Interesting facts about Watchet and local area
Did you know...Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was written in 1797 whilst travelling through Watchet and the surrounding area?
He lived at Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey, which is about 10 miles from Watchet, and while living there he wrote The Ancient Mariner as well as "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" and "Frost at Midnight". It is claimed that the sight of the harbour, from St. Decuman’s Church, was the primary inspiration for Coleridge to start the poem, having walked over the Quantock Hills, from his home in Nether Stowey, with friends William and Dorothy Wordsworth.
In September 2003, a commemorative statue, by Alan B Herriot of Penicuik, Scotland, was unveiled at the harbour.
Watchet is a harbour town in the English county of Somerset. It is situated 15 miles (24 km) west of Bridgwater, 15 miles (24 km) north-west of Taunton, and 9 miles (14 km) east of Minehead. The town lies at the mouth of the Washford River on Bridgwater Bay, part of the Bristol Channel, and on the edge of Exmoor National Park.
