovelace, married William King, who was later created the 1st Earl Lovelace. He owned Ashley Combe House and using some of the considerable fortune that Ada brought with her, he enlarged and improved it and developed the gardens, both in the Italian style. The tunnels were constructed so that tradesmen could approach their entrance of the house without being seen by those living there.
The gardens were a series of terraces linked by spiral staircases. A large number of trees were planted and a woodland walk was developed with a series of steps leading down to the sea where a bath house was built into the cliff, allowing Ada to bathe in private. At length, however, the house fell into a state of disrepair and was demolished in 1974.
Another literary connection to this place is that Samuel Taylor Coleridge is said to have been staying at Ash Farm when he wrote Kubla Khan, the masterpiece famously interrupted by a ‘person from Porlock’ who came to visit, breaking his concentration and resulting in the poem being left unfinished. Whatever your reason for visiting, this is a walk which will not leave you disappointed- muddy and tired perhaps- but not disappointed!
Culbone Church,
Porlock Weir,
Minehead
TA24 8PQ
You can read about more Literary Locations connected to Lorna Doone with Doone Valley here and Chagford here and more about Samuel Taylor Coleridge with Poets’ Walk here and Watchet’s statue of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ here.
