Churches of the British Isles

Nothing remains of the old church other than tower and porch. That old church had no foundations and was very much decayed, and even that structure probably replaced an even-older and smaller building. Three burials beneath the north wall predated the medieval structure. The three-bay nave and chancel are built as a single structure. The one stage-and-a-bit tower was probably intended to be taller, but in its truncated form it is covered by a saddleback roof.

Church Gate Cottage Reading Room, Luccombe, is located at the south-east corner of the churchyard, on the western side of the church gate (the eastern end of the yellow building seen here on the left was the cottage, built in the seventeenth century, the western end was the school room and then a reading room). The reading room was formed when the newer school was built in the late 1800s. When reading rooms fell out of fashion it became a parish room.

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Luccombe, sits at the north-west corner of the junction between Stoney Street and the main lane through the village. The church is a Grade I listed construction, built in the 1200s in red sandstone with adaptations taking place in the 1500s and 1600s, plus later additions. The three-stage embattled tower is twenty-six metres high. The chancel is thirteenth century, the tower fifteenth century, and the south aisle sixteenth century.

A drastic renovation was carried out in 1840, during which the eighteenth century gallery was removed and a vestry was added. A more sympathetic refurbishment took place in 1895 when some of the previous work was modified. During this work the church was found to have no foundations, but the remains of a smaller, earlier structure were uncovered beneath the medieval building to indicate that there has been a church on this site since Domesday (1086).

The remains of St Andrew's Chapel, Chapel Cross, can be found on the eastern side of the Porlock road, about ninety metres north of the Chisland Drive junction at Chapel Cross. Possibly earlier known as St Saviour's Chapel (a claim which is not fully accepted), it was probably built in the 1300s, and seems to have survived into the 1700s. The area became a stone quarry for many generations before the chapel's remains were excavated by Rev F Hancock prior to 1897.

Photos on this page kindly contributed by Joseph Rogers (two), Exmoor NP, Robert Cutts (two), and Huw Thomas, all via the 'History Files: Churches of the British Isles' Flickr group.