live and let die

...today, we had to go over to Bridport and Axminster, so we made a rough plan to visit Charmouth on our way from Dorset to Devon. Knowing we would be tight for time, we left home early enough to stop off at Abbotsbury on our way to Bridport.

The image here is of St Catherine's Chapel, on Chapel Hill, which has fabulous views of the village, Abbotsbury Swannery, Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens and the surrounding countryside.

There has been a community at Abbotsbury since long before the Romans arrived here in 43/44AD and, when the Romans left in 410AD, it is thought that a priest by the name of Bertulfus built a church dedicated to St. Peter. If this could be proved it would make Abbotsbury the earliest known centre for Christian worship in Britain. This first wooden church is believed to have been destroyed by Saxon invaders around 500AD and, for about 150 years, the area became a stronghold for pirates. By 650AD, the Saxons had finally established themselves and added the area to their Kindom of Wessex, and Abbotsbury became the retiring place for West Saxon Kings. During the 9th century, the area came under the jurisdiction of Glastonbury Abbey.

When the Viking Canute was acclaimed King of England in 1016AD, he granted his Christian steward, Orc, the lands around Abbotsbury. Orc and his wife Thola used the land to found a Benedictine monastery, the Abbey of St Peter. Edward the Confessor, who succeeded Canute, was very impressed by Orc and retained him as his steward, whereupon he granted Orc the sea shore bordering his Abbotsbury lands, and to the rights to all wrecks. Orc and Thola died childless and left the Abbey and all their land to the Church, and Orc was buried in the monastery that he founded.

After the Norman conquest and William I's confirmation of Orc's gift, the community grew and thrived. Domesday records that the monastery owned eight manors and, with subsequent kings and nobles granting it further land, it became very prosperous.

Edward I granted Abbotsbury a charter to hold a weekly market on Fridays and the area's craft guilds evolved. By this time, the monastery owned 2,000 acres in the parish plus land in twelve other parishes and houses in Wareham, Bridport and Dorchester.

All continued to go well until our old friend Henry VIII dissolved the monastery. The chap responsible for closing it was Sir Giles Strangways, who solved the problem by purchasing it and all its lands for £1906 10s. Five hundred years and fifteen generations later, this land is still owned by the Strangways family.

Now for the James Bond bit...

During the English Civil War, Abbotsbury was owned by Sir John Strangways (Ian Fleming used the name John Strangways for his British Spy in Jamaica) and, of course, he was a passionate royalist. In 1644, a parliamentary force arrived to rid the village of its royalist garrison, which was commanded by Sir John's son Colonel James Strangways. A six hour battle to take the Strangway's house was eventually successful when windows were smashed and grenades were used to set the building on fire. The garrison was forced to surrender but the attackers started ransacking the house. Now, in excellent Fleming style, Strangways just happened to have left a few barrels of gunpowder lying around the place, which were detonated by the fire, blowing up the whole property and at least 60 parliamentarian men! Now where did we see something like that recently?...

Meanwhile, back to the chapel, which was built in the first half of the 15th century as a Pilgrim chapel for Abbotsbury Abbey. They still hold several services here each year but they will need to perform some serious spring cleaning before the next one on Good Friday because, despite the fence that surrounds it, it was seriously full of cow poo when we visited this morning...