St Beuno's Church, Culbone | |
---|---|
51°13′17″N3°39′32″W / 51.2213°N 3.6590°W | |
OS grid reference | SS842482 |
Country | England |
Denomination | Church of England [1] |
History | |
Status | Parish church |
Dedication | St Beuno |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Active |
Specifications | |
Length | 35 feet (11 m) |
Administration | |
Diocese | Bath & Wells |
Parish | Porlock |
Culbone Church, located in the village of Culbone in Somerset, is said to be the smallest parish church in England. [2] The church, dedicated to the Welsh saint Beuno, has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building [3] and the churchyard cross is Grade II*.
The church is recorded in the Domesday Book. [4] The church is probably pre-Norman in origin, with a 13th-century porch and a late-15th-century nave. It was refenestrated and re-roofed around 1810 and the spirelet added in 1888. It underwent further restoration in 1928. [5]
Joan D'Arcy Cooper, psychologist, Yoga teacher, author of Guided Meditation and the Teaching of Jesus, [6] and wife of the potter Waistel Cooper, was organist at the church and is buried in the graveyard. [7] The graveyard also contains a war grave of a soldier of the Welsh Guards of World War II. [8] Sir David Calcutt QC, a barrister and public servant, is buried in the churchyard.
Services are still held despite the lack of access by road.
The nave has box pews, including a Jacobean squire's pew from Ashley Combe House. The interior scale and decoration suggest Anglo-Saxon origins. The east end is restored. There is a small window, carved from a single block of sandstone, outside the north wall of the chancel, with a face on top of the pillar dividing the two window lights. This is probably also Saxon. [9]
The church seats about 30 people, the chancel is 13.5 × 10 feet (4.1 × 3.0 m), the nave 21.5 × 12.33 feet (6.6 × 3.8 m) and the building has a total length of 35 feet (10.7 m). [10]
The church is passed by the South West Coast Path, but drivers must turn off the A39 opposite the village pub, and park where possible on the narrow track. There is then a walk of 1.5 miles (2.4 km) described by Simon Jenkins as "through steep woods of walnut and oak, glorious on a summer's day with the sea glinting through the trees, darkly mysterious and dripping with water in winter". [9]
The church has been used for filming including a television version of Lorna Doone ; [11] the video for Mike and the Mechanics' 1988 song "The Living Years", [12] and 2016 BBC television series Coastal Path, with Paul Rose. [13]
West Somerset was a local government district in the English county of Somerset from 1974 to 2019. The council covered a largely rural area, with a population of 34,900 in an area of 740 square kilometres (290 sq mi); it was the least populous non-unitary district in England. According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics in 2009, the population of West Somerset had the oldest average age in the United Kingdom at 52. The largest centres of population were the coastal towns of Minehead and Watchet (4,400).
Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, 5 miles (8 km) west of Minehead. At the 2011 census, the village had a population of 1,440.
All Saints' Church, is in Childwall, Liverpool, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is the only medieval church remaining in the Metropolitan borough of Liverpool. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool, the archdeaconry of Liverpool and the deanery of Liverpool South – Childwall.
St Oswald's Church stands on the highest point in the market town of Malpas, Cheshire, England, on or near the site of a Norman motte and bailey castle. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building and is recognised as being one of the best examples in Cheshire of a late 15th to early 16th-century church. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Malpas. Its benefice is combined with those of St John, Threapwood, and Holy Trinity, Bickerton. Alec Clifton-Taylor includes it in his list of 'best' English parish churches.
Porlock Weir is a harbour settlement approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the inland village of Porlock, Somerset, England. "Porlock" comes from the Old English portloca, meaning an enclosure near a harbour. Porlock Weir refers to the salmon stakes and traps that were situated along the shore.
St Peter's Church is the parish church of Prestbury, Cheshire, England. It is probably the fourth church on the site. The third, the Norman Chapel, stands in the churchyard. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The Norman Chapel, the lychgate and west wall, the Hearse House, and the sundial in the churchyard are listed at Grade II. It is a Church of England parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield, and the deanery of Macclesfield.
St Mary's Church is an Anglican parish church in the village of Newbold Astbury, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and its architecture has been praised by a number of writers.
