South Somerset is an idyllic part of the country, ideal for walkers, bird watchers and people who appreciate the beauties of rural England.
East Coker is a natural resting place for travellers from London to Cornwall. We are half-way to the Eden Project and the perfect spot from which to explore Dorchester, Wells, Glastonbury, Bath, Weymouth, Lyme Regis and the rest of the heritage south coast.
The village is well worth a visit in its own right. Ancient thatched properties nestle alongside mellow stone houses, their walls covered with old roses, clematis, honeysuckle and wisteria.
Mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) as Cocre, possibly meaning “a conical heap of hay” from the Norsk kukkr. Before 1066, this was the property of Gytha, wife of Earl Godwyn , and mother of Harold II.
Many of the cottages in East Coker are built of local golden hamstone. None is more interesting than the long, low thatched home of the village’s most renowned son, the great navigator and pirate William Dampier. He explored the west coast of Australia and was navigator on the ship that rescued Alexander Selkirk – the real-life Robinson Crusoe.
Coker Court, with its 15th Century hall and 18th Century front and wings, shares a modest hillside with the church. A path, shaded by dark yews and cedars leads up to it, past a row of low, gabled almshouses founded around 1640 by the Helyar family, who inhabited Coker Court for centuries. The Helyar Arms, a Grade II listed building, dates back to 1468 and is reputed to be named for Archdeacon Helyar, chaplain to Elizabeth I.
Until the late 19th Century, flax was grown in many areas locally and every cottage had a loom for weaving Coker cloth, used by the Royal Navy for more than 200 years. The twine and webbing mills, established in 1872, continued for more than a century and ropes from here were used in Hillary’s ascent of Everest and to lower Churchill’s coffin at his interment. The saw mills were founded in 1880 by Joseph Perry to service the looms, but closed in 1979. Perry invented the twine twisting machine.
Ancestors of the poet T S Eliot emigrated from East Coker to America. T S Eliot visited the village in 1936-37 and his ashes are buried in the churchyard. A memorial tablet was erected in 1965. In his poem “East Coker - 1940”, published as part of his Quartet, Eliot wrote:
"In the beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon
Where you lean against a bank while a van passes
And the deep lane insists on the direction
Into the village..."
