Abbotsbury - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about a village in England. For the suburb in Sydney, Australia see Abbotsbury, New South Wales
Abbotsbury, New South Wales
Abbotsbury is a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Abbotsbury is located 39 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Fairfield. Abbotsbury is part of the Greater Western Sydney region....

Abbotsbury is a large village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

and civil parish in the West Dorset

West Dorset

West Dorset is a local government district and parliamentary constituency in Dorset, England. Its council is based in Dorchester. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the boroughs of Bridport, Dorchester and Lyme Regis, along with...

district of Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

; situated 10 miles (16.1 km) north-west of Weymouth. It is located 6 miles (9.7 km) from Upwey railway station and 35 miles (56.3 km) from Bournemouth International Airport. The main road running through the village is the B3157, connecting Abbotsbury to Bridport

Bridport

Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England. Located near the coast at the western end of Chesil Beach at the confluence of the River Brit and its Asker and Simene tributaries, it originally thrived as a fishing port and rope-making centre...

and Weymouth. The village has a population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

of 505 according to the 2001 census

United Kingdom Census 2001

A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

.

Abbotsbury is situated on The Fleet

The Fleet

The Fleet may refer to:*A nickname for the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, or for any country's naval fleet.*Fleet Prison, London*The River Fleet, the largest of London's subterranean rivers.*The Fleet Lagoon at Chesil Beach, Dorset...

under a steep limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

hill. The population has been relatively stable for 50 years. The village contains many old stone cottages, many of them thatched. Abbotsbury is a gateway village on the Jurassic Coast

Jurassic Coast

The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. The site stretches from Orcombe Point near Exmouth in East Devon to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage in East Dorset, a distance of ....

, and consequently is very popular with tourists.

History

One and a half miles outside the village at the top of the limestone

Limestone

hill is a triangular hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

, Abbotsbury Castle

Abbotsbury Castle

Abbotsbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort in south west Dorset, England, situated on Wears Hill above the village of Abbotsbury, seven miles west of Dorchester and the famous hill fort at Maiden Castle. The fort was occupied by the Celtic Durotriges tribe and was situated on a high chalk hill...

.

In the 11th century King Canute rewarded the services of Orca, his steward, with land in Abbotsbury, Portesham

Portesham

Portesham is a village in the English county of Dorset, situated close to the south coast, between the towns of Weymouth and Dorchester. The village has a population of 708...

and Hilton

Hilton, Dorset

Hilton is a village in north Dorset, England. It lies at an altitude of 135 metres in a small valley in the eastern part of the Dorset Downs. The summit of Bulbarrow Hill is 1.5 miles north of the village. The nearest town is Blandford Forum, which lies 8 miles east-north-east...

. It's believed there was already a religious community in Abbotsbury, and Orca and his wealthy wife Tola built an Abbey here. The Abbey dominated life in Abbotsbury for 500 years, but was destroyed in the dissolution

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

. The barn survived and is the largest thatched building in the world.

Until the dissolution, Abbotsbury would have been one of the most important villages in the county, and the settlement is laid out around a wide market

Market

A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

area. After the decline of its monastery, Abbotsbury became the quiet village it is today.

In 1664, during the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, Roundheads and Cavalier

Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

s clashed at Abbotsbury. Cavaliers besieged the Roundheads in the church tower of St. Nicholas' church, which still bears the scars of musket

Musket

A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....

fire.

During the Second World War, the coastal front was fortified and defended as a part of British anti-invasion preparations of World War II

British anti-invasion preparations of World War II

British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War entailed a large-scale division of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The British army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in...

. Later, the Fleet was used as a machine gun

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

training range, and Bouncing bomb

Bouncing bomb

A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed specifically to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner, in order to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-determined...

s were tested there, for the Dambuster sortie (Operation Chastise

Operation Chastise

Operation Chastise was an attack on German dams carried out on 16–17 May 1943 by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis...

Church

The Parish Church of St Nicholas dates from the 14th century but has had various revisions over the centuries. The tower contains three bells dating from 1773 and made by Thomas Castleman Bilbie of the Bilbie family

Bilbie family

The Bilbie family were bell founders and clockmakers based initially in Chew Stoke, Somerset and later at Cullompton, Devon in south-west England from the late 17th century to the early 19th century....

in Cullompton

Cullompton

Cullompton is a civil parish and town in Devon, England, locally known as Cully. It is miles north-north-east of Exeter and lies on the River Culm. In 2010 it had a population of 8,639 and is growing rapidly....

