I had some out of date Kodak Color Plus to use up, out of date, but not as old as my usual fare, so I made a little trip to Cerne Abbas. It’s most famous for it’s giant, a figure carved into the chalk hills, you may just make him out in the image above top right. This is the view from the national trust carpark with a 50mm lens! The image from an old Dorset book gives a better idea, except for a major missing part that it seems to have included it in the publication would have embarrassed!!
Some say he is a Saxon God, others that he is linked to the burial mounds that are pre-roman on the hill top above – either way he’s old! The village itself is small and quiet, but interesting enough to warrant a visit.
There once stood an Abbey here, now, what is often referred to locally as a manor, but my guide book of old Dorset calls a “Gabled Farmhouse” stands. It was built from the ruins of the abbey. Only a couple of parts survive of the abbey – the Tithe Barn and the Gatehouse.
Just across the graveyard is St Augustine’s Well, from here a walk down “Abbey Street”, where an Uncle of George Washington once lived, brings us to St Mary’s Church.
My circular walk brought me back to the carpark, where in the hedge I spotted an old style way marker, freshly painted!
S.H.O.U.T. 