Churchstanton's village Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset.

Tucked away down a narrow country lane south-west of the former World War Two RAF airfield at Culmhead on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset is Churchstanton’s village Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

The church and rectory are situated high up on the hills near the border with Devonshire; in fact the parish of Churchstanton was part of Devonshire until sometime in the latter half of the nineteenth century.  Even though the parish is a large one of 4,000 acres, and has a church, a Sunday school and a pub, there is no real village nearby to justify the size of the church.  An explanation for its position in such splendid isolation seems to be offered by Ronald Webber in his The Devon and Somerset Blackdowns (Robert Hale, 1976).  He writes:

 “No one seems to know why the church of St. Peter and St. Paul should be sited just where it is.  It dates back to the thirteenth century, but, as far as is known, has never had a neighbouring population of any size. Certainly it is placed in the middle of a rather large parish, and perhaps once drew its congregation from scattered hamlets, farmsteads and cottages.”

Churchstanton's village Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset.  Photographed in the Spring of 2016.

Paul Newman informs us in his Somerset Villages (Robert Hale, 1986): “The church tower has several gargoyles, one with buttocks protruding over the parapet and serving none too decorously as a waterspout.”  Personally, I can’t say I noticed a gargoyle of such distinctive appearance!