About 20 of us met at Cerne Abbas to view the Giant from the carpark and explore
the surrounding geology and building stone. The Cerne Abbas Giant had featured
recently in the BBC series Landscape Mysteries and several of the group had
joined us through the BBC's website link. The day was lead by Jo Thomas and
we followed the route set out by Jo for Cerne Abbas in the DGAG book 'Coast
and Country'.
The Giant has been cut into the chalk hillside above the village in full view
of the road and those travelling along it. There was some debate and discussion
about just when the Giant was created but the Benedictine Abbey close by was
dissolved in 1539 and there is no mention of the Giant in the surviving records.
It is also unlikely that such a male figure in all its glory would be associated
with a monastery. The first known record is in 1694 when three shillings was
paid for its upkeep, so it is thought that it was created after the execution
of Charles 1st in 1649, possibly by Hollis, the local MP, as a caricature of
Cromwell. It is also thought that the Long Man in Sussex is a similar age but
other chalk images may be much older.
From the carpark we walked down to the village looking at some of the building stone, which was also how we also finished the in afternoon. There are several building in the village which contain a range of different stones easily visible in their external walls. Between a barn below Kettle Bridge, the New Inn and the Old Bell (Cerne Abbas once had 14 pubs!) we found examples of flint and brick as expected and also Ham Hill Stone, Forest Marble, Glauconic Chalk, Greensand, and Purbeck Stone or Marble containing small freshwater gastropods. The inner walls we learnt are often of chalk with the 'earth' floors being made not of soil but chalk which has been crushed then beaten or stamped flat The New Inn had a lovely Turrihtes aetuus ammonite fossil exposed in its corner wall. The Old Bell and several other buildings have interesting checkerboard patterns of stone with flint or brick. Above the door of the Old Bell was the Tudor fire plaque signifying that it was covered for fire insurance. St Mary's Church, originally built in the century has several stones in its wall which Jo thought may show the transition between the Portland and Purbeck limestones.
Leaving the village we walked through the churchyard to St Augustine's Well, the main source of water for the Abbey, which unusually was almost dry. The well is supplied by a spring at the base of the Greensand and is possibly the reason of the location of the Abbey in this area. The vell is now below the level of the churchyard so few of us would have fancied sampling the water anyway. Above the well and through a field is the site of the Benedictine Abbey. Apart from the remains of two buildings now incorporated into Abbey Farm, the Abbey has been almost totally removed and the stone reused in the village leaving trenches where the foundations would have been. Some of the stone can clearly be seen in the rear walls of the New Inn where there is also a stone with carvings of catherine wheels, the symbol of the Abbey. Continuing up the hill we passed a small limekiln and the quarry which is probably the source of the chalk building stone in the village. Looking to the right and across the valley we could see the some old field systems where the banks of former hedges remain long after they had been grubbed out to enlarge the fields. At the top of die kill the fields were mostly clay with flint, the larger flint nodules being used in the building of the village houses, and possibly the clay as a source for local bricks.
Dropping down off the bill we passed across a field mostly on the zig-zag chalk where we found many fossils, mostly broken shell fragments but also a good internal cast of a micraster urchin. In the corner of the field is small pit dug into the Upper Greensand which again had many shell fragments. From here we travel along sunken lane which became gradually deeper showing the Foxmould' which has been renamed by the BGS and Cann Sand. Further on we passed the splendid Upcerne Manor House built in the early 17th century by Sir Robert Mellor. Soon after we walked across a field where the soil clearly changed showing the underlying geology as fragments of Greensand higher up in the field, changing to Cairn Sand lower down. Once across the field it was a short walk down the edge of the road to the carpark where we started.
Hugh Mannsall