Coleridge Cottage

Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey is the humble Georgian house where Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived with his young family from 1797, and where in three years the National Trust calls the most productive and destructive of their lives he wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Frost at Midnight, Christabel and This Lime Tree Bower my Prison, roaming the Quantock Hills with William and Dorothy Wordsworth as the Romantic movement took shape. The cottage later became a Victorian inn, and a redevelopment in 2011 opened rooms never seen before, recreated as though the family had just stepped out, along with a small garden of cottage beds, wildflower meadow and orchard and a tearoom serving a poet's lunch. Reviewers say the volunteer guides are the making of a visit, turning an expected half hour into far longer, and the tea and scones get regular praise. Tips from visitors: there is no Trust car park, so use the pay and display at the Ancient Mariner pub opposite, whose camera times you from the moment you drive in, or the Castle Street car park nearby.