Absence: August 2010

The ruined chapel of St Gabriel's stands (or sits or lies, depending on your point of view) at the foot of Golden Cap on Dorset's Jurassic Coast and beside the South West Coast Path between Charmouth and Eype. It is at the heart of the ancient settlement of Stanton St. Gabriel.

Past it runs a track, seen more clearly from above:

But the ancient track (linking Chideock and Charmouth via the coastal farms of Gabriel's, Upcot, Ridge, Westhay and Stonebarrow) didn't run that way. It runs between the hedgerows behind the chapel, lost in thickets of bramble and elder and now a stream underfoot.

Already there is a sense that this place is not what it seems.

Much has been written and said about the history of Stanton St. Gabriel - known as one of the 'deserted villages' of Dorset. This website is dedicated to unearthing and recording some of the histories of the place.

First of all, you'll find a record of 'Absence' - a series of performances in movement, music, words and sculpture, first presented by Sandra Reeve and Eleanor Wynne Davis at Stanton St. Gabriel in July 2010. For more details, follow the links below (which are also always visible on the right of your screen):

Then you'll also find a growing collection of texts and images relating to the site, which will be published as Absence: Histories of Stanton St. Gabriel in 2011.

Weddings

There were 24 marriages in 50 years at the chapel of Stanton St. Gabriel (which was not licensed for burials or christenings, but could do weddings). Perhaps a couple (1716 and 1738) involved people neither of whom lived in the parish. But, mostly, one or both of the newlyweds were locals.

Hodder, Harris and Diment/Dimmont are all names that appear in the 1841 census of Stanton St. Gabriel and in the telephone directory today.

1690 Abraham CARTER & Anne BRIDLE of Stanton St Gabriel's married 13-May

1703 George HODDER of Stanton St Gabriel’s & Mary TAYLOR of Whitechurch Canonicorum 28-Feb "were married in the Chappell of Stanton St Gabriel"

1704 William BULL of Lyme Regis & Mary ROBINSON of Stanton St Gabriel 28-May "were married in the Chappell of Stanton St Gabriel" by licence

1707 William RYALL of Stanton St Gabriel’s & Jane ROBINSON of Stanton St Gabriel 04-Nov "were married in the Chappell of said Stanton St Gabriel" by licence

1710 William WALBRIDGE & Joan WOODCOCK of Stanton St Gabriel 01-Jun "married there" (Stanton St Gabriel)

1716 Lancelot JORDAN of Bridport & Mary JONES of Lyme Regis 19-Sep "were married in the Chappell of Stanton St Gabriel" by licence

1718 George UDDALL of Netherbury & Anne TRENT of Stanton St Gabriel 12-May "were married in the Chappell of Stanton St Gabriel"

1718 Samuel HALLET resident in this parish & Susanna HODDER of Stanton St Gabriel 04-Dec "married in ye chapel of Gabriels"

