St Beuno's Church, Culbone | |
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51°13′17″N3°39′32″W / 51.2213°N 3.6590°W Coordinates: 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 | |
Parish | Porlock |
Diocese | Bath & Wells |
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 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). [5] Services are still held there, despite the lack of access by road. 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. [6]
Joan D'Arcy Cooper, psychologist, Yoga teacher, author of Guided Meditation and the Teaching of Jesus, [7] and wife of the potter Waistel Cooper, was organist at the church and is buried in the graveyard. [8] The graveyard also contains a war grave of a soldier of the Welsh Guards of World War II. [9] Sir David Calcutt QC, a barrister and public servant, is buried in the churchyard too.
The nave has retained its box pews, including a Jacobean squire's pew for the now ruined Ashley Combe House. The tall proportion of the nave and the primitive bowl font suggests 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. [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) "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". [10]
In a television version of Lorna Doone , St Beuno's was used as the location for the marriage of John Ridd at Oare Church. [11]
The church is featured briefly in the video for Mike and the Mechanics' 1988 hit song "The Living Years". [12]
A 2016 BBC television series Coastal Path, about the South West Coast Path, includes a visit to the church. [13]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Beuno's, Culbone . |
West Somerset was a local government district in the English county of Somerset. 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 has the oldest average age in the United Kingdom at 52. The largest centres of population are the coastal towns of Minehead and Watchet (4,400).
Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, 5 miles (8 km) west of Minehead. It has a population of 1,440.
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Bispham Parish Church, also known as All Hallows Church, is a Church of England parish church located in Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire, England, known as the Mother Church of Blackpool.
St Martin's Church is in Church Lane, Ashton upon Mersey, a district of Sale, Greater Manchester, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Bowdon.
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.
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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.
Rivington Church is an active Anglican parish church in Rivington, Lancashire, England. It is in the Deane deanery, the Bolton archdeanery and Diocese of Manchester. The church has been designated a Grade II listed building. The church has no patron saint and is not named after a saint or martyr. It has been variously called St Lawrence, St George, Holy Trinity, and St Catherine but its correct title is Rivington Church.
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.
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.
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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.