Culbone (also called Kitnor) is a hamlet consisting of little more than the parish church and a few houses, in the parish of Oare in the Exmoor National Park, Somerset, England. As there is no road access it is a two-mile walk from Porlock Weir, and some four miles from Porlock itself. The village is situated in a sheltered spot, near the coast of

Porlock Bay Porlock Bay is on the Bristol Channel, between Hurlstone Point and Porlock Weir in Somerset, England. The coastline includes shingle ridges, salt marshes and a submerged forest. In 1052 the Saxon king, Harold, landed at Porlock Bay from Ireland ...

. The slopes behind the village rise to the height of , over which a small stream falls down to the sea. The

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...

goes through the village, parts of which were closed and diverted in February 2007 following landslips in the woods. The woods around the village are home to the rare ''

Sorbus vexans ''Sorbus vexans'' (known as bloody whitebeam) is a rare tree in the family Rosaceae. It is endemic to England. It is found along the coast between Culbone in Somerset and an area just west of Trentishoe in Devon. It can be seen in the Exmoor Na ...

'', a microspecies of self-cloning Sorbus trees which are only found in the coastal area between Culbone and Trentishoe in Devon. It is amongst the rarest trees in Britain. Other Whitebeam and

Rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, r ...

species found in the area include; ''Sorbus subcuneata'', ''Sorbus ‘Taxon D’'' and ''Sorbus aucuparia''.

History

Culbone was listed in the Domesday book as Kytenore, or Chetnore. The name "Culbone" is thought to derive from the Celtic ''cil beun for "Church of St Beuno". The

Culbone Stone The Culbone Stone, an early mediaeval standing stone, is close to Culbone in the English county of Somerset. The stone is made from Hangman grit, a local sandstone, and has a wheeled ring cross carved into it. The stone has been scheduled as an ...

, an early

mediaeval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

standing stone approximately one metre in height. It lies in woodland close to the parish boundary, and features an incised wheeled cross, the style of which suggests it dates from 7th to 9th century. The stone is legally protected as a scheduled ancient monument. It has been suggested that the stone has been moved from its original site as part of the Culbone Hill Stone Row. In the 14th century Culbone's steep woods were used as a colony for French prisoners, and again in 1720 as a prison colony.Jenkins, S. (2000), ''England's Thousand Best Churches'', Penguin Books, The woods were once the site of a major

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

burning industry, the original burners for which were reputed to be a colony of lepers. Although the lepers were not allowed into the village, there is a small leper window in the north wall of the church. Culbone was a civil parish until 1933 when, because of the small population (43 in 1931) it was merged into the parish of Oare. Culbone Cottage, Culbone Lodge, and the Parsonage Farmhouse are all Grade II listed buildings.

Church

Culbone Church is said to be the smallest parish church in England. The chancel is × , the nave × and the building has a total length of . It seats about 30 and is dedicated to St

Beuno Saint Beuno ( la, Bonus;Baring-Gould & Fisher, "Lives of the British Saints" (1907), quoted a Early British Kingdoms website by David Nash Ford, accessed 6 February 2012 640), sometimes anglicized as Bono, was a 7th-century Welsh abbot, ...

. Services are still held there, despite the lack of road access. The church is probably pre-Norman in origin, with a 13th-century porch, and late 15th-century nave. It was refenestrated and reroofed around 1810 and the spirelet added in 1888. It underwent further restoration in 1928. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Person from Porlock is believed to have disturbed Samuel Taylor Coleridge during his composition of the oriental poem '' Kubla Khan''. Coleridge was living at Coleridge Cottage,

Nether Stowey Nether Stowey is a large village in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, South West England. It sits in the foothills of the Quantock Hills (England's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), just below Over Stowey. The parish of Nether Stowey c ...

(between

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

and

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

). Coleridge later stated he wrote the poem at Brimstone Farm, though no such farm has ever existed. It is likely that this encounter took place while he was staying at either Broomstreet Farm or Ash Farm near Culbone. It is also possible that Coleridge composed the poem at the Culbone Parsonage near to Ash Farm, now a collection of holiday cottages.

References

External links

* * * {{West Somerset Villages in West Somerset Exmoor Populated coastal places in Somerset Former civil parishes in Somerset