The description of Roger as "priest of Culmstock," when he witnessed a document at nearby Canonsleigh Abbey around the year 1175, provides the earliest firm evidence for a church in Culmstock, but it is likely that there was one in 1086, when the manor already belonged to the bishops of Exeter, if not at the time of an Anglo-Saxon charter of 960.

A chancel perhaps first built in the 13th century, and nave, south aisle, tower and spire in the 14th, have been much altered and "restored" by the generations that followed. A clerestorey and north aisle were added in 1824, and a medieval stone chancel screen twice moved, finally forming an altar reredos in 1835. The spire was taken down in 1776, leaving a yew tree growing from the top of the tower, where it was already an institution by 1835 and remains the most distinctive feature of the church today. Inside the tower, the oldest of eight bells carries the inscription "Ave Maria Gratia Plena" and the date 1558, the year before Elizabeth succeeded Mary on the throne, and the very last year such an inscription would have been tolerated in England.

In 1830 nine-year-old Frederick Temple came to live in Culmstock. He was to become archbishop of Canterbury and to crown Edward VII. Then in 1835 ten-year-old Richard Dodderidge Blackmore arrived at the Vicarage. He has become best known as author of "Lorna Doone," but his "Perlycross," set in and around Culmstock, deserves as much recognition.

Regular Sunday-by-Sunday worship here continues the tradition of nine centuries, and bears out the text displayed over the main door of the church: "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

D. & M. B.