River Culm

The River Culm winds through the Devon Redlands in south-west England, rising from a spring near RAF Culmhead in the Blackdown Hills. It flows west through villages like Hemyock and Culmstock in the Culm Valley before turning south past Cullompton. The river joins the Exe near Exeter after skirting Killerton Park, its name meaning ‘knot’ or ‘tie’ for its twisting loops. The Culm is the longest tributary of the Exe, stretching four and a half miles from its marshy source where it is only 1.5 metres wide. At Gladhayes it passes under a two-arched bridge, then meets the Madford River before reaching Culmstock. Downstream at Uffculme the river slows, and the Spratford Steam joins it near Willand. The railway and M5 motorway run alongside the valley, which often floods where the Culm meanders. Literature has celebrated the upper valley, with R.D. Blackmore’s novel Perlycross drawing on the landscape around Hemyock, Culmstock and Uffculme. In the story the river grows from a noisy brook at Perlycombe to a trout stream at Perlycross, becoming the ‘River Perle’ at Perliton. Boats once plied its waters near the larger village, and the string of settlements follows the stream’s gentle course.