1721 George HODDER of Stanton St Gabriels & Elizabeth AKERMAN 17-Oct "mar. in ye chappell of Gabriel" by Licence

1722 Henry MARSH of Loders & Martha HODDER of Stanton St Gabriel married 28-Jan

1724 Samuel CHAMP & Elizabeth WOODROWE of Stanton St Gabriel 22-Aug "mar. in ye chappel there"

1725 John TREVET of Charmouth & Susanna SLADER of Stanton St Gabriel 30-Mar "mar. in ye chappel there"

1725 Isaac GREAT of Stanton St Gabriels & Joanna HODDER of Bradpole married 03-May

1726 Samuel MILLER & Mary CRISDE of Bettiscombe 30-May "mar.in the Chappell of Stanton St Gabriel"

1729 James ROSITER of Lyme & Anne WALBRIDGE of Stanton St Gabriel married 22-Apr

1729 Robert ROBERTS of Whitechurch & Mary HARRIS of Stanton St Gabriel married 26-Apr

1729 Mr Nathaniel PAYNE of Ottery St Mary & Mrs Anne COLBERT 08-May "were married in ye chappell of Gabriel" by Licence

1730 John HOOPER of Stanton St Gabriels & Mary HODDER of Whitechurch married 04-May

1730 John GAME jun. of Whitechurch & Rachel HODDER of Stanton St Gabriel married 17-May

1731 John HIND of Litton Cheney & Mary WAKELY of Stanton St Gabriel married 11-Jun

1738 John DIMENT & Elizabeth TIZZARD of Whitechurch 09-Apr married at Stanton St Gabriels

1738 Henry FOSSE of Chideock & Mary BROWN of Chideock 26-Jul married at Stanton St Gabriels

1738 John DIMMONT of Stanton St Gabriels & Sarah YOUNG of Chideock married 21-Sep

1738 Ralph HODDER & Elizabeth LAWRENCE 15-Jan mar. at Stanton St Gabriels

1739 John KEEPING of Bridport & Thaumazin LOCKETT of Bridport 08-Apr mar. at Gabriels

Charcoal

"Excavations of a burial mound on the top of Golden Cap in 1994 uncovered pollen samples which indicated a landscape formerly dominated by oak woodland. A charcoal sample from buried soil was dated to about 2,000 BC."

Dorset Natur Hist Archaeol Soc Proc, 115, 1994, 51–62, pls, figs, refs.

What was charcoal doing on Golden Cap?

A Short History of Charcoal in England

2,000 BC

By the start of the Bronze Age in Britain around 2,000 BC the use of charcoal was commonplace. Pure copper could be smelted at around 800º C but charcoal was able to provide a temperature of nearly 1100º C, which allowed the smelting of tin and copper to produce bronze. Bronze was a versatile metal. It set much harder than copper and in manufacture was easier to cast as it flowed more freely. It was most useful for the production of swords, axes, tools and jewellery. Damaged or broken items could be melted and recast and tools with a hardened edge could always be re-sharpened.

1,000 BC
Everyday objects were commonly made from bronze and a significant charcoal production was required to support the expanding metal industry. The wood supplies for this came mostly from the continued clearance of the wildwood which was being converted for agriculture. The wildwood had covered almost all of the country since the last ice age but by around 1000 BC about 50% had been already been cleared.

500 BC
Through the Iron Age the demand for charcoal grew as more efficient methods of producing iron were developed. In the south of the country on the lighter chalkland an even greater level of clearance of the wildwood occurred. This area was particularly favourable for agriculture with easily worked soils that drained freely and were ideal for habitation. Ploughing of the land resulted in erosion leading to the formation of banks (lynchets) upon which trees grew. These were regularly coppiced and helped supply the local charcoal producers. The formal integration of woodland and agricultural management had begun.

A typical limekiln (not from Stanton St Gabriel - but it would have looked similar).

Mediaeval and early modern period

Charcoal was used to fire lime kilns in areas where there was no natural coal. A lime kiln remains in Stanton St Gabriel near to Westhay Water and there may have been others. The limestone burnt in the limekiln would have produced lime that was valuable as a fertiliser and for mixing into mortar for building purposes.

Inhabitants

The 1841 census tells about Residents of Stanton St. Gabriel at the time:

County of Dorset, Bridport D.W., Hundred of Whitechurch Canonicorum, Parochial Chap. of Stanton St. Gabriel
No. of Enumeration District: 4, Worked by: J. Smith, Checked by G. Hutchuirns
Houses:
Inhabited 20
Uninhabited: Nil
Males: 52
Females: 54
Total of persons: 106

Note the servants at Westhay Farm, Norchard Farm, Shedbush Farm and Ship Farm. Those farms contrast sharply with the large families crammed into the labourers' cottages elsewhere in the parish. Note also that Henry Bartlett still prefers to be called a yeoman, rather than a farmer.

Continuity is complicated. All but a handful of these people were born in the county and many of these names have long roots in the neighbourhood. For example, a John Hountsell is listed in the Subsidy Roll for Stanton St. Gabriel of 1525. There are Hodders and Bowditches still living nearby and Powells farmed on Stonebarrow until recently. On the other hand, the 1861 census shows only one of these families (the Browns at Ship Farm) still there twenty years later. There are Hodders, Fooks and Orchards farming in Whitchurch (the next parish) in 1861, but they are all working different land. By 1861 Ridge Farm is empty. So there is much mobility within the region, but little mobility between West Dorset and other regions.

