Abbotsbury, Dorset - St. Catherine's Chapel - Rapahel Tuck postcard 1906

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  St. Catherine's Chapel, Abbotsbury, Dorset
• Publisher:  Raphael Tuck & Sons 'View' series
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  Edward VII half d. light green
• Postmark(s):  Tetbury Sep 10 1906 duplex (No. 786)
• Sent to:  Miss Love, Cold Harbour Farm, Brokenborough, near Malmsbury
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Abbotsbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies in the West Dorset administrative district, and is known for its swannery, subtropical gardens and historic stone buildings. It is a gateway village on the Jurassic Coast, and consequently is popular with tourists.

The village of Abbotsbury comprises a long street of stone houses,^[2] many of which are thatched, with some dating from the 16th century.^[3][4] The street broadens at one point into an old market square.^[3] Parts of the street have a raised pavement.^[5] The village is surrounded by hills on all sides, except to the east; in 1905 Sir Frederick Treves described Abbotsbury as being ""very pleasantly situated among the downs"".^[4] The village has two public houses, The Ilchester Arms and The Swan Inn, and several tearooms, small shops and businesses. Nearly a hundred structures within the parish are listed by English Heritage for their historic or architectural interest.^[6] Dorset-born broadcaster and writer Ralph Wightman described the village as ""possibly the most interesting in Dorset"".^[2]

The B3157 road between Abbotsbury and Burton Bradstock is notable for its fine coastal views.^[7]

One and a half miles northwest of the village, at the top of Wears Hill, are the earthworks of Abbotsbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort.^[8] The earthworks cover a roughly triangular area of about 10 acres (4.0 ha), of which about 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) are inside the ramparts.^[9]

In the 10th century a charter of King Edmund records a granting of land at Abbedesburi,^[10] a name which indicates the land may have once belonged to an abbot.^[10] In the 11th century King Cnut granted land at nearby Portesham to the Scandinavian thegn Orc (also Urki, Urk), who took up residence in the area with his wife Tola.^[11] The couple founded Abbotsbury Abbey and enriched it with a substantial amount of land.^[11] The abbey existed for 500 years, but was destroyed in the dissolution, although the abbey barn survived and today is the world's largest thatched tithe barn.^[12] The barn is a Grade I listed building.^[13] Stone from the abbey was used in the construction of many buildings in the village,^[2] including the house of Abbotsbury's new owner, Sir Giles Strangways.^[7]

In 1664, during the English Civil War, Roundheads (Parliamentarians) and Cavaliers (Royalists) clashed at Abbotsbury. Parliamentarians besieged the Royalists in the church of St. Nicholas;^[14] two bullet holes from the fight remain in the Jacobean pulpit.^[7] The Strangways house which had replaced the Abbey after the dissolution was also the scene of a skirmish, as the Royalist Colonel Strangways resisted the Parliamentarians, who besieged the house and burned it. The house gunpowder store exploded in the fire and the house was destroyed,^[7] together with the old abbey records which had been stored there.^[15]

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries Abbotsbury experienced several fires, resulting in the destruction of virtually all its medieval buildings. Most of the historic secular buildings in the village today were built from stone in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[16]

County historian John Hutchins (1698–1773) recorded that fishing was the main industry in the village, and 18th-century militia ballot lists reveal that husbandry was also particularly important. Ropemaking, basketry and the manufacture of cotton stockings were other notable trades within the village, with records indicating hemp and withies being grown in the area.^[16]

In the early 19th century Abbotsbury's population grew steadily, from about 800 in 1801 to nearly 1,100 sixty years later.^[16]

Between 1885 and 1952 Abbotsbury was served by the Abbotsbury Railway, a 6 miles (9.7 km) branch from the main line to Weymouth. It was primarily designed for freight, in anticipation of the development of oil shale deposits and stone at Portesham, as well as iron ore at Abbotsbury which would be shipped to South Wales for processing. The Abbotsbury terminus of the line was inconveniently sited 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the village because the railway could not buy the land needed to build the station closer to the village.^{[17][self-published source]}

During the Second World War, the coastal front was fortified and defended as a part of British anti-invasion preparations of World War II.^{[18][19][self-published source]} Later, the Fleet lagoon was used as a machine gun training range, and bouncing bombs were tested there, for Operation Chastise (the ""Dambuster"" sortie).

To the south of the village, on a bare hill about 80 m (260 ft) high, stands St Catherine's Chapel, a small 14th-century pilgrimage chapel used by the monks of the abbey as a place for private prayer.^[28] It is built entirely of stone, including the roof and even the panelled ceiling.^[7] The walls are 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) thick and buttressed. The chapel overlooks the English Channel, and may have served as a beacon for sailors, warning of the nearby Isle of Portland. The chapel is a Grade I listed building.^[29]

St Catherine's Chapel is a small chapel situated on a hill above the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. It is dedicated to Saint Catherine. It is now in the guardianship of English Heritage, and has been Grade I Listed since January 1956.^[1]

The chapel is best seen from the viewpoint on the B3157 Abbotsbury to Bridport road, with Chesil Beach in the background. The medieval strip lynchets etched into the side of the hill are known locally as the Chapel Rings.

Although no records survive of the chapel's construction, the chapel has been dated in style to the late 14th century, the same time as Abbotsbury's tithe barn was built.^[2] The chapel is built on a definite platform which could have been originally for a pagan temple.^[3] St Catherine's Chapel was built as a place of pilgrimage and retreat by the monks of the nearby Benedictine monastery Abbotsbury Abbey, which the chapel overlooks high up on the hilltop. Its position on the top of a hill about 80 m (260 ft) high, overlooking the coast from Portland Bill to Bridport, meant that it was a prominent feature for seafarers. Only a handful of chapels of the same kind are located outside the precincts of the monasteries who constructed them. The isolated setting of the chapel granted the monks to withdraw from the monastery during Lent for private prayer and meditation.^[4]

In the 16th century the main abbey buildings were destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries, but the chapel survived, most likely due to its usefulness as a coastal beacon and sea-mark. In later times a navigation light used to be lit at the top of the stair turret. The chapel was repaired in 1742 and the late 19th century, but is largely unaltered.^[5]

Under the care of English Heritage, the chapel is open over the peak season, with free entry.^[6] Abbotsbury's local parish holds several informal services at St Catherine's Chapel during the year, usually in the latter half of the year, from June to December.^[7]

The construction of the chapel, which has a rectangular structure, is entirely of locally quarried ashlar golden buff limestone. It is notably robust in order to withstand the elements; the walls are 4-foot (1.2 m) thick and supported by stout buttresses, and the roof and even the panelled ceiling are also made of stone.^[8] The construction allows rainwater to drain off the roof through holes in the parapet wall between the buttresses. In the north-west corner is a tower.^[9] At the north-east corner a stair turret, octagonal on the outside, rises above the roof and gives access to the parapet. There is also a tiny oratory at roof level. The buttresses and the stair turret would have been originally crowned with pinnacles. A porch was constructed on both north and south walls.^[4] The stone slab roof was renewed during 1983 in Clipsham stone.^[1]

The chapel has an effect of looking far larger than it really is. The high walls and tall parapets were designed to impress, and this sense of splendour is further enhanced by the chapel's lofty position. Within the interior of the chapel, stained glass windows and details of the roof picked out in bright colours would have been the effect in medieval times. At the vaulting's intersections are bosses carved with foliage, figure subjects and animals. The chapel's main window is a large triple window on the east wall, although there are smaller windows on other walls.^[4]

type=printed

city/ region=abbotsbury

period=pre - 1914

postage condition=posted

number of items=single

size=standard (140x89mm)