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Coleridge Cottage
A National Trust property, 35 Lime Street, Nether Stowey, Bridgwater, Somerset.
"The light shall stream to a far distance from the taper in my cottage window"
Opening Times: 2007
1 April to 30 September:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holiday Mondays 2 pm to 5 pm
Entry £3.90 Adults £1.90 Children (Free to Members)
Other times by prior appointment only.
Telephone (+44) 01278 732662
Scholarly interest in the poet's achievement has helped to focus attention on Coleridge Cottage and we work in co-operation with the National Trust to support its development. In 1994 we launched an appeal with the National Trust which enabled the two upstairs rooms to be opened to the public in addition to the ground floor area. There are plans for the further development of the Cottage to make it an even more worthy memorial to Coleridge and that brief but extraordinary period in 1797-8, when in the blossoming of his friendship with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, and in the enchanting landscapes of the Quantock Hills, he was inspired to write his best loved poetry such as 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 'Kubla Khan' and the first part of 'Christabel'.
The Cottage
Coleridge Cottage was constructed in the 17th century as a building containing a parlour, kitchen and service room on the ground floor and three corresponding bed chambers above. All those rooms survive, although by the time Coleridge arrived, the kitchen had been converted to a second parlour and Sara struggled to use the service room for cooking. The 'nice well of fine spring water' which Coleridge noted also survives in a courtyard behind the building. So too does part of the long garden which reached behind the cottage, and from which a gateway gave access to Tom Poole's garden with its 'lime tree bower'. The cottage was refurbished in 1800, just after the Coleridges left, and it was probably then that the present sash windows replaced the former casements. Further major work took place in the second half of the 19th century when rooms were added at the back of the building and the roof was raised.
Having served for many years as 'Moore's Coleridge Cottage Inn', the building was acquired for the nation in 1908 by a group of scholars and enthusiasts, and the following year it was handed over to the National Trust. At first one room, and then two, were opened to the public. On 23 May 1998, following a £25,000 appeal by the Friends of Coleridge and the National Trust, two further rooms on the first floor were officially opened by Lord Coleridge.
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For the full story of how Coleridge Cottage was acquired for the nation - click here
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