Abbotsbury and Portesham

Thought I'd take a shorter walk today and one that went inland so a bit more navigation required. As it turned out it was nearly as long as Sunday's and just as much climbing. Komoot map, photos etc here

I started in Abbotsbury which many of you will have been to. It's best known for its lovely high street (all stone and thatched buildings), the Swannery and the sub-tropical gardens but I went in the other direction, straight up the hill to the old hill fort. The view from the top is pretty spectacular and you can just see the end of The Fleet.

The Swannery there is owned by Charlotte Townshend through Ilchester Estates, one of the great estates in England with 15,000 acres of Dorset, Chesil Beach, the Fleet and something like 30 acres of Holland Park including Michael Winner's old house. Not to mention sizeable bits of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. A lot of the land was acquired when Henry VIII was busy taking it off the church  and you can still see the ruins of the old Abbey. Charlotte is the only woman apart from the Queen allowed to own swans - not sure how many women want to but can't. 

Just in the picture on the hill top is St Catherine's Chapel built in the 14th century as a place for the Abbey monks' private prayer. There's also a huge tithe barn of similar date just to the south of the village. Clearly a lot of history here and worth a day on its own.

Along the ridge top to the east is Gorwell farm where I recently was tutored by Andrew Dumolo in the art of making dovetails, like these which I'm proud to say I did myself albeit under his supervision:

I couldn't pass by without stopping to say hello and for a selfie:

When Karen and I walked around here, inevitably in search of a long barrow ("the old grey mare and her colts"), I found some old perimeter signs from a WW2 airfield, now sadly disused but I went and had a look for old times sake. The track then goes across the face of the hills, past the Hell Stone (a restored burial chamber -  there's heaps of prehistoric archaeology here), through a sea of mud and finally up to the Hardy memorial. 

 It's not, to my eye, beautiful - a lump of a thing really, although a landmark par excellence, but it's substantial enough that you can climb the 70' inside to get the extraordinary vistas from the top. Closed today but open from Easter to October I think (National Trust). As you probably know it's a monument to the Admiral Hardy of Trafalgar fame, not the author. He survived for 30 years after Nelson died and being a Dorset lad born in Kingston Russell but raised in Portesham returned to live there (he called it "Possum": Dame Edna would have approved) - my next stop on the walk. He lived in this rather lovely house:

Portesham, like so many of the villages here, goes back a long way. It was first given as a manor by Canute to his servant, Orc in 1024 and thereafter ownership passed to the Abbey, unsurprisingly, and then I rather suspect to Ilchester Estates. I wouldn't be surprised anyway. There was a plan to develop the substantial stone and oil shale deposits here, as well as iron ore at Abbotsbury, and a branch line ran from Weymouth. I'd had no idea of this so it was a nice surprise to find the old railway track back to Abbotsbury - easy, level walking apart from anything else.

Back in Abbotsbury there was just time to call in to Dansel, a wonderful craft emporium (shop sounds too prosaic) of all things wooden. The website is here .  

Andrew sells his creations here, and having seen a console table taking shape in the workshop I was keen to see the finished product. The picture doesn't do it justice, it's just a lovely thing.

For a better look at what he does, have a look at his website here.

So there we go. No idea where to go for the next walk but I'm sure I'll think of something.....

Peter