Coleridge Cottage

In December 1796 the young Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved into this little cottage in Nether Stowey with his wife Sara and their infant son David Hartley.

In those days the cottage was much smaller, with a thatched rather than tiled roof.

The family lived at the cottage for three years and here Coleridge wrote some of his finest poems.

These include 'Fears in Solitude', 'This Lime Tree Bower My Prison', 'The Nightingale', 'Frost at Midnight', the first part of 'Christabel' and 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', which has many references to neigbouring places.

It was also at the cottage that Coleridge began to set down the opium-inspired 'Kubla Khan' which came to him in his sleep.

In 1797 William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came to live at Alfoxden and they often came over to Nether Stowey to visit Coleridge and his family. Charles Lamb was also a welcome visitor.

Coleridge and Wordsworth would often go on nocturnal walks together, taking notebooks and camp stools. It was during a walk with Wordsworth that the idea for 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' took shape.

This rather eccentric behaviour, together with the strangers' northern accents and Dorothy Wordworth's dark complexion led to the rumour that they were French spies. The Home Office duly sent an investigator to Nether Stowey but he was able to conclude that the poets were simply harmless cranks.

In the nineteenth century the cottage was greatly altered and only four rooms remain that existed in Coleridge's day.

Today mementos of the poet are displayed here including his massive inkstand, locks of his hair and correspondence in his distinctive handwriting.

There are views of the village in Devon where Coleridge was born, the church where he was married and the room at No. 3, The Grove, Highgate where he died. There are also pictures of his acquaintances including Dorothy and William Wordsworth.

The little garden at the rear of the cottage still contains the bay tree that stood here when Coleridge dug the plot but the lime tree bower of the poem has long since disappeared.