[4] At the far end of the car park are the remains of a red brick retort, built in 1924, when it was discovered that the shale found in the cliffs was rich in oil.

Along this coast the cliffs are layered with compressed strata of oil-bearing shale and blue, yellow and brown lias embedded with fossils.

It is also part of the Tiverton and Minehead county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Berta Lawrence, in her book Quantock Country, suggests that the name Pardlestone derives from the old alternative 'Parleston', where a tiny settlement here belonged to a Saxon called Parlo.

[7] From halfway down this lane there is a panoramic view of the coastline as far as North Hill in Minehead and across the channel to South Wales and the Brecon Beacons.

In the foreground lie the Church of St Mary, the ruins of a medieval chantry and one old barn still standing, though dilapidated, with traditional round stone pillars.

Lane End was built in traditional cob construction by the distinguished Arts and Crafts architect Norman Jewson as a summer house for himself.

A path leads down from the chantry through fields now used as a car-park to the beach which William Wordsworth, the Romantic poet, who lived for a brief period with his sister Dorothy at Alfoxton House, described as "Kilve's delightful shore".

Kilve Pill, where the stream from Holford runs into the sea, was once a tiny port, used for importing culm, an inferior type of coal which was used in the lime burning process.

[9] The Pill was long associated with smuggling and legend has it that barrels of spirits hidden in the chantry were deliberately set fire to as the revenue men appeared on the scene.

The main part of the building was constructed between 1702 and 1705, in the reign of Queen Anne, by Henry Sweating,[3] and incorporating an earlier dwelling, although alterations were made in the 1920s by Clough Williams-Ellis.

[14] Somerset County Council acquired the house in 1964 and it was opened in 1965 with residential places for 26 children and four members of staff.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the site provided emergency accommodation for those in need and made frozen meals which then got distributed in the local community for those who were struggling due to the lockdowns.

The tower has recently had a considerable amount of restorative work done on it, and is now rendered and painted a shade of off-white, as the whole church was until the early years of the 20th century.

[19] The video to Bryan Adams' hit song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" was filmed on Kilve beach showing the geological cliff formations.