Stoke, South, a parish 2-1/2 m.  S. of Bath.  The church has a fine Norm. doorway, with carved tympanum and pillars, and zigzag and other mouldings round the arch.

Stoke Trister is a small hamlet of mean appearance, 2 m.  E. of Wincanton.  It has a modern church (1841).

Ston Easton, a small wayside village, 2-1/2 m.  S. of Hallatrow station.  The church is an unpretentious little Perp. building, with a rather fine Norm. chancel arch, and has been well restored. Ston Easton House stands in a well-wooded park, and possesses an old carved oak ceiling and an ancient staircase.

Stowell, a very small parish 1 m.  W. of Templecombe, which probably gets its name from the spring seen near the church.  The church itself was originally built in the 15th cent., but only the tower arch belongs to this date.  The nave is quite modern (1834), but it preserves a Norm. font.

Stowey, a parish 2 m.  W. of Clutton.  It has a small church, noteworthy for the irregularity of its windows (the small one in the S. wall was originally the S. door).  It has a 14th cent. font (note the cockle-shell); and an interesting bit of sculpture is built into the exterior N. wall of the chancel.  Near it is an incised pair of shears (a woolstaplers’ mark).  Not far from the church is an old manor house, half of which has been destroyed.  Within the parish is Sutton Court (Sir E. Strachey), a house which has historical associations, for here Bishop Hooper found an asylum during the Marian persecution.  The mansion is of considerable antiquity, parts of it dating from the reign of Edward II., and others from Tudor times.

Stowey, Nether, a village 9 m.  W. from Bridgwater (from which place there is a motor service).  It owes its interest to having been the residence of S.T.  Coleridge from 1796 to 1798:  his cottage, marked by a tablet, is at the end of the village on the Minehead road.  Both “Christabel” and “The Ancient Mariner,” as well as several of his shorter poems, are said to have been partly written in this neighbourhood.  Here he must have entertained Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, and many others of his literary friends.  A movement has been recently started to purchase the cottage for the nation.  The church contains nothing of note except a mural tablet in memory of Thomas Poole, described as the friend of “Wordsworth and Davy (i.e.  Sir Humphrey), Southey, and Coleridge”:  his tomb is on the W. side of the S. door.  The two painted mitres beneath the roof-beams commemorate two vicars who became bishops (Majendie of Chester and Fisher of Exeter).

[Illustration:  NETHER STOWEY]

Near the church is Stowey Court, a 15th cent. mansion which was garrisoned in the Civil War.  There are three fish ponds in the grounds, and a curious summer-house (called the “Gazebo”) overlooking the road (cp.  Montacute).  On Castle hill (take road to left where the highway from Bridgwater forks at the sign-post) are the foundations and ramparts of a castle, the last owner of which, James, Lord Audley, was executed for supporting Perkin Warbeck.  The site is worth visiting for the prospect alone.