The Parish
History and Geography of the Parish
The Parish of Worth Matravers is an area of outstanding natural beauty. It was created by the sea, a large river and massive earth movements millions of years ago. This landform has dictated how the Parish would develop over the last 7,500 years. There is ample evidence to show its past from dinosaurs to modern man.
How the Parish has developed
Early settlers began to arrive on the south coast of the Parish in approximately 4000 to 5000 BC. These nomadic hunter-gatherers moved along the western edge of the Parish towards Nine Barrow Down. Later in the bronze and iron ages, settlements appeared and field systems were set up. During the period of the Roman occupation the area became the industrial region of Roman Dorset; Kimmeridge shale was worked to produce pennies and armlets, stone was dug for buildings and clay for pots. There was also extensive agriculture. Purbeck marble was dug in the 1st century and there is much evidence of the Roman occupation throughout the Isle of Purbeck, especially at Gallows Gore. Worth was a large Saxon settlement; there was plenty of water, and agricultural systems were developed. Renscombe was acquired by Cerne Abbey in 978 AD.
The tilting and folding of the rock formations left a layer of Kimmeridge clay at the edge of St. Aldhelms headland overlayered with Portland limestone (a marine deposit), Purbeck limestone (a freshwater deposit) and then the Wealden clay beds. At Winspit and Seacombe, the sea cut into the valleys revealing the Portland beds. Where the Purbeck stone beds meet the Wealden clay, a thin layer of Purbeck marble was formed along the spring line.
Today there is a landform of sheer cliffs in the south, undulating up to a ridge (which for thousands of years formed the main route way in Purbeck) and a deep wide valley between it and chalk of Nine Barrow Down.
St. Aldhelms Chapel
Over the next few hundred years farms and estates were developed at Renscombe, Weston Eastington, Quarr, Downshay and Woodyhyde. In 1220 Alice De Buerre gave Purbeck marble and stone to build Salisbury Cathedral from the grounds of the manor of Worth at Downshay. Over the next two centuries, hundreds worked the marble and stone beds for the churches and cathedrals of England. At about the same time a chapel was built at St. Aldhelms Head where there had previously been a lookout post.
The St. Nicholas of Myra church in Worth
The St. Nicholas of Myra church in Worth was first built in about 1100 and over the next few hundred years it was changed and added to before being completely restored in 1869. The Parish of Worth included Swanage until 1487 when Swanage became a parish in its own right.
In the 13th century the open field system and strip lynchets were set up on East and West Man. The villagers had rights to work these lands for the next 500 years. However, these rights were lost at the end of the 18th century which led to great hardship. At the end of the 14th century ownership of the manor changed and Worth, ‘worth’ meaning an enclosure (of land), became known officially as Worth Matravers after William Matravers, constable of Corfe Castle – In the 17th century large dwellings were built at the farms at Renscombe, Eastington, Downshay and Quarr using local stone. The 18th and 19th century saw a new stone age. Scores of quarries were worked at the Portland stone beds at Seacombe and Winspit.
Worth Matravers Village
A large amount of building took place in the village of Worth Matravers, so much so that in 1861 there were 75 dwellings in the Parish of which 55 were in the village. These included a school and school house (now the village hall) and a public house named The Sloop (built in 1752) later (1830) to become The Square and Compass which still thrives, hardly changed, today. By 1838 two thirds of the present village was already in place.Building continued to the east of the village and down the road to Winspit. Today, because it is such a beautiful village, many properties in Worth Matravers have been bought as second homes which are only occupied at weekends and certain times of the year. The village shop has now closed but there are still Post Office facilities available three mornings a week.
Harmans Cross
After the First World War, building began in Harmans Cross. Until then the only buildings were at Quarr and Old Caplestone. Houses were built in Haycrafts Lane and many wooden army huts and asbestos buildings were transported and erected along the new road. Later more substantial properties were built at North Instow, and then South Instow. A village hall was erected in Haycrafts Lane and the development had a small shop, a small chapel and very thriving garage. Harmans Cross continues to grow and today, it has a thriving shop incorporated into the garage and a new village hall, which opened in 2010.
Industry and Communications
The Parish has always been an area of great industry. From the Roman occupation, man has made the greatest use of the environment. In very early times crops were grown and animals were hunted and herded, and in later years large estates were set up which had many farms rented from the manor. These still form the boundaries within the Parish. Because of the nature of the soil and the underlying rock, most of the land was used as pasture, but the Worth open field system and the strip lynchets allowed villagers to be self sufficient. Cattle and sheep (to a lesser extent) were and still are the main industry. However, some arable crops were grown around the village of Worth towards the end of the 20th century; in more recent years many farms have ceased working and their fields sold to other farms or used in the tourist trade. Today there are just five working farms.
