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Cerne Abbas

The Cerne Abbas Giant

Some say he was carved out two milleniums ago, to represent the Roman god Hercules. Pagan rites were certainly carried out there some four centuries ago. But some affirm that he is a bogus god-figure, created out of the Dorset hillside in the 17th or 18th centuries.

He is the Cerne Abbas Giant, fashioned in the chalk above that village, a few miles from Dorchester. At 180 feet (55 metres) high, he is the largest hill figure in Britain. The Rude Man as he is sometimes referred to carries a 120-foot club and this place has been the setting for fertility ceremonials and practices.

Visitors gazing from the viewing point look on in awe. Apart from the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex, there is nothing quite like this in England. If such a figure were created today, it would cause an outcry.

People climbing the giant’s steep hill are not much more than spots across the valley. On May Day, which must once have drawn crowds to this spot, the phallus points directly at the sun as it rises over the hill. The whole figure stretches two-thirds of the hill from top to bottom.

Dorset, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire have many hill figures. This one is associated with maypole dancing in an earth enclosure, the “Frying Pan”, located high up above the giant’s left arm, which may once have supported a cloak in classic fashion.

At the end of the second century AD the Emperor Commodus, a supposed reincarnation of Hercules, who campaigned in Britain, revived the worship of this god. But the Dorset figure may be associated with the adoration of various Romano-Celtic gods.

However, there is no actual reference to the giant to be found before 1694 when a payment in the Cerne Abbas churchwardens’ accounts of three shillings is recorded for the re-cutting of the figure. So we may be dealing with one of history’s hoaxes, performed perhaps by libertarians – on a colossal scale.

In 1751 the Dorset historian John Hutchins suggested that the figure was chiselled out in the mid-1600’s. It was depicted in the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1764. There is no reference in mediaeval documents. One theory is that monks at a monastery in the valley below created the giant as a joke. At any rate, local people have maintained the trenches, about half a metre wide and deep, down to the clay bedrock.

The Silver Well or Augustine’s Well, flows below the giant and has both pagan and Christian connections. Some even imagine the giant goes to the bottom of the hill for a drink from it at midnight. Actually, he would have to do little more than put down his club and stoop.

In the 17th century Lord Denzil Holles (1598-1680) was lord of the manor and it has been suggested his servants cut the figure while he was away. The roof leads on the aisles of a nearby church were repaired in 1800 and 1843, and since then have had reliefs of the giant. What does Christian spirituality have to say about that?

The whole subject is a curiosity. The inquirer keeps returning to the question of why there are no early records. Travellers in the Tudor and Stuart periods made no reference to the figure. Nor did the wealth of local mediaeval documents.

Then there is the question of the monks. For at least 500 years a Christian monastery stood looking up at the barbarous and brutish, not to say impolite form. How could the abbot and monks, and visiting church personages, the pillars of society, have tolerated it? For five centuries?

This gigantic figure with his knurled club stands watch over the villagers of Cerne Abbas. He has in fact a kind personality, for he can help childless couples produce heirs, or so they say.

Note: In the gallery there is an aerial view photograph of the Giant.

Dunn Family

George and Amelia (nee Sherry) Dunn were both born at Cerne Abbas during the 1850’s, this is where they grew-up, married and had their three children. Born in Victoria’s reign they lived through the times of Edward VII and George V and the Great War. They would have followed with interest the events which led to the abdication of Edward VIII. Their long lives stretched into the early years of the reign of George VI and they witnessed some of the darkest days of the Second World War before their deaths in 1942 and 1943.

In 1891 George and Amelia moved from their home in Mill Lane, Cerne Abbas, to the nearby parish of Bradford Peverell, where they spent the rest of their lives. It is not clear what prompted the move that occurred shortly after the death of George’s father. As he neared the end of his life George had the distinction of being the oldest inhabitant of the parish and a few weeks before his death in 1943 George was interviewed by a journalist who found him receiving the attentions of a visiting barber (his nephew.)
 
A year earlier George lost his wife of 64 years, they had married on 27th of December 1877. For the times theirs was not a large family, just three children: William James born towards the end of 1878 (George’s father was James Dunn,) Rebecca Mary was born early in 1882 (Amelia’s mother was Rebecca Sherry,) and Charles George was born during the summer of 1885.

Mr Dunn told the journalist that he started work at the age of nine for one shilling and sixpence a week and remembered his father received seven shillings a week – there were seven in the family. George remembered his father being ‘sacked’ by his employer, a lime burner, for refusing an overtime task (without pay.) For this ‘grave’ offence his father was punished with six days confinement in Dorchester prison. George could remember his father walking the eight miles from Cerne Abbas to the prison attired in a white smock and on the completion of his sentence he walked back in the same white smock.

On the 27th December 1937 George and Amelia celebrated their Diamond Wedding Day Anniversary and received a Royal Greetings telegram from the King and Queen. For over forty years George was captain of the Bradford Peverell bell ringers. He last rang to celebrate the Coronation of King George VI.

At different times George was an Agricultural and General Labourer, a Carter and a Domestic Groom. The 1911 census reveals that Amelia was working as a Midwife.

The tight bond between George and Amelia was broken when Amelia passed away early in 1942 soon after their 64th Wedding Anniversary: George passed away in the second quarter of 1943.

 

Joseph Clark (1834-1926)

Artist in Oils

In 1857 Joseph Clark submitted his first picture for the Royal AcademyExhibition, entitled The Sick Child; it was accepted. He exhibited regularly atthe Royal Academy and at the Royal Institution until a few years before hisdeath. In 1876 he was awarded a bronze medal at the Centenary Exhibition at Philadelphia. Then, in 1877 his painting Early Promise was purchased for the nation and a further painting Mother’s Darling was purchased for the nation in 1885; both paintings are held by the Tate. His first painting offered at auction realised £4.17s.6d, a high price for the time and his paintings continue to command good prices when they come up at auction today.

