Face Painting

Pupils of Wadham School Crewkerne are abseiling down the 13th century church tower to repaint the Victorian clock of All Saints Church in Aisholt in the Quantock Hills of Somerset. The pupils are under the supervision of teacher Peter Baker and refreshing the clock face, last painted 25 years ago, as a thank-you to Reverend Arthur Moss for giving permission to set up a summer camp. Pandaemonium (2000) about romantic poets Coleridge and Wordsworth was filmed in this area.

All Saints Church is thought to have been consecrated by a hermit priest centuries before the Norman Conquest. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth spent time here culminating in the joint publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798; the book includes The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Kubla Khan (1816) was also written at this time. Coleridge lived at Nether Stowey but had a wish to live in Aisholt and described the place as delicious. The Old School House which Coleridge intended to rent was later inherited by Edwina Duckworth, wife of poet and historian Sir Henry Newbolt and they spent time in Aisholt. Pop band Swing Out Sister filmed the video for Forever Blue about Coleridge, in and around the village.