Past it runs a track, seen more clearly from above:

Then you'll also find a growing collection of texts and images relating to the site, which will be published as Absence: Histories of Stanton St. Gabriel in 2011.

Timeline

BC 2000
The prehistory of South West Dorset is poorly understood. There is evidence of a local Bronze Age population. Some of them (probably their leaders) were buried in mounds on top of Golden Cap. Their settlements would have been in the valleys – perhaps here in Stanton St. Gabriel or in Chideock. At that time the landscape was probably dominated by oak wildwoods and the sea lay perhaps a mile further away than it does now.

Charcoal was found in the burial bounds – it was used to smelt tin and copper to make bronze.

BC 500
By this time some of the wildwood had been cleared (the wood was burnt for charcoal and the cleared land became available for growing other crops or for pasture).

AD 43

Capricorn: emblem of Legio II Augusta

After the Roman invasion, Legio II Augusta (the 2nd Augustan legion) advanced along the channel coast – intent on bringing every little port and inlet under their control. In Dorset they met stiff resistance from the Celtic inhabitants, but the Romans were better equipped and supplied and had long experience of siege warfare.

The route of the Roman Road from Eastern England to Exeter this side of Bridport is not known. It probably went different ways at different times. But Roman roads probably passed through Chideock, over Stonebarrow and past Hogchester Farm near Charmouth. Less than a mile away, the name Coldharbour suggests a Roman settlement, as do clumps of sweet chestnut trees on Stonebarrow. Roman soldiers must have visited Stanton, clattering down the road from Morcombelake or out of Chideock, along Pettycrate Lane, round Langdon Hill and down the deep cut track behind the chapel. But West Dorset “remained a backwater as far as the civilising influence of Rome was concerned.”

Domesday Book

1066
Sometime in the 20 years after the Norman Conquest, William I gave Stanton to his brother, the Count of Mortain. Domesday Book records a manor here, 12 farms and at least 400 acres of arable land.

1240
There is the first written record of the chapel at this time and evidence that the population was high and the village flourishing. There were now around 30 farms in the area.

1348
The Black Death heralded a time of falling population and increasing poverty in many places. With its access to the sea and fish, Stanton may have been spared some of the hunger experienced elsewhere.

1558
Open fields in neighbouring Chideock were enclosed by the lords of the manor, leading to the loss of common rights and hardship for many ordinary people. The same probably happened at Stanton.

1642
The start of the Civil War began a time of new uncertainty in the area, which had already suffered because it was a bastion of Roman Catholicism at a time when that faith was forbidden. Land changed hands frequently; buildings were destroyed in the fighting or razed to the ground as a punishment and a warning to others. By 1664 there were only 15 farms in the area.

1750
The start of more enclosures and the beginning of the disappearance of many of the orchards in the area.

1796

9lb cannon

Start of the Napoleonic War, which meant the construction of a Signalling Station on the top of Golden Cap, which afterwards became a Preventive Station for the use of Customs Officers in their struggle to control smuggling in the area. A report of the time said that a 9lb cannon and a small watch-house was needed here to defend this section of coast from a Napoleonic invasion.

Around this time, the chapel fell into disrepair and most of the remaining population moved away, leaving only the farmsteads and continuing smuggling.

1086 - 1872

Alfred [* the butler *] holds 1/2 hide in 'STANTON' from the Count [of Mortain]. Edwy held it before 1066.

Land for 6 ploughs. In lordship 2 and a half ploughs; 5 slaves; 3 villagers and 8 smallholders with 3 and a half ploughs. Meadow, 24 acres; pasture, 2 and a half leagues; woodland, 2 furlongs.

The value was and is 60s.

Domesday Book, 1086

STANTON-ST. GABRIEL, a parish in Bridport district, Dorset; on the coast, 4 miles W by S of Bridport r. station. Post town, Bridport. Acres, 1,242; of which 190 are water. Rated property, £855. Pop., 75. Houses, 15. The living is a p. curacy annexed to Whitchurch-Canonicorum. The church was built in 1841.

J. M. Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870-72,

There's a fleshier timeline here.