Portland Stone
Beneath the landform lies stone: Portland stone and freestone on the southern shores and several veins of good Purbeck stone (on top of the Portland beds) which form outcrops further inland. This upper bed is the so-called bed of marble which is itself overlaid with Wealden clay.
Marble
The Romans dug the marble in the 1st century but when used outdoors, the quality was variable and some tended to flake. However, today there is plenty of evidence to show the use of Purbeck marble in Roman Britain. The industry lapsed until 1150 when there was a great increase in Church building. Purbeck marble became the stone of choice. Polished, and used indoors it became highly desirable and was used in countless churches and cathedrals throughout England in the form of effigies and columns. As well as Purbeck marble, massive amounts of stone was quarried and transported for building of churches, manor houses and importantly Corfe Castle. In medieval times hundreds worked the thin marble beds. Much of the stone was transported to West Street in Corfe Castle where it was carved, but some went through Ower and Swanage. There is some evidence to show that some of the marble was carved on site, e.g. at Downshay.
Later the industry failed because there was too much water, the bed went too deep and alabaster became the fashion, but Purbeck marble still had an important role. Today, under very strict rules, it can still be quarried if there is an accepted need for its use.
18th century
In the 18th century there was a great demand for building stone and paving. There were over 200 quarries in the parishes of Swanage, Langton Matravers and Worth Matravers. Along the south coast the cliffs were solid stone. The best seams were near the top and halfway down the cliff face.
The stone was quarried from the cliff face and later mined with caves or tunnels. The seams were very thick and produced sharp edged building stone for use in building manor houses and public buildings. Blocks of up to 50 tons were taken from the cliffs and cut into manageable sizes. Most of the stone was transported by sea to Swanage. In the 18th and 19th centuries there were scores of quarries extracting Portland and Freestone from Seacombe and Winspit. At Eastington and Gallows Gore the best seams were worked to produce paving stones.
The quarries at Seacombe ceased production between the two world wars but the Winspit quarry continued to work until the late 1950s. During the Second World War there was a large demand for hardcore for road building and airfield runways. After the war stone was extracted for paving, house building and walls.
19th century and beyond
In the late 19th century a quarry was opened at Swanworth to produce cobblestones. After the 1914-18 war it changed its production to lime for water treatment and agricultural use. Lime kilns and a crusher were introduced. Later still thousands and thousands of tons of stone was produced for road building and land reclamation.
It was easy to transport the stone in all its forms along the new road system by lorry. This left a large canyon in the landscape to the west of the Parish. In 1920 the Rempstone estate sold off pieces of its land. Outcrops of stone to the north of the ridge were purchased outright by quarrymen. Until this time the quarries had always paid a levy to the manor on all the stone produced.
The Parish still has vast resources of excellent building, walling and paving stone, but the quarries on The Ridgeway and a quarry at St. Aldhelms Head are the only working quarries in the Parish today.
The Radar Monument
During the Second World War, Worth Matravers played a major part in the development of radar. Its invention and development of ground to ground radar has had a lasting effect on safe navigation. The only evidence of radar development that can be seen today is a plaque that marks the site.
Communications
Most of the route ways in the Parish depended on the export of stone, the sea to the east and the clay to the north. Until recently most of the roads we use today did not exist, except for the Ridgeway and parts of Haycrafts Lane. Most of the major route ways are now bridle paths, footpaths or no longer exist. The Priests Way was an important route to Swanage.
There was a route that linked Corfe to Renscombe to the lookout at St. Aldhelms Head. In medieval times a major route linked Quarr via Dunshay, Woodyhyde Farm, Afflington Manor to Scholes Gate and on across the common to West Street in Corfe. This was the major route for the marble and stone.
A route linked Worth Matravers with Rempstone (The Manor) via Haycrafts Lane (Downshay Manor). This changed when stone from Seacombe began to be transported overland (via Eastington) to Swanage.
The present A351 through Harmans Cross dates from 1926. There had been a previous route way close to the northern boundary of the Parish, but there is no longer any evidence of this. The route from Worth Matravers to Corfe Castle via Kingston probably came into existence because of vehicles transporting stone from Swanworth quarries. The Ridgeway Langton to Kingston was metalled in the early 1920s and the minor road followed later.
Harmans Cross Railway Station
A rail link from Corfe Castle to Swanage was completed in 1885. However, its presence had little impact on the Parish until 1989 when the Swanage Railway Society placed a station at Harmans Cross. This amenity has had a very beneficial effect to Harmans Cross.
This is the first new station to be built in Dorset for over 50 years.