Abbotsbury


 * This article is about a village in England. For the suburb in Sydney, Australia see Abbotsbury, New South Wales

Abbotsbury is a large village and civil parish in the West Dorset district of Dorset, England; situated 10 mi north-west of Weymouth. It is located 6 mi from Upwey railway station and 35 mi from Bournemouth International Airport. The main road running through the village is the B3157, connecting Abbotsbury to Bridport and Weymouth. The village has a population of 505 according to the 2001 census.

Abbotsbury is situated on The Fleet under a steep limestone 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, and consequently is very popular with tourists.

History
One and a half miles outside the village at the top of the limestone hill is a triangular hill fort, Abbotsbury Castle.

In the 11th century King Canute rewarded the services of Orca, his steward, with land in Abbotsbury, Portesham and Hilton. 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. 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 area. After the decline of its monastery, Abbotsbury became the quiet village it is today.

In 1664, during the English Civil War, Roundheads and Cavaliers clashed at Abbotsbury. Cavaliers besieged the Roundheads in the church tower of St. Nicholas' church, which still bears the scars of musket fire.

Between 1885 and 1952, Abbotsbury was served by railway, via a 6 mi branch from the main line to Weymouth. It was primarily designed for freight, in anticipation of the development of shale oil 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 mi east of the village because the railway could not buy the land needed to build the station closer to the village.

During the Second World War, the coastal front was fortified and defended as a part of British anti-invasion preparations of World War II. Later, the Fleet was used as a machine gun training range, and Bouncing bombs were tested there, for the Dambuster sortie (Operation Chastise).

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 in Cullompton. 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 as a grade I listed building.



Places of interest
The village is famous for its swannery, subtropical gardens, Abbey and abbey barn, castle, St Catherine's Chapel and the nearby Chesil Beach.

The bird sanctuary at Abbotsbury is over 600 years old, and is located on The Fleet, a natural haven for birds. 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 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 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 15,000 acre 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, and may have served as a beacon for sailors, warning of the nearby Isle of Portland.

Abbotsbury is a gateway village to the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which stretches over 155 km from Orcombe Point near Exmouth in the west, to Old Harry Rocks on the Isle of Purbeck in the east. The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earth's history.

General references

 * Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1968. Dorset.  London: Faber & Faber.
 * Taylor, Christopher, 1970. The Making of the Dorset Landscape.  London: Hodder & Stoughton.
 * Taylor, Christopher, 1970. The Making of the Dorset Landscape.  London: Hodder & Stoughton.