A DIRECT descendent of famed poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was called upon to help mark the conclusion of restoration work at the writer's former home in Nether Stowey.

Rosemary Coleridge Middleton and Tom Mayberry, chairman of the Friends of Coleridge, joined National Trust chairman Simon Jenkins to plant a lime tree in the garden of Coleridge Cottage.

The property was the poet's home for three years from 1797 and it was during his time there that he wrote his finest work, including Frost at Midnight, Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The cottage has been in the care of the National Trust has for more than a century and the charity has worked closely with the Friends of Coleridge over the last 12 months to "enliven and refresh" both the cottage and the Coleridge story.

A kitchen, parlour, bedrooms and the cottage garden - all used by the Coleridge family and not seen by visitors before - have been recreated in vivid period detail and now include items once owned by Coleridge.

The cottage also includes features discovered during the restoration, such as a bricked-up original fireplace in the parlour.

It is believed the fireplace could well be the one mentioned at length by Coleridge in his masterpiece Frost at Midnight.

The rooms illustrate well-known tales of Coleridge, who is recorded as a radical genius who was fuelled by drink and drugs to produce some of the most original poetry ever written.

However, the rooms also celebrate lesser-known sides of the poet - his work as a journalist, diplomat, playwright, translator, philosopher, metaphysician and a brilliant orator and communicator.

The revamp has also led to the creation of a lime tree bower in the garden, similar to the one made famous in his poem This Lime Tree Bower My Prison.

Coleridge wrote the piece after hurting his foot and being unable to join the equally celebrated poet William Wordsworth on walks on the Quantocks.

The bower is planted in the spirit of Coleridge's time, with wild flowers, a small orchard and a vegetable plot.

Mr Mayberry described the trust's refurbishment of the cottage and garden as "a wonderful transformation".

"The homes of writers can be compelling places to visit, but getting it right and appealing to a broad range of visitors is difficult," he said.

"I think the trust has successfully recovered a sense of the cottage as the very domestic setting in which extraordinary things were achieved."

Matthew Oates, a naturalist at the National Trust and a Coleridge enthusiast, said visitors would feel as though the Coleridge family had simply stepped out of the cottage for a moment.

"It is a place where visitors can immerse themselves in the period and learn much more about one of the great men of the past," he said.

"If Coleridge was alive today he would be a major media celebrity, offering his radical views on topics of interest from science to the arts."

Photo: Steve Guscott.