Weston, Clevedon is the outcome of the modern craze for health resorts.
It is now a fashionable collection of comfortable villas, profusely
disposed over the W. and N. slopes of a range of hills which run with
the channel on its way to Bristol. Though approached on the E. by miles
of uninviting marshes, the situation of the town is pleasant and
picturesque. Clevedon offers several points of contrast with its
enterprising rival and neighbour. Besides other things it retains some
remnants of ruder days. A humble row of cottages to the L. of the
station, and an ancient church dumped down in a hollow of the W.
headland, preserve the savour of a former simplicity. To one of these
"pretty cots" Coleridge is said to have brought his bride in 1795. The
reputed house still stands in Old Church Road, but the identification
is now questioned. Along the sea-front there is a pleasant little
promenade, flanked with turf and shrubs. The shore is rocky, and though
the ebb tide uncovers a considerable stretch of mud in the bay, along
the road to Walton the sea is never far away, even at low water. There
is nothing romantically bold about the coast scenery, but it is
pervaded by an air of quiet retirement much in keeping with its
literary associations. The esplanade leads at one end to a pleasant
walk along the cliffs in the direction of Walton, and at the other to a
pathway across the meadows towards the "old church." The main interest
of the church is its association with "In Memoriam," but
archaeologically, too, it is well worth a visit. It is a building with
a low central tower, which is pierced with some Norm, belfry windows,
and rests upon fine Norm. arches N. and E., cut with rather unusual
mouldings. The pointed arches leading to the nave and S. transept are
later (14th cent.). The arcading of the nave is peculiar; above is a
Perp. clerestory. A quaint little altar-tomb, with recumbent effigy of
a child, stands on the S. side of the tower arch, and within the arch
is a slab with the rudely incised figure of a knight. The S. transept