. The chancel was classicized in the 18th century and still has its plastered barrel roof and fine altarpiece. There are also some 15th century painted glass, a stone effigy of one of the abbots and a Jacobean canopied pulpit. It has been designated by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

as a grade I listed building.

Places of interest

The village is famous for its swannery

Abbotsbury Swannery

Abbotsbury Swannery is the only managed colony of nesting mute swans in the world. It is situated near the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England, west of Weymouth on a site around the Fleet lagoon protected from the weather of Lyme Bay by Chesil Beach. The colony can number over 600 swans with...

, subtropical gardens

Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens

The Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens near the village of Abbotsbury, Dorset, southern England, are gardens that are open to visitors. They were originally founded in 1765 by the Countess of Ilchester as a kitchen garden for the nearby castle...

, Abbey

Abbotsbury Abbey

The Abbey of St Peter was a Benedictine monastery in the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. The abbey was founded in the eleventh century by King Cnut's thegn Orc and his wife Tola, who handsomely endowed the monastery with lands in the area. The abbey prospered and became a local centre of...

and abbey barn, castle

Abbotsbury Castle

, St Catherine's Chapel and the nearby Chesil Beach

Chesil Beach

Chesil Beach, sometimes called Chesil Bank, in Dorset, southern England is one of three major shingle structures in Britain. Its toponym is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, meaning "gravel" or "shingle"....

.

The bird sanctuary at Abbotsbury is over 600 years old, and is located on The Fleet

The Fleet

, a natural haven for birds. Chesil Beach

Chesil Beach

protects the Fleet and land behind it from storms, erosion and coastal flooding. There is a large colony of Mute Swans at the sanctuary, which is managed but open to the public. The site is an important nesting

Nesting

Nesting refers to the process of efficiently manufacturing parts from flat raw material.Companies manufacturing parts from flat raw material such as sheet metal use a variety of technologies to perform this task. The sheet metal nesting for flat sheets and nesting for coils are different algorithms...

and breeding ground for the swans and, from May through the summer, cygnets can be seen at the sanctuary.

The sub-tropical gardens at Abbotsbury were founded in 1765 by the Countess of Ilchester, as a kitchen garden

Kitchen garden

The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden - the ornamental plants and lawn areas...

for the nearby castle. Since then, the gardens have developed into a 20 acre (81,000 m²) site filled with exotic plants, many of which were newly-discovered species when they were first introduced. There are formal and informal gardens, with woodland walks and walled gardens. In 1990 violent storms damaged many of the rare specimens, which have since been replaced by younger plants.

The swannery, subtropical gardens and an estate of some 15000 acres (60.7 km²) in Dorset covering Chesil Beach and Abbotsbury is held by the Ilchester Estate owned by Mrs Charlotte Townshend, the daughter of Viscount Galway, a descendant of the first Countess of Ilchester and owner of the Melbury Estate.

On a hill above Abbotsbury, about 80 m (260 ft) high, stands St Catherine's Chapel, a small chapel built entirely of stone. The 14th century chapel overlooks the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

, and may have served as a beacon for sailors, warning of the nearby Isle of Portland

Isle of Portland

The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...

.

Abbotsbury is a gateway village to the Jurassic Coast

Jurassic Coast

, a UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

which stretches over 153 kilometres (95.1 mi) from Orcombe Point

Orcombe Point

Orcombe Point is a coastal feature near Exmouth, Devon, on the south coast of England. It lies about south of the city of Exeter, southeast of Exmouth town centre and about southwest of Sidmouth....

near Exmouth

Exmouth, Devon

Exmouth is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort in East Devon, England, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe. In 2001, it had a population of 32,972.-History:...

in the west, to Old Harry Rocks

Old Harry Rocks

The Old Harry Rocks are two chalk sea stacks located at Handfast Point, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, southern England.- Location :Old Harry Rocks lie directly east of Studland, about 4 kilometres northeast of Swanage, and about 10 kilometres south of the large towns of Poole and...

on the Isle of Purbeck

Isle of Purbeck

The Isle of Purbeck, not a true island but a peninsula, is in the county of Dorset, England. It is bordered by the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north. Its western boundary is less well...

in the east. The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

, Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

and Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earth's history.

History

Church

Places of interest

See also

General references