[ Photograph Gallery # 69 ]
The harbour town of Watchet lies on the North Somerset coast of England, between the Quantock Hills and the Brendon Hills on the Eastern edge of Exmoor.
The harbour at Watchet is said to have been the inspiration for Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous epic poem ‘The Ancient Mariner’. Whilst on a walk with his friends, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, over the Quantock Hills in 1797 from his home in nearby Nether Stowey, they came upon Watchet. It has been said that looking down at the town from St. Decuman’s Church in the town gave him the idea for his poem.
My photographs below were taken on a visit to the area in and around Watchet in 2007.


Watchet – Harbour & Marina

Looking north-east from Watchet harbour across the Bristol Channel to the island of Steep Holm

Coleridge’s ‘Ancient Mariner’. created by the Scottish sculptor, Alan Herriot

‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus! —
Why look’st thou so?’ — With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS..

(Coleridge) … this renowned poet resided for some years at the nearby village of Nether Stowey. In 1797, while on a walking tour, Coleridge visited Watchet. On seeing the harbour he was inspired to compose one of the best known poems in English literature, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’“

While the black-backed gulls keep an eye on events

Coastal rock striations near Watchet

Dead, or just over-wintering?