RESIDENTS of the remote Exmoor hamlets of Oare and Culbone this week threatened legal action against the Diocese of Bath and Wells to block it from selling Oare vicarage - a building they claim was built and paid for by parishioners.

"We are taking legal advice over the possibility of an injunction to stop any future sale," said Jeremy Payne, deputy churchwarden at Culbone and chairman of Oare and Culbone parish meeting, who is leading the campaign.

He said that selling the vicarage would have an effect far beyond Oare and Culbone and could threaten a rural way of life. Since it was built in the 1960s to replace an older building, the vicarage has been offered rent-free to retired clergymen to take services at Oare and Culbone churches.

Both are major tourist landmarks - Oare church features in the novel Lorna Doone and Culbone, which has the country’s smallest regularly-used parish church, was where Samuel Taylor Coleridge began to write Kubla Khan.

Mr Payne told the Free Press that since the last vicar retired three years ago the diocese had prevented parishioners from advertising for a replacement and had rented the building to tenants. It was now believed that the building would be put up for sale.

The parishes - which contain a total of under 100 people - are currently two of nine in the care of the Vicar of Porlock. "What we want is to once again have the vicarage available for a semi-retired vicar to help to look after some of the nine churches," Mr Payne said.

"We see that as a constructive way to help the Vicar of Porlock with what is an overwhelming workload. If this doesn’t happen, the danger is that some of the churches will die on their feet because the present system simply can’t cope."

Parishioners have accused the diocese of putting money ahead of residents who value better pastoral care. They believe that a covenant placed on the land when it was donated could make any sale illegal.

Oare churchwarden Geraldine Woollacott said: "We are adamant that we will not be pushed around and we require special consideration because of our history and isolated farming situation with all its foibles."

She added: "We have repeatedly asked for the opportunity to at least advertise the post for an extended period to see who applies, but we have been stopped from doing this with the suggestion that no-one will bother to apply anyway. We have pointed out that our unique type of vacant post costs the church itself almost nothing."

Mr Payne said: "I know there are plenty of older clergyman who would jump at the opportunity of coming to our parish but we can’t advertise without permission of the diocese and they simply won’t give it.

"There has been a long tradition of the village allowing the vicar to live rent free in return for his services in Oare and Culbone. Other bills were also paid, including electricity.

"The current building, which replaced a Victorian rectory, was built with funds raised by the parishioners and the land donated by the owner of Oare Manor. We believe that as we gifted the building to the community we are the only people who have the right to sell it, but the church doesn’t see it like that.

"There are complicated issues including the diocese trying to reorganise itself but, in fact, there was no problem in the way we ran our little part of the world, and we weren’t a drain on the church resources."

Mr Payne, who runs a holiday letting business from a nearby farm, said the diocese seemed to regard selling off the vicarage "as no more than a windfall to be harvested." But to the communities on the moor it would "mean the end to a rhythm of worship which stretches to the 13th century."

A spokesman for the Diocese of Bath and Wells said it was "committed to rural ministry and the life of the church in Oare and Culbone. The consultation process is ongoing."