Culbone is a hamlet consisting of little more than the parish church and a few houses, in the civil 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.
Selworthy is a small village and civil parish 5 kilometres (3 mi) from Minehead in Somerset, England. It is located in the National Trust's Holnicote Estate on the northern fringes of Exmoor. The parish includes the hamlets of Bossington, Tivington, Lynch, Brandish Street and Allerford.
St John the Evangelist's Church is in the village of Gressingham, Lancashire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Tunstall, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn. Its benefice is combined with those of St Margaret, Hornby, St John the Baptist, Arkholme, and St Michael the Archangel, Whittington-in-Lonsdale.
St Peter's Church is in the village of Heysham, Lancashire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn.
St Margaret's Church is in Main Street, Hornby, Lancashire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Blackburn, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the deanery of Tunstall. Its benefice is combined with those of St Michael, Whittington, St John, Arkholme, and St John, Gressingham.
St Cristiolus's Church, Llangristiolus is a medieval church near the village of Llangristiolus, in Anglesey, north Wales. The village, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the building, takes its name from the church. Reputedly founded by St Cristiolus in 610, the present building dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. Alterations were made in the 16th century, when the large east window in Perpendicular style was added to the chancel – a window which has been described by one guide to the buildings of north Wales as "almost too big to fit" in the wall. Some restoration work took place in the mid-19th century, when further windows were added and the chancel largely rebuilt.
St Chad's Church is an Anglican church in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn and the archdeaconry of Lancaster. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. A church on the site was built no later than the 11th century and may have existed prior to the Norman Conquest of England. The tower dates from the 17th century, and much of the remainder of the building from a major renovation in the 18th century, although some of the fabric of the original structure remains. Further renovation and additions took place in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The Church of St Mary and All Saints is an Anglican church in the village of Whalley, Lancashire, England. It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn. A church probably existed on the site in Anglo-Saxon times and the current building dates from the 13th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
St Beuno's Church, Trefdraeth is the medieval parish church of Trefdraeth, a hamlet in Anglesey, north Wales. Although one 19th-century historian recorded that the first church on this location was reportedly established in about 616, no part of any 7th-century structure survives; the oldest parts of the present building date are from the 13th century. Alterations were made in subsequent centuries, but few of them during the 19th century, a time when many other churches in Anglesey were rebuilt or were restored.
St Beuno's Church, Aberffraw is a 12th-century parish church in Anglesey, north Wales. A church was established in Aberffraw in the 7th century by St Beuno, who became the abbot of Clynnog Fawr, Gwynedd. St Beuno's may have been used as a royal chapel during the early Middle Ages, as the Princes of Gwynedd had a royal court in Aberffraw, as part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. The oldest parts of the church date from the 12th century, although it was considerably enlarged in the 16th century when a second nave was built alongside the existing structure, with the wall in between replaced by an arcade of four arches. Restoration work in 1840 uncovered a 12th-century arch in the west wall, which may have been the original chancel arch or a doorway to a western tower that has been lost. The church also has a 13th-century font, some memorials from the 18th century, and two 18th-century copper collecting shovels.
All Saints' Church, also known as Lydd Church or The Cathedral on the Marsh, is a church in Lydd, Kent, South East England. It belongs to the Diocese of Canterbury. All Saints is the longest parish church in Kent at 199 feet (61 m), and also has one of the tallest towers in the county at 132 feet (40 m). The church is thought to incorporate a small Romano-British basilica possibly built in the 5th century, though most of the current fabric is medieval. It was associated with local fraternities or guilds in the 15th century and could seat 1,000 people at a time. Severely damaged by World War II bombing, the church was subsequently restored and is now a Grade I listed building.
Joan D'Arcy Cooper (1927–1982) was a psychologist, Yoga teacher, and author known primarily for her book Guided Meditation and the Teachings of Jesus, which proposed that the words of Jesus were intended not to be taken literally but as the focus of meditations, in a manner comparable to the practice of affective piety.
The Anglican Church of St Mary in Oare, Somerset, England, was built in the 15th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Layley, Charles G (1985). St. Beuno's Culbone "The smallest complete Parish Church in England". Barnstaple: Aycliffe Press Ltd., on behalf of Culbone Parochial Church Council. ASIN B008LP8HRO.