Fire and Earthquake

Much of West Dorset’s coast suffered an earthquake at 3:35am on the first Tuesday of October in 1863.
From a press report:

“The rumbling sound was accompanied by a violent shaking of beds, like the passing of a heavy wagon at a short distance, that lasted about two seconds. Some thought that thieves had broken in; others awoke dizzy. The main oscillation was from east to west with a secondary motion of a whirling nature, producing feelings of dazed terror.
Strong doors jumped open from their catches.

The shock was most violent at Burton Bradstock, Bridport Harbour, Chideock, Charmouth and Lyme Regis. The fright was considerable though a violent shock in the early hours of the morning comes upon a populace deeply removed from the cares of this world. Even a great noise then is only comparable to a horse rearing in the afternoon, it being impossible to gauge the magnitude of the disaster. Inland the effects were less perceptible…”

And more than a century earlier, in August 1751:

After hot weather and rain, the cliffs of Charmouth in Dorset began to smoke, then burnt "with a visible but subtle flame". The flames were visible at intervals, especially after rain, till winter.

Who knows what the inhabitants of Stanton St. Gabriel made of these things. We do know that the vicar of Leominster blamed the 1863 earthquake on the number of nonconformists in the town, saying that it was sent by God as a punishment.

Whatever we make of that, there's little doubt that God (or Allah) sent the angel Gabriel (or Jibrail).

The Archangel

13th century image from Georgia

St. Gabriel's Feast Day:
Roman Rite Calendar – 29th September
Tridentine Calendar – 24th March

Gabriel is the patron saint of:
Clergy, Broadcasters, Communication Workers, Diplomats, Messengers, Postal Workers, Radio Workers, Secular Clergy, Telecommunications and Television Workers.

Archangel and Messenger of God, Gabriel is one of the three angels mentioned by name in the Bible.

Gabriel appeared to the prophet Daniel to explain the prophet's visions relating to the Messiah. (Daniel 8:16-26; 9:21)
Gabriel appeared to Zachary in the temple to announce the coming of Zachary's son, John the Baptist, and to strike Zachary mute for his disbelief. (Luke 1:11-20)
Gabriel appeared to Mary to let her know she'd been selected to bear the Saviour. (Luke 1:25-38)

Gabriel is always the angel of the Incarnation and of Consolation, and so in Christian tradition Gabriel is ever the angel of mercy while Michael is rather the angel of judgment. At the same time, even in the Bible, Gabriel is, in accordance with his name, the angel of the Power of God, and it is worth while noting the frequency with which such words as "great", "might", "power", and "strength" occur in the passages referred to above.

Jibrail - an Islamic image

St. Gabriel was sent to illuminate Mary’s intelligence and dissolve her doubts.

In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel (Bulgarian: Гавраил, Hebrew: גַּבְרִיאֵל, Modern Gavri'el Tiberian Gaḇrîʼēl - the strength of God; Latin: Gabrielus; Turkish: Cebrail; Greek: Γαβριήλ, Gabriēl; Arabic: جبريل, Jibrīl or جبرائيل Jibrail; Aramaic: Gabri-el, "God is my strong man/hero") is an archangel who serves as a messenger from God. Based on two passages in the Gospel of Luke, many Christians and Muslims believe Gabriel to have foretold the births of both John the Baptist and Jesus.

Islamic views state that Jibrail was the medium through whom God revealed and dictated the Qur'an to Muhammad, and that he sent a message to most prophets, if not all, revealing their obligations. He is called the chief of the four favoured angels and the spirit of truth. He is called, by Muslims, the created Holy Spirit (Islam) that spoke to Muhammad, which is not to be confused with the Holy Spirit of God in Christianity who is revered as God Himself. Gabriel is also mentioned in Bahá'í Faith texts, specifically in Bahá'u'lláh's mystical work Seven Valleys.

According to the Biblical verses which specifically refer to him, Gabriel is likened to a mortal male. He is usually portrayed as male, but sometimes also androgynous or female, as in some New Age beliefs or contemporary art imagery. In many nativity plays in schools, Gabriel is played by a female.

The Annunciation, St Gabriel's Church, Nazareth

Messenger of Peace

Ukrainian icon

12th century icon

In a drawing by Jacques Callot from 1630

Gabriel's - Field Names

Absence - Soundtrack and Images

Click on the play arrow (below) to play the soundtrack from the performance of Absence. You can also watch (and pause) the image slideshow below. If you keep this page open in a separate tab or window, you can keep listening while you read the performance programme or explore the rest of the site.