He was the son of a draper and calico bleacher, born at Cerne Abbas on the 4th of July 1834. His early education was at a Dame school, these small privateschools usually run by an elderly woman who taught the children to read and write before they were old enough to work. He was then enrolled at the Dorchester school run by William Barnes. A book has survived in which the young Joseph detailed various workings of geometrical problems and précis of lectures given by Barnes on divinity, English and Roman history, geography and geology.  He developed an interest and aptitude for art, which was encouraged by Barnes.
 
Following the death of his father the family fortunes declined and he was removed from Barnes’ school to be apprenticed to a chemist at St. Neot’s in Huntingdonshire. He was not happy in his new position and returned to Cerne Abbas where he joined his mother, Susan, and his two older sisters, Mary and Emma, and their family servant, Jane Seard. Meanwhile, the family business had been taken on by his older brother William who had added a tailoring establishment.

The boy’s burning ambition was to go to London to continue his art studies and in this he received help from an unexpected quarter. His brother had employed a cutter to work in his tailoring shop; the man had come from London and he was a cultured individual who was familiar with the London art galleries and exhibitions. Having seen some of Joseph’s paintings he encouraged Mrs Clark to let Joseph go to London to further an artistic career.

On his arrival in London he wasted no time, immediately enrolling as a pupil at the school ran by James Leigh, located in Newman Street, which is just off Oxford Street. The school later became known as Heatherley’s; it still exists today. From Leigh’s school he progressed to the Royal Academy School then situated in the National Gallery building in Trafalgar Square.

By 1861 Joseph had been joined by his mother and the family servant, Jane. They all lived together at 25 Belle Vue Villas, Sussex Road, Islington, London. Thecensus confirms he had established himself as an ‘Artist in Oils.’

The next decade was a time of sorrow and happiness for Joseph. Early in 1866 his mother passed away having reached 76 years, her death being recorded inChristchurch. Towards the end of 1868 Joseph married Annie Jones, who was almost half his age. Her father was a Woolstapler from Winchester in Hampshire.

 
These two events suggest Joseph may have moved away from London for a while but by 1871 he was back in London, living at Arthur Road, Islington, with his young family and the faithful family servant, Jane. Jane Seard was now 60 and was assisted in her duties in the Clark household by a fourteen year-old girl, Emma Mills. A decade later we find Joseph and Annie Clark and their eleven year-old daughter, Annie, at 396 Holloway Castle, Islington. The couple enjoy the services of an elderly nurse and a young servant girl.

Then in 1891, after a space of fourteen years, the sound of young children can be heard again in the house. There are two more daughters and a son: Elsie was born in 1884; Wilfred in 1886 and Margaret in 1888. A 21 year-old governess, Harriet Eusor, was employed as well as a 23 year-old servant girl. Joseph Clark never seems to have needed an excuse to move house but his move to 23, Grosvenor Gardens, Hampstead, suggests more room was needed for his growing family and confirms he was a successful artist.

In 1901 we find Joseph and Annie with their four children at ‘Wenouree,’ Pinne Rd., Harrow-on-the-Hill. Their eldest daughter is teaching music and their son, Wilfred, is a Clerk to a Grain Broker. Joseph and Annie’s house moving continues but they stay, for now, north west of the metropolis and in 1911 they are in Uxbridge with two of their girls: Annie, who is still teaching music and the piano, and Margaret who is teaching at a private school.

Joseph Clarke died aged 92 years. He died on his birthday at Ramsgate in Kent, his death being registered in the Thanet district. Perhaps he had tired of north London and decided the Kent coast would be a nice place to live out his last years.

Like his parents, Joseph was a life-long member of the New Church, sometimes known as Swedenborgians. He served his church well as a Sunday school teacher and Church deacon as well as being a member of the Committee of Management.
In all his paintings he showed a feeling for family affection. All hispaintings express a love of family domesticity and portrayed moments of ordinary mans difficulties, sorrows and joys in his everyday existence. Many ofhis paintings had Barnes’ style captions, such as: Jeanes Wedden Day in Mornen (1879);  Farmer’s Woldest Dater (1908) and Wedden Morn (1909).
 
He spent most of his life away from Dorset but he had with him those views and memories which had been so familiar to him in his youth and are suggested in many of his paintings.

Cerne Abbas – The Giant

Aerial view of the Cerne Abbas Giant. Photo Peter Harlow.

Aerial view of the Cerne Abbas Giant. Photo Peter Harlow.

Cerne Abbas – St. Mary’s Church

St. Mary's Church at Cerne Abbas,

St. Mary's Church at Cerne Abbas,

Cerne Abbas – St. Mary’s Church

Over the entrance to St. Marfy's church the large four light west tower window and above that a statue of the Virgin Mary: it is one of the few not to have been destroyed by Cromwell's men.

Over the entrance to St. Mary's church the large four light west tower window and above that a statue of the Virgin Mary: it is one of the few not to have been destroyed by Cromwell's men.

Cerne Abbas – St. Mary’s Church

View looking down the nave to the chancel screen and the east window.

View looking down the nave to the chancel screen and the east window.

Cerne Abbas – St. Mary’s Church

A view inside the church from the north aisle looking across to the chancel.

A view inside the church from the north aisle looking across to the chancel.

Cerne Abbas – St. Mary’s Church

A view inside St. Mary's Church from the chancel screen down the nave, through the tower arch to the main entrance.

A view inside St. Mary's Church from the chancel screen down the nave, through the tower arch to the main entrance.

Cerne Abbas – St. Mary’s Church

The pulpit at St. Mary's Church dates from 1640.

The pulpit at St. Mary's Church dates from 1640.