Culbone Church
{{Short description|Church in Culbone, Somerset, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
{{Infobox church
|name = St Beuno's Church, Culbone
|fullname =
|image = Culbonechurch.jpg
|imagealt = A small stone church surrounded by trees
|imagesize = 250
|caption =
|pushpin map = Somerset
|pushpin label position =
|pushpin map alt =
|pushpin mapsize =
|map caption = Culbone within Somerset
|coordinates = {{coord|51.2213|-3.6590|format=dms|region:GB_type:landmark|display=inline, title}}
|osgraw = SS842482
|osgridref =
|location =
|country = England
|denomination = Church of England{{cite web |url=http://www.achurchnearyou.com/culbone-st-beuno/ |title=St Beuno, Culbone |website=A Church Near You |publisher=Church of England |accessdate=22 October 2012}}
|previous denomination =
|churchmanship =
|membership =
|attendance =
|website =
|former name =
|bull date =
|founded date =
|founder =
|dedication = St Beuno
|status = Parish church
|functional status = Active
|style =
|capacity =
|length = {{convert|35|ft}}
|width =
|width nave =
|height =
|diameter =
|other dimensions =
|floor count =
|floor area =
|dome quantity =
|dome height outer =
|dome height inner =
|dome dia outer =
|dome dia inner =
|spire quantity =
|spire height =
|materials =
|bells =
|bells hung =
|bell weight =
|parish = Porlock
|deanery =
|archdeaconry =
|episcopalarea =
|archdiocese =
|metropolis =
|diocese = Bath & Wells
|province =
}}
File:Saxon Window in Culbone Church - geograph.org.uk - 426087.jpg
Culbone Church, located in the village of Culbone in Somerset, is said to be the smallest parish church in England.{{cite web|url=http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Parishchs.htm |title=Parish Churches |website=Somerset County Archives |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005191756/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Parishchs.htm |archivedate=5 October 2013 |accessdate=19 October 2016 |url-status=dead }} The church, dedicated to the Welsh saint Beuno, has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building{{cite web |title=Culbone church |website= historicengland.org.uk |url= https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1058037 |accessdate=24 October 2007}} and the churchyard cross is Grade II*.
History
The church is recorded in the Domesday Book.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/hidden-hamlet-of-exmoorcountry-1352603.html |title=Hidden hamlet of Exmoor:country |first=Hamish |last=Scott |website=The Independent|location=London |date=16 November 1996}} 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.{{National Heritage List for England |num=1058037 |desc=Culbone Church|accessdate=3 April 2015}}
Joan D'Arcy Cooper, psychologist, Yoga teacher, author of Guided Meditation and the Teaching of Jesus,Cooper, J. D., Guided Meditation and the Teaching of Jesus. Salisbury: Element Books. (Reissue Edition) 30 November 1982. and wife of the potter Waistel Cooper, was organist at the church and is buried in the graveyard.{{cite web |url=http://www.somerset-life.co.uk/people/a_tiny_church_called_culbone_near_porlock_1_1647983 |title=A tiny church called Culbone, near Porlock |publisher=somerset-life.co.uk |author=Malcolm Welshman |date=4 November 2011 |accessdate=11 June 2013}} The graveyard also contains a war grave of a soldier of the Welsh Guards of World War II.{{cite web|title=Ricketts, William Charles|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2692024/RICKETTS,%20WILLIAM%20CHARLES|publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission|accessdate=11 June 2013}} 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.
Architecture
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.
The nave has box pews, including a Jacobean squire's pew for the occupier of Ashley Combe House. The church can seat about thirty people. The chancel is {{convert|13.5|xx|10|ft|m|1}}, the nave {{convert|21.5|xx|12.33|ft|m|1}} and the building has a total length of {{convert|35|ft|m|1}}.{{cite web|title=Culbone – Kitnor|url=https://www.mineheadonline.co.uk/culbone.htm|url-status=live|website=Minehead Online|accessdate=24 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904193544/http://www.mineheadonline.co.uk/culbone.htm |archive-date=4 September 2018 }} The font sits on a victorian support but the bowl is far older possibly dating back to the Saxon period.
The church has 2 bells with the older dating to the 14th century while the young one dates to the 17th.{{cite book |last=Wills |first=Dixe |title=Tiny Churches |date=2018|publisher=AA Publishing |isbn=978-0-7495-7991-3 |page=28}}
Access
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 {{convert|1.5|mi|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".{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Simon |authorlink=Simon Jenkins |year=2000 |title=England's Thousand Best Churches |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-141-03930-5 |pages=689–690}}
In media
The church has been used for filming including a television version of Lorna Doone;{{cite web |title=Walk – Culbone Church and the Fairytale Tunnels |url=https://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/walksdb/224/ |publisher=South West Coast Path |accessdate=31 October 2024}} the video for Mike and the Mechanics' 1988 song "The Living Years",{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRnhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6|title=Visitors' Historic Britain: Somerset: Romans to Victorians |first1=Mick |last1=Davis |first2=David |last2=Lassman |date=30 March 2020 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=9781526706195 |via=Google Books}} and 2016 BBC television series Coastal Path, with Paul Rose.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2Lyt13DcBDlHRrPMCmZ0W6k/hidden-treasures-of-the-south-west-coast-path|title=BBC One – Coastal Path – Hidden Treasures of the South West Coast Path|publisher=BBC}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{cite book |last=Layley |first=Charles G |year=1985 |title=St. Beuno's Culbone "The smallest complete Parish Church in England{{"-}} |location=Barnstaple |publisher=Aycliffe Press Ltd., on behalf of Culbone Parochial Church Council |asin=B008LP8HRO |asin-tld=co.uk}}
External links
{{commons category|St Beuno's, Culbone}}
- [http://www.culbonechurch.com/Culbonechurch/Welcome.html Culbone Church website]
- [http://www.minehead-online.co.uk/culbone.htm Culbone Church, Porlock] at minehead-online.co
Category:Grade I listed churches in Somerset