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Abbotsbury

Lerrets and Fishing Off Chesil Beach

Nov 21st, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The Lerret is a traditional Dorset boat designed specifically for use off the Chesil Beach. They have been around for at least four centuries; David Carter found one mention of a Lerret in the minutes of Weymouth Council of 1615:  “…Mr Mayor J. Roy also furthered Harbour Works eg 2 Lerretts to save the towne boatt from castinge awaye £0.7s.4d…”

Alas, in the name of ‘progress’ and in common with many of the old ways, they are disappearing. In 2010 a new boat was built and launched at Lyme Regis but other than that David Carter, who has made a study of the boats, tells us he believes only four still exist: Pleasure, Blessing, Blessing Two and Silver Star. (David has sent us a photo of Silver Star which we have placed in the photo section).

Lerrets were used for fishing off the Cheseil Beach and are known to have been owned by fishermen from Portland, Wyke, Chickerell, Fleet, Langton Herring and Abbotsbury. Information from Weymouth Council suggests that in the early years of the 20th century over 50 Lerrets were in regular use by fishermen from the area. We have some of the names and the owners: Agnes (Before 1914); Bunger (Fred Sergent); Cauliflower (Sid Huddy); Dawn; Fearless; Girl Pat; Lark; Linnet; May Queen; Ping Pong (F & E Sergent); Queen Mary; Rescue (Jim Burlage); Scarisbrick (Henry Pitman); Speedwell and Twilight (George Morris); Bluebell and Comrades (both owned by the landlord of the Swan Inn, at Wyke, Tom Hatcher); Dauntless (George Randall); Ena (known to have been built in 1926); Lucky Liza (Robert Denman); Mackerell; Nellie and Silver Star (Fred and Toby Randall); Plum (John Randall); Vera( a 19th century boat).

At first glance a Lerret appears to be like any other large wooden rowing boat. But look again. Where is the stern and why is the bottom flatter than a conventional boat? Approximately sixteen feet in length with a beam of between five and six feet, there are three main thwarts across the boat, which would usually be rowed by four men seated on the middle and forward seats, although in some circumstances six oars would be used. Lerrets are double-ended with a high stern post to enable them to be launched off the steep Chesil beach and hauled up onto the beach. Their wide beam and unusually flat bottom makes them very buoyant and they will survive all but the most extreme seas.

The oarsmen will pull double-handed, but the rowers on one side pull stroke alternately with those on the other side. Each oar has a block of wood fixed to the loom by spikes and lashing, this block is known as the copse and it has a hole through it to receive the iron thowle pin, and it is fixed to the gunwale of the boat so standing about five inches above it.
 
The mackerel move to deeper water by the end of August and soon the weather and seas change from their benign summer ways and will become very ill tempered;  this is the signal for the Lerrets to be ‘beached in’ for the winter. The boats will be pulled to the top of the beach where it is flat, a hollow is made in the beach and the Lerret ‘sunk’ into it, secured with ropes and boxes of pebbles.

William Bilke will be remembered as one of the Wyke fishermen who one day netted 63,000 mackerel off the Chesil Beach. Despite his success on that trip, like most other fishermen in the area he would have had to find other employment as well as fishing to make a living – in William’s case labouring.

He was born in Wyke Regis in 1876; his father, also William, being a fisherman. His grandfather, another William, was a shoemaker but his grandmother, Mary, was the daughter of Joseph Summers, a fisherman. When her husband died in 1865 Mary Bilke went into business as a general carter and by 1871 her eldest son William (24) and Edward (15), his brother, were established fishermen. At that time boys as young as eight could be found helping the men on the beach.

In 1875 William Bilke married Eliza Hallett, they named their first child, who arrived in 1876, William John, and like his father and uncle he was fishing by the time he was 15. In 1898 William married Janetta Critchell and by 1911 the couple had three sons and two daughters. William John Bilke had a long life; he passed away in 1963 aged 87 years; he was buried at All Saints, Wyke Regis. William was also known for shrimping or prawning in the Fleet Lagoon. He would spend hours at a time raking along with a shrimp net in water up to his waist as he worked with the ebbing tide, but he will forever be remembered for his part in landing the big catch.
 
Eli Hatcher was born at Osmington in 1827 and came to Wyke Regis in the 1840’s to find a bride and employment. He married Elizabeth Roberts late in 1849 and became the landlord of the Swan Inn, where he and his sons would have come into contact with the fishermen of Wyke. Indeed his son Thomas who took over as landlord at the Swan in the 1890’s described himself as an innkeeper and fisherman and is known to have owned two Lerrets.

