Poole House is thought to have been built in the late 17th century although some parts are belived to be even older. Thomas Poole lived in the house in the late 18th and early 19th century and was a local tanner with a keen interest in literature and philanthropy. He read extensively and enjoyed the company of Charles Lamb, William and Dorothy Wordsworth. He was also close friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge whom he supported during his time in Nether Stowey. The famous barrel room on the first floor is now a bedroom and Coleridge spent many hours in there reading and writing.
It was at Poole House, whilst sitting in the arbor, that Coleridge composed ‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’ in July 1797. In the poem, an injured Coleridge (his wife Sara had dropped a pail of boiling milk on his foot) imagines the walk taken by Charles Lamb, Sara Coleridge, William and Dorothy Wordsworth in the Quantocks from which he was excluded.