Where Dorset Meets Devon

There is a path all the way along the cliffs — over West Cliff, down again to Eype mouth, round Thorncombe Beacon, among the tumuli, over Dog-house Hill and Ridge Cliff — from West Bay to Seatown. It is a fine bracing tramp, but if you are game for more the real climb is yet to come. Giant Golden Cap looms ahead, six hundred feet high, and you will lose the path before you get to the top.

For the path is not so brave as you. Half way up the slope it slinks inland and joins a lane which goes behind the Titan's back, between him and his neighbour Langdon Hill. This also is a pleasant road to follow, and a solitary. If when you get to the crossroads you keep the westward way, you will get to tiny Upcot and thence, if you like, back to the coast near the summit of Cain's Folly. If you turn northward you will come to Morecombelake. In either case you will be skirting the unkempt Chardown Hill. So you will if from Morecombelake you follow the old track, instead of the nice new road, to Charmouth and Lyme. Not only will you skirt Chardown, but you will go sheer over Stonebarrow Hill and get a splendid view. For the land will drop, drop from your feet right down to the Char, and you will be able to follow its course up the Marshwood Valley.

But these are hypotheses ; it is with the great fact of Golden Cap that I am concerned. Well, as I was saying, I lost the path. So I scrambled straight upwards till I reached the top. There I rested and looked round. On either side the edge of the land rose and fell, first the grey face of a cliff, then a green dip with a town in it, as is the fashion all along this coast. Portland Island bounded my view on the east, Beer Head (I think) on the west. Inland I seemed to be looking over half a county, where all the greens of the world were gathered for review. Just at my feet lay St. Gabriel's farm, and near by, forlorn in the corner of a field, the shards of the old church.

It is a lonely parish, Stanton St. Gabriel. Its thousand acres hold but fifty souls. On its seaward edge, one might be in a deserted land, alone with rabbits and crows.

That is to say, as far as the sight of humanity goes.

Between Seatown and Charmouth I do not think that I saw a man. But there must be few places in England where one is for long out of hearing of civilisation. Sometimes, when one is alone in a wide country, one hears far off the voices of men, sometimes bells ringing, and always the distant barking of dogs. But these sounds only intensify the sense of loneliness.

It is rough going, the descent from Golden Cap along the Wear Cliffs. At one point I found myself in a deep gully which, in bad weather, would probably carry a brave torrent, and had to scramble up the wet clay slope on the other side. Such incidents delayed my progress, and the sun was already sinking behind Lyme. Cain's Folly still lay between me and Charmouth, holding I knew not what terrors. So the next time these inhospitable cliffs showed an inclination to deposit me on the beach I took them at their word, and made the rest of my heavy way to Charmouth through the shingle. As a matter of fact, if I had only persevered up Cain's Folly I should have found a path. But I did not know that.

It was quite dark by the time I reached Charmouth, but the rest of my journey was on a good road, and soon the sprinkled lights of Lyme became my visible encouragement.

Extracted from Where Dorset Meets Devon (1911) Francis Bickley

Absence - Invitation

Absence - Stanton St Gabriel

Absence - Soundtrack

Absence - Programme

Here's the programme that went with the first performances in July 2010.
Cover image below. Click here to download the pdf of the programme.

Absence Programme

Absence (Sandra Reeve) - programme cover

Towards a Definitive History

In early 2010, we set about establishing a definitive history of Stanton St. Gabriel. There seemed to be nothing especially Quixotic about this venture. Surely the records would be few enough to read quite quickly and easy enough to find in this networked age. Amateur genealogists would certainly have done much of the work already and the local history society would point us towards sources for the rest. It was even a slight pleasure that there was no formal history of the place. Rather like approaching a dimpled field over which no metal detector has ever passed.

We were clear: this was to be a proper history – and any proper history needs to refer to the very best sources. Tittle-tattle would not serve us well in a venture such as this. Where better, then, to start than with Historic Environment of the Dorset Coast: Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Phase I – Dorset Coast Historic Environment Research Framework?