The Lerret has earned its place in Dorset’s maritime history. Primarily a fishing boat, their crews have often risked their own lives launching into challenging seas to rescue mariners in difficulty on the turbulent seas off our coast.

There are photos of Lerrets in the photo gallery.

Abbotsbury – A Perfect Day Out

May 8th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Where better to start a day out at Abbotsbury than at the top of Abbotsbury Hill. From this vantage-point you can enjoy breath-taking views of the Dorset coastline, but to do so safely use one of the lay-bys provided. To the west you can see over Lyme Bay and it is said that on a fine day the view is clear to Start Point, off Plymouth. The view to the east is over The Fleet Lagoon with Chesil Beach stretching across the vista to the Island of Portland. In the foreground, sitting on a hill and from here easily mistaken as nothing more than a lookout point, is St. Catherine’s chapel. This is the first of many glimpses of the chapel you will enjoy during the day.

Before descending to the village cross over the road and take a walk around Abbotsbury Castle. This is an Iron Age hill-fort on the brow of Wears Hill on the edge of the hills to the north of Abbotsbury known as the Ridgeway. The hill-fort has double ramparts, which enclose an area of about 4 acres; the whole site covers about 10 acres. The fort is seven miles from Maiden Castle and five miles from the hillfort of Eggardon.

Down in the village you will find a choice of places offering food and drink. Tuck in and enjoy, forget the calorie count; there is still lots to see and places to visit, and any surplus energy you have you will need for the final climb of the day. In the village you are spoilt by a variety of shops offering all manner of interesting goods from the usual tourist bric-a-brac to some excellent work offered to you directly by local craftsmen and artists.

As you walk through the village feast your eyes on the cottages: many date back to the 16th century or earlier. Strict planning and conservation regulations ensure they remain much as they were.

The Church of St. Nicholas is well worth a visit. It is mainly 15th century, but was rebuilt in the 16th century and restored in 1885. There is a fine embattled tower with six bells. During the Civil War the church was defended for the King, and in the Jacobean pulpit there are two-bullet holes, evidence of the conflict.

 Standing in the porch is an effigy in Purbeck marble, (actually a grave slab from the earlier Abbey church) of a late 12th century abbot. The 15th century stained-glasswork is a notable feature of this church and the panes in the north and south aisle windows are noted for their subtlety of colour. Of special interest is the second window in the south aisle which shows the delicate face of a woman thought by some to represent St. Catherine, but is more likely to be the Virgin Mary from a Crucifixion window.

A few steps through the churchyard will bring you to the site where the Abbey of St. Peter stood. From here there is another view of St. Catherine’s Chapel. Of the Abbey little remains to be seen: only one wall and the entrance arch remain standing. Sir Giles Strangeways bought the Abbey, its lands and holdings in the 16th century just four years after he had been the commissioner appointed by Henry VIII to negotiate the surrender of the monastery. A caveat on the sale to Sir Giles dictated that the Abbey was to be demolished and there is no doubting that the condition was honoured. English Heritage has placed an information board here and it includes an artist’s impression of how the Abbey would have looked before it was destroyed. You may think the destruction a terrible sacrilege.

A couple of hundred yards away we can see the Abbey Barn and this will be of great interest to any children who may be accompanying their parents. Nowadays it is home to a menagerie of friendly farm animals and many of these, including the goats, can be stroked and fed at regular times thoughout the day; ideal for under 11’s. Toy tractor racing and pony rides are to be enjoyed. And there is more to keep the children occupied: inside the ‘Smugglers Barn’ there is an undercover play area including an interactive educational play area on two floors inside the reconstructed hulls of a smugglers lugger and revenue cutter from the 18th century.

The Abbey Barn dates from the 14th century and being 272 feet in length is one of the largest barns in England. The timber and thatched roof is much later.

Abbotsbury is most famous for its swannery: it is just down the lane from the Abbey Barn. These amazing creatures freely choose to be here and in no way are they confined to the place. Surprisingly they will allow you to wander amongst them and you can see them at close quarters, nesting and looking after their young. The swannery is home to as many as 1000 birds.

Established in 1393 by the Benedictine monks at the Abbey it is a largely artificial pond on the land side shore of The Fleet Lagoon. It is likely the swans were here before the monks, attracted by the eel-grass that grows in the waters of The Fleet.

Time now to visit the Sub Tropical Gardens. Twenty acres of woodland valley with exotic plants from all over the world and a nursery where you can buy plants and seeds. The first Countess of Ilchester established the gardens in 1765 as a kitchen garden to her nearby residence. In 1990 considerable damage was caused by a severe storm but since then the gardens have been restored and many new exotic and unusual plants have been introduced. There are formal and informal gardens with woodland walks and walled gardens. There is a bird aviary, children’s play area, and a colonial teahouse: here you can rest you feet for a few minutes before moving on to climb up to St. Catherine’s Chapel.

