Culbone Church

Exmoor National Park, United Kingdom

Culbone Church, located in the village of Culbone in Somerset, is said to be the smallest parish church in England. The church, dedicated to the Welsh saint Beuno, has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building and the churchyard cross is Grade II*. The church is recorded in the Domesday Book. The church seats about 30 people, The chancel is 13.5 xx 10ft, the nave 21.5 xx 12.33ft and the building has a total length of 35ft. 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 late-15th-century nave. It was refenestrated and reroofed around 1810 and the spirelet added in 1888. It underwent further restoration in 1928. Joan D'Arcy Cooper, psychologist, Yoga teacher, author of Guided Meditation and the Teaching of Jesus, and wife of the potter Waistel Cooper, was organist at the church and is buried in the graveyard. The graveyard also contains a war grave of a soldier of the Welsh Guards of World War II. In a television version of Lorna Doone, St Beuno's was used as the location for the marriage of John Ridd at Oare Church. The church is also featured in the 1988 video of Mike and The Mechanics hit song 'The Living Years'