Copperas : Pain de campagne

Published in June 2004, the report makes serious reading. According to its authors, some way along the Dorset coast at Kimmeridge and Brownsea Island, a mineral called copperas was mined at least as early as the 16th century. The authors note, in a rather matter-of-fact way, that, “the principal use of copperas was as a textile dye mordant and saddening agent”. It looks like an old French loaf.

No further reference will be made to the copperas industry in this account of Stanton St. Gabriel. As far as records show, it was never mined in these parts. But the notion of a saddening agent… well, there may be occasion for us to revisit that idea.

In Historic Environment of the Dorset Coast we learn three things of particular interest about Stanton St. Gabriel. They are as follows:

“The Domesday Book provides a basis for understanding the organisational and administrative structure of the landscape immediately following the Norman Conquest. Settlements such as Lyme Regis, recorded in Domesday as Lym/Lime, lie in contrast to the deserted villages of Radipole and Stanton St. Gabriel, which, among others, serve to illustrate discontinuity of occupation.”
“…the simplest method of capturing and retaining fish on the foreshore comprises the construction of wooden fishtraps. Only two are recorded for Dorset: at Stanton St Gabriel and Studland.”
“In the Roman period, the fort at Hamworthy may have dominated the military landscape, facilitating the establishment of the area as the foremost settlement of the time. However, the coast of Dorset has a long history of being invaded and attacked after the end of Roman rule provoking a wide range of civic and military responses. For example, in AD 833 AD, Viking raiders landed at Charmouth in 35 ships and were met in battle by King Egbert.”

To recap: the village of Stanton St. Gabriel is deserted; fish used to be caught on the foreshore in a wooden fishtrap; and the Vikings landed a mile or two along the coast in Charmouth in the year 833. (Note how we say “the year 833” rather than just “833”: it’s because 3-digit numbers don’t really look like years. They’re more like sofa prices or cricket scores from the heyday of Don Bradman.)

Vikings in Charmouth

Let’s start with the Viking invasion, which was met by King Egbert. Now you may already be asking what King Egbert was doing in Charmouth. Had he had a tip-off or was he on his holidays in the village and found himself called to the scene by an eagle-eyed young urchin who had spotted longships on the horizon? Surely the Vikings hadn't phoned ahead asking him to meet them for a fight?

Some research shows that there’s more to this tale than meets the eye. According to the village history, there were “two great confrontations on the banks of the River Cerne (Char) between Viking raiders and local forces led by King Egbert and later by his son King Aethelwulf of the West Saxons. On both occasions, after a great slaughter the Vikings withdrew.”

So Aethelwulf was down here as well, ready to repel the Vikings. perhaps he'd been on holiday with his dad and kept up the tradition once he became king. At least the Vikings were repelled on both occasions. But hang on, from The Life of King Egbert, we learn more about the fight in the year 833:

“…confusion spread among the Anglo-Saxons enabling the Danes to decisively defeat Egbert and his men, so that they ended by fleeing under cover of darkness. Though “there was a great slaughter made,” yet “the Danes maintained possession of the battle-spot.” The bloody losses Egbert suffered in this his first military defeat, included Herefrith, bishop of Winchester, and Sigelm, bishop of Sherborne…”

So he didn’t win after all, and he sent two of his bishops into the fray. Surely that’s a bit off. You wouldn't send Robert Runcie (or whoever it is now) to fight in Iraq.

Anyway, a bit more research reveals an oft-repeated legend that St Wite (whose remains are buried in the Church at Whtchurch Canonicorum in a box marked “+HIC. REQUESCT. RELIQE. SCE. WITE”) was killed by the Vikings in that same raid.

And then a little more research [we're scampering on now because it can all get a bit dull in an age of shortened attention spans] reveals that the Vikings actually invaded not at Charmouth but at Carhampton on the North Devon/Somerset coast (hence the Battle of Carhampton at which, you guessed it, Egbert was defeated by the Vikings). Which presumably means that St Wite died a quite different death.

Fishtraps at Stanton St. Gabriel

Everything seems in order here. Perhaps we can breathe out and assume that the Viking thing was an aberration and most history is reliable.

Stanton St. Gabriel – a deserted village

Now this is a complicated one. One way and another it provoked the performance of Absence in July 2010. If you haven't already seen them, go here for the soundtrack and here for the programme.

Or continue with the proper history here.