MSO7964 - Ash Farm, Porlock (Building)

Farm still in use but isolated. [1] Phillip de Ash appears in forest pleas for 1257. [2] This is generally believed to be the farm at which Samuel Taylor Coleridge was living when his composition of Kubla Khan was interrupted by the visit from "the man from Porlock". [3] The farmstead is shown on the Porlock Tithe Map and labelled Ash. It includes three buildings, one of which was at SS 8426 4781 but was demolished by the time the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map was surveyed. The farmhouse is shown, as is an L shaped building that may or may not form the northwestern corner of the present farmyard buildings. The 1st and 2nd Edition maps show the farmstead as a range of buildings surrounding a farmyard, with a small access cut through the eastern side next to the farmhouse, which occupies the southern end. A circular horse engine house is depicted on the western elevation in the northern corner. This has since been removed and a more recent farm building erected nearby. [4-7] The farm was visited in January 1996. The back of the farmhouse was noted to form the south side of the farmyard, which was framed by "nice 19th Century rubble farm buildings" with slate roofs, with a barn to the west, shippon to the north and stables to the east. There are brick arches below the barn. Also noted were the remains of a sub circular boundary of the ancient farm. [8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9]