Nether Stowey - Notable Residents

Notable Residents

In July 1789, local resident John Walford murdered his wife after a visit to Castle of Comfort Farm (a pub that still exists). He was tried and found guilty. He was executed in the spot where he committed his crime and hung in a gibbet. Walford's gibbet is a local landmark. The cage in which he was hung is now held at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton. Walford attained notoriety due to the brutality of the crime in an otherwise quiet and peaceful village.

Thomas Poole was a local tanner who became wealthy and founded the Nether Stowey Women's Friendly Society in 1807. The Society continued (under several different names) until 1975 and is still celebrated annually. Poole was also a patron of Coleridge and Wordsworth.

The village was the birthplace of Jesuit priest Robert Parsons.

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in the village between 1797 and 1799, as noted above.

Read more about this topic:  Nether Stowey

Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or residents:

    In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.
    —For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Most of the folktales dealing with the Indians are lurid and romantic. The story of the Indian lovers who were refused permission to wed and committed suicide is common to many places. Local residents point out cliffs where Indian maidens leaped to their death until it would seem that the first duty of all Indian girls was to jump off cliffs.
    —For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)