We started our day out at the top of a hill so it is appropriate to end it the same way. Throughout our stay at Abbotsbury we have been able to see St. Catherine’s Chapel from nearly every place we have visited: now it is time to take a closer look. The chapel is at the top of a grassy hill, some 250 feet above and 700 or so yards from the church; and quite a steep gradient to climb.

Built around the end of the 14th century the chapel’s survival intact after the actions of Henry VIII in 1538 possibly had something to do with it being a useful navigation marker for seafarers. From outside the thick walls and huge buttresses give the impression of a larger structure but internally the chapel is only 45’ x 15’. The chapel’s dedication is to the patron saint of spinsters and there is a notice inside, which says that once a year a spinster can pray to St. Catherine.

From the chapel you can look landward over the church, the Abbey Barn and the picturesque and historic village, seaward over The Fleet Lagoon; the Swannery, the Sub Tropical Gardens and Chesil beach where you could sit awhile in the warm early evening sun and watch the waves breaking against the shore and think “oh, what a perfect day.”

Chesil Churches

Mar 3rd, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Dorset’s Chesil Bank is a 15-mile (25-km) shingle bar, which has impounded a coastal lagoon, The Fleet. This geographical feature has a long tradition as a beachhead for smuggling and as a danger to walkers and shipping. The belt of coastal country up to about 5km inland encompasses a number of parishes, which have been protected from the sea by the Chesil. The churches of five of these parishes are described here. From north-west to south-east these are Puncknowle, Abbotsbury, Portesham, Langton Herring and Fleet.

Puncknowle lies about 1km east of Swyre and possesses a predominantly Norman parish church dedicated to St. Mary. The church stands on raised ground beside the manor overlooking the one-sided Village Street and the Crown Inn. St. Mary’s incorporates the Bexington Chapel in the south aisle. This commemorates St. Giles, the original chapel of the Saxon village, which was sacked and raised to the ground by French pirates in 1440.

Since the 8th of September 1451, Puncknowle has been unified with neighbouring Bexington, a move carried out by the Bishop at the behest of patrons. The chapel was built for the use of visitors and for some time before the Dissolution it had been in the possession of Bindon Abbey. Following unification with Bexington it was decreed that the Rectors should celebrate in the chancel of Bexington once a week and on St. Giles Day. The chapel was restored in 1660 and later presented to Puncknowle as the Bexington Chapel (or Aisle.) Since 1966 it has been in use as the church’s vestry.

The nave of St. Mary’s is modern, and the memorials to be seen here and elsewhere are mainly those of the local manorial family. The north aisle in particular features many Napier memorials, such as a helmet, gauntlet and spurs of the early 17th century, and tablets dated to 1616 and 1620. There is also an undated tablet, which is thought by some to date from when Sir Robert Napier, a former High Sheriff of Dorset, died in 1615. An unusual feature of this inscription is that it consists only of initials in English, Latin and Greek. It could refer to Robert Napier of Puncknoll (1617-1686,) Sir Robert’s grandson, or his son Robert Napier (1642-1700.) There is a further undated memorial to William Napier in the Bexington Aisle. The north aisle of St. Mary’s was added in 1891. Outside, there is a moss-covered slab at the foot of the tower, believed to be the lid of a stone coffin dating from the 14th century. Near the back of the burial ground an iron gate leads to a turreted and gabled early Jacobean manor in grey weathered stone, widely regarded, as the county’s most charming. Chestnuts; popular with rooks enclose the churchyard.

The village of Abbotsbury is noted for the large swannery, which the Fleet lagoon has naturally created, and is the largest of the five occupying the coastal hinterland described here. The Church of St. Nicholas is built of local buff sandstone with Portland dressings. It is mainly 15th century, but was rebuilt in Perpendicular style in the 16th century with portions of the older building incorporated. The church was restored in 1885. There is a fine embattled tower with six bells. The lintel of the west tower doorway bears an emblem of the Trinity.

