Culbone Church

SS84NW OARE CP CULBONE 2/28 Culbone Church 22.5.69

GV I Parish church, dedication unknown. Probably pre-Norman in origin, C13 porch, late C15-early C16 nave refenestrated and reroofed, c1810 spirelet added, 1888 chancel reroofed and east wall rebuilt, nave roof repaired 1928. Random rubble local stone part whitewashed, slate roofs, slate hung spirelet. Two bay nave with bell-cote, south porch, chancel. West end unlit, single storey gabled porch, semi-circular headed opening, barrel vault roof with remains of wallplate, cambered headed door with medieval metalwork; 2-light trefoil-headed mullioned window, wall breaks forward slightly to right lancet in south wall of chancel, C19 3-light east widow, north wall Saxon 2-light window with leopard face carved in low relief in spandrel, north wall of nave 2-light wooden cinquefoil headed mullioned window under hoodmould. Interior: rendered. Pointed chancel arch unmoulded. Cl9 wagon roof to chancel, original ceiled wagon roof to nave with crenellated wall plate. Norman baluster font. Circa 1400 3-bay screen partly renewed. C17 box pew, and plain bench ends thought to be pre-Reformation. Reredos designed 1927 by CFA Voysey and made by Mr Huish. One of the 2 bells is said to date from the C14. The church seats about 40 people and has a good claim to be considered the smallest complete church in England. (Photograph in NMR; Pevsner, Buildings of England South and West Somerset, 1958; Allen, The Churches and Chapels of Exmoor, 1974).

Listing NGR: SS8421748224