Culbone Church

Culbone Church is a Grade I listed parish church with an unknown dedication, likely originating before the Norman period. The church features a 13th-century porch, and the nave was refenestrated and reroofed in the late 15th to early 16th century. A spirelet was added around 1810, and the chancel was reroofed and its east wall rebuilt in 1888. The nave roof was repaired in 1928. The structure is made of random rubble local stone, partially whitewashed, with slate roofs and a slate-hung spirelet.

The church has a two-bay nave with a bell-cote, a south porch, and a chancel. The west end is unlit and features a single-storey gabled porch with a semi-circular headed opening and a barrel vault roof that retains remnants of a wall plate. There is a cambered headed door with medieval metalwork, and a 2-light trefoil-headed mullioned window. The wall slightly projects to the right, leading to a lancet in the south wall of the chancel. The east wall has a 19th-century 3-light window, while the north wall features a Saxon 2-light window with a leopard face carved in low relief in the spandrel. The north wall of the nave has a 2-light wooden cinquefoil-headed mullioned window under a hoodmould.

Inside, the church is rendered, with an unmoulded pointed chancel arch. The chancel has a 19th-century wagon roof, while the nave retains its original ceiled wagon roof with a crenellated wall plate. A Norman baluster font is present, along with a circa 1400 3-bay screen that has been partly renewed. There is a 17th-century box pew and plain bench ends believed to be pre-Reformation. The reredos was designed in 1927 by CFA Voysey and made by Mr. Huish. One of the two bells is said to date from the 14th century. The church can seat about 40 people and is considered one of the smallest complete churches in England.