On the hill to the south west and situated 700 yards seaward of the church is the chapel of St.Catherine. St. Nicholas was defended for the King during the Civil War, and to this day the fine panelled Jacobean pulpit bears two bullet holes it sustained during the conflict. Standing in the porch is an effigy in Purbeck marble, (actually a grave slab from the earlier Abbey church) of a late 12th century abbot, possibly a general representation of the ecclesiastical figure after whose title the village takes its name. Two stone coffins can be seen against the wall opposite the north porch. The 15th century stained-glasswork is a notable feature of this church and the panes in the north and south aisle windows are noted for their subtlety of colour. Of special interest is the second window in the south aisle which shows the delicate face of a woman thought by some to represent St. Catherine, but is more likely to be the Virgin Mary from a Crucifixion window. The Chapel of St. Catherine, although it is only 45 feet by 15 feet, has walls 4 feet thick. Every part, including the panelled ceiling and roof, is of stone.

Portesham is a parish with a rich historical background, and further has responsibility for the hamlets and manors of Corton, Shilvinghampton and the Waddons. The Church of St. Peter already existed at the time of Domesday, though the Norman structure dates from the 12th century. Originally the chancel and nave may have been shorter, and the aisles further west than today. The chancel is 13th century and these are two blocked 12th century windows above the chancel arch. St. Peters was largely re-built in the 15th century. Indeed, it is the oldest building in the village. The lower part of the tower is Saxon, though traces of Norman work remain to be seen in the north wall of the nave and in the 13th century font. There is a 13th century piscina in the south aisle. The church is built in a limestone reflecting almost white in sunlight, with a well built, typically ‘Dorset’ tower incorporating the remains of an earlier tower on the north side.

As at Abbotsbury, the church and village suffered skirmishing during the Civil War, when some musket balls were discharged into the door of St. Peter’s, though these have since been removed. The interior is mainly re-ordered Victorian work. It displays the hatchment of Sir Andrew Riccard, a Portesham-born seaman and squire who was Lord of the Manor following the Restoration in 1660, and who granted many of his tenants 999 year leases. The inscription reads ‘Possum’ (I am able.) His father Walter Riccard is commemorated by a slab in the floor of the nave near the font. There are also memorial hatchments or plaques to members of the Mansfield and Thresher families, and to a former vicar, John Charles Molyneux.

Probably the most curious feature of the church is the grave of a local farmer, William Weare. Weare had the outlandish death wish of not wanting to be buried inside or outside the church. Accordingly he was buried beneath the wall of the south aisle in 1675, where a table-tomb and plaque mark the spot. The plaque bears an 8-line epitaph, which begins: “William Weare lies here in dust as thou and I and all men must…” There is a monument to Mary Weare inside the south aisle, abutting that of William. There is also a rough-hewn rock grave memorial to John Galpin, a former vicar, in the churchyard.

The principal commercial activity of the village of Langton Herring has been the production of lime, and the buildings are mainly constructed in the local yellow stone. The manor owns (or owned) a one-mile stretch of Chesil Beach. The Church of St. Peter is a building of local rubble with freestone dressings, possibly built or rebuilt in the 14th century. It is said to have been severely damaged in a fire in the 17th century, after which the west tower – one of the country’s smallest – was added in the 18th century. Major restoration also took place in 1827 & 1858. On these occasions the vestry and south aisle were added, and the nave was largely rebuilt with an arcade or two bays. The floor of the chancel features slab memorials to John Hazelwood, rector 1670 and his son Francis and William Sanford, rector in 1627. The font is an octagonal bowl with quatrefoil panel in each face, a stem with trefoil-headed panel in each face, and a stepped square base. In the chancel there is a stained glass window inscribed “In the Resurrection they are as the Angels of God.” There are memorials to Edward Cox Trenow (1851,) the son of a former rector who is buried with his wife in the churchyard, and to William Sparks who died in 1829 aged 70. The churchyard also contains the communal grave of four boys who were overcome by the fumes of a lime kiln they were playing near.

The original church of the small community of Fleet, only half a kilometre from The Fleet, is only one of the five to have just the chancel remaining after the rest of the church was severely damaged in a great storm in 1824. The manorial Lords were the Mohun’s, a family who came to England with William the Conqueror, and who are remembered in two brass plates in the chancel.

However, a new Holy Trinity with chancel, nave and west tower, was built a quarter of a mile further up the valley at the expense of the vicar George Gould, in memory of his son John who died in 1818. This church is built in the style of the 18th century Gothic Revival, though today the ashlars are reddened by lichen. In the tower there is a wall plaque recording the destruction of the first church and the building of the new. Its first stone was laid on the 25th of April 1827, and the Rev Robert Gray, the Bishop of Bristol consecrated the church, on the 25th of August 1829. Several beech trees grow in the grounds, which are fenced off by railings.

In the old church there is a brass memorial to John Meade Falkner, the author of Moonfleet. But it was in this churchyard, not Holy Trinity, that the John Trenchard of the story sat on a tombstone above the Mohun vault, where the smugglers hid their contraband.