Still in Porlock on a short break with Richard, we ventured off up into the hills above the harbour at Porlock Weir in search of Culbone Church.
At just 35ft long, Culbone is reputed to be the smallest church in England... but it's also quite possibly the most exciting, most remote and with the strangest history of any of them!
Accessible only on foot, the tiny church can seat around 30 people on it's ancient oak pews, but in its time it's known that the services were only ever attended by the vicar himself!
Perched about 500 ft high above the crashing waves on the rocky shore below, Culbone Church is reached from a very steep and convoluted path through ancient woodlands. Rare whitebeams, huge oaks and smaller birches shield the views to the sea, but they also hide other things...
Once past the wacky toll gate house on the Worthy Toll road, you pass beneath a moss-lined brick tunnel and may notice a few other bricks and stones that indicate previous history along the path. These are the remnants of Ashley Combe, a huge, terribly grand house built by the Earl of Lovelace for his bride Ada (daughter of Lord Byron) and only demolished in 1974 after falling into disrepair (following a stint as a country club with a rather unsavoury reputation!!) Not quite what the Earl of Lovelace had in mind when he was wooing the sweet Ada!
Ada must have been quite a delicate creature really, as these tunnels were built to shield her gaze from the terribly distressing sight of dreadfully common people and tradesmen, who would be passing by on the lanes up to the house or up to Culbone Church.
It has to be said that I am quite common, and though we may well be classed as riff-raff by the good lady of the house, I wasn't entirely happy walking through the tunnel. There is a very eerie feel to it, one of those that sets the hairs up on the back of your neck! In fact, it was positively spine chilling on the way back down!!
I've never felt such a strong sensation of someone being right at my back. I daren't look behind and I daren't stop! It was the most bizarre sensation and incredibly powerful, really, really creepy!!
The sensation of being watched was with me the whole time, all the way through the woods and also around the church. I don't know if Richard felt it, I felt too daft to say anything, but by 'eck, it was really spooky!!
The church itself is really simple, really peaceful and quite beautiful.
But quite spooky too! Its history is very long and is full of assorted vagabonds, outcasts and, in general, a lot of very unhappy people!!
Probably most notable was the leper colony, established in 1544 when the church sent 45 people to live and fend for themselves in the woods around Culbone Church. The Church authorities very kindly gave them seeds for them to grow their own food, but no tools with which to plant them or harvest them or grind them or anything! Charming!!
The Church also very kindly said that of course the people of the leper colony may take part in the services at the Church... so they put in a tiny window on the north wall of the church which would allow the lepers to watch the service without actually going inside!! Which was probably considered very good of the church at the time. Thank goodness we are more enlightened now!!
Anyway, the lepers stayed at Culbone, isolated and shunned until the last person died in 1622.
Various other people had been banished to the woods around Culbone as well. Prisoners were often sent there, taken by ship and left to fend for themselves. The area was so remote that there was little chance of escape, and so the area was home to murderers, rapists, thieves and, in the words of the church, the mentally insane!
In the 18th century, smugglers discovered the old leper huts and used them to horde their booty right up until the beginning of the 19th century, when smuggling started to wane and the woods reclaimed the land again.
Another group of people banished to Culbone were 38 East Indian slaves brought back to England in some time around 1730. No longer needed as slaves, they were sent to Culbone to live in the woods and earn a living as charcoal burners. They were to stay there for 21 years, after which they would earn the right to freedom. Miserable, captured and so far from their home lands, these poor men worked in the woods for the full 21 years. Only 23 men were still alive by the end and none were ever able to return to India. What a sad, shameful story!!
I didn't actually know any of this as we pottered about Culbone, but is it any wonder I felt so many eyes were watching us from the woods? What a terribly sad but also very interesting place it's been over the years!!
A famous visitor to the area was Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet who lived nearby in Nether Stowey, but was staying at Culbone when he penned the opium-induced 'Kubla Khan'; a poem which was interrupted by "a person from Porlock" and never finished as inspiration (or supplies of opium) left him!!
Perhaps equally famous, but rather more bizarre, is the story that the area once teemed with giants! One of them is said to have snapped off the tip of the steeple at St Dubricius Church in Porlock and carried it under his arm to put it on top of Culbone Church!! Not sure I believe that one, but it does make a lovely story!
Back down in Porlock Weir, where the smugglers would have plied their trade and certain women would have plied their wares, the surface is quaint and pretty
... scratch beneath it though, and the whole area comes alive in a much more exciting way! These rocky shores have seen all sorts of things over the years... just sit by the harbour, gaze up at the hills around you and listen, you'll feel that ripple underneath as the past whispers to you...
it's all still there, you can almost touch it!
Rebecca, x
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.ukwww.rtphotographics.co.uk
