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Porlock
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Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, situated in a deep hollow below Exmoor, west of Minehead. The village has a population of 1,377 ( estimate).
History
East of the village is Bury Castle an Iron age hill fort.
In the Domesday book the village was known as "Portloc".
The area has links with several Romantic poets, and R. D. Blackmore the author of Lorna Doone, and is popular with visitors. The visitor centre with exhibits and displays about the local area.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, situated in a deep hollow below Exmoor, west of Minehead. The village has a population of 1,377 ( estimate).
History
East of the village is Bury Castle an Iron age hill fort.
In the Domesday book the village was known as "Portloc".
The area has links with several Romantic poets, and R. D. Blackmore the author of Lorna Doone, and is popular with visitors. The visitor centre with exhibits and displays about the local area. Also on display are the bones of an Aurochs, discovered on Porlock beach in 1999.
Governance
The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.
The village falls within the Non-metropolitan district of West Somerset, which was formed on April 1, 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Williton Rural District. The district council are responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.
Somerset County Council are responsible for running the largest and most expensive local services such as education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, policing and fire services, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning.
It is also part of the Bridgwater county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election, and part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
Geography
The village adjoins a Porlock Ridge and Saltmarsh nature reserve created when the lowland behind a high shingle embankment was breached by the sea in the 1990s, which has now been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Copses of white dead trees remind the visitor of when this was fresh water pasture.
A picturesque, wooded combe called Hawkcombe leads about three miles from the village up to high open moorland. The stream, (which is called "Hawkcombe Waters"), runs past an interesting Victorian hunting lodge, called , then underground beneath the Overstream Hotel in the center of the village.
The South West Coast Path goes through Porlock, many walkers stopping rather than continuing on the gargantuan walk to Lynton. There is also a Coleridge Way walk.
Culbone church is said to be the smallest church in England. The main structure is 12th century. Services are still held there, despite the lack of road access - it is a two-mile walk from Porlock Weir, and some 3-4 miles from Porlock itself.
A new toll road bypasses the 1-in-4 gradient on Porlock Hill. There is an ancient on the hill.
Submerged forest
From the end of the last glacial period, about 10,000 years ago, the melting of ice caps has caused the sea level in the Bristol Channel to rise about 40 metres. It has been at roughly its present level for the last 2000 years but is still rising very slowly.
Between 7000 and 8000 years ago the area that is now Porlock Beach was more than five miles inland. It was a flat, low lying area and the climate was warm and wet. The area was thickly wooded and Mesolithic people lived by hunting and fishing. They probably hunted wild cattle, the bones of which have been found here. The stumps of trees were preserved in the marshy conditions in which they grew and have today been revealed as the sea has risen to erode them. At low tide can be seen tree trunks, a thin layer of peaty soil and a large amount of grey clay soil which is now inhabited by sea shells known as piddocks.
Church
The Church of St Dubricius dates from the 13th century. The spire was damaged in a storm of 1703. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. Within the church is a 1th century of John Harrington who fought alongside Henry V in France in 1417.
"Person from Porlock"
The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who lived nearby at Nether Stowey (between Bridgwater and Minehead), was interrupted during composition of his poem Kubla Khan by "a person on business from Porlock", and found afterward he could not remember what had come to him in a dream.
Coleridge and William Wordsworth (who lived nearby at Alfoxden) would often roam the hills and coast on long night walks, leading to local gossip that they were 'spies' for the French. The Government sent an agent to investigate, but found they were, "mere poets". Their walks are celebrated by the Coleridge Way which ends in Porlock. Their friend Robert Southey published a poem titled "Porlock" in 1798.
Words to Jerusalem
Legend has it that the area beyond Culbone towards Lynmouth where Glenthorne is now situated is where Jesus may have alighted on a trip with Joseph of Arimathea. This is said to have inspired the words to William Blake's famous poem, Jerusalem:
- "And did those feet in ancient time
- Walk upon England’s mountains green?
- And was the Holy Lamb of God
- On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
- And did the countenance divine
- Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
- And was Jerusalem builded here
- Among these dark satanic mills?"
External links
- by the Porlock Tourist Association.
- Porlock Vale Community Website.
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