JCA 136 South Purbeck
FGU Summary:South Purbeck, also known as the Isle of Purbeck, forms part of the SouthCoast of Dorset running west from Swanage and including St Albans Head and Lulworth Cove. 4.5% of the area is urban and the entire Character Area falls within the Dorset AONB and offers some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in southern England.
3 sub-units: Chalk ridge; CorfeValley; limestone plateau; Kimmeridge Beds;
1.Settlement & Development
Density of flint scatters and tools provide evidence of intensive use in Mesolithic period. Many Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites, field systems and barrows on plateau and chalk downs. Kimmeridge Shale ornaments manufactured and exported in the Iron Age, when occupation of the valley was quite dense, and in Romano-British period (when pottery manufactured). There was a high density of Roman settlements in south Purbeck, including villa sites such as Bucknowle.
By the 11th century a complex pattern of estates was in existence across the area – the boundaries of most of these estates can still be traced on the ground. The associated settlements are predominantly small, nucleated villages. Isolated farms and hamlets are usually the result of settlement shrinkage from the 14th century onwards, often evidenced by earthworks.
The main town of the area was Corfe, dominated by the castle which probably developed on the site of a Saxon royal residence. The town developed outside the gates of the castle and around its market place.
Remains of quarrying on the plateau are highly distinctive: hundreds of abandoned small quarries with more recent ones near the coast. Deeply worn holloways run across the island, linking settlements, quarries and extraction routes.
Stone quarried from limestone plateau from Roman period. The use of Portland Stone increased in the 12th century and it was used in many major ecclesiastical buildings across the south of England. From the 17th century it was particularly favoured for facing ashlar work and was used on many major buildings in London, until the arrival of the railways it was transported there by coastal shipping The Purbeck Marble quarries near Corfe developed into a major industry in the 13th and 14th centuries providing monumental masonry for ecclesiastical buildings – routeways cross Corfe Common to the town from the quarries. Its use declined in the 15th century with the increasing use of alabaster. Much stone was shipped from long-lost ports like Redcliffe, Stepe and Ower situated in the Dorset Heathlands and Swanage (established as a trading settlement by the 9th century) developed into a small port for handling the stone.
Shale, clay alum and, most recently, oil have been extracted from the Kimmeridge Shales and, in the 19th century, there was a short-lived oil-shale industry manufacturing a wide range of products from the jet-like bituminous shales.
Country houses and associated parks – e.g. Lulworth which originated as a hunting lodge in the 17th century.
Swanage expanded into a resort in the Victorian period.
The majority of vernacular buildings are of Purbeck or Portland Stone with stone slate roofs. Brick has had limited use in the area. There are some higher status houses of early 17th century date but it was not widely used until the 18th century. There was an occasional use of cob.
2.Agriculture
Medieval strip lynchets on the coastal headlands and steeper valley sides are evidence for extensive arable farming in the medieval period. Much of these marginal areas were given over to pasture for sheep from the 14th century.
The Chalk provided extensive common grazing, particularly for sheep, and was partly subject to conversion to arable from late 18th century although much open downland survives.
Mixed farming was typical in the valley of the River Corfe where settlements had access to downland, arable on the side of the valley and good meadowland in the valley. Dairy farming increased in the later 19th century, supplying the expanding towns of Bournemouth and Poole with liquid milk, assisted by the arrival of the railway through to Swanage.
Dispersed plan farmsteads predominate. Stone-built threshing barns, typically of 5 bays with central threshing floor. Many combination barns, typically with cowhouse, stabling and first-floor granary, some of early 18th century or earlier date. Shelter sheds to cattle yards a common feature, dating from 18th century. Some 19th century outfarms and field barns.
3.Fields and Boundary Patterns
Hedgerows are predominant, with dry stone walls to limestone plateau.
Earthwork remains of deserted and shrunken medieval settlements and associated field systems as at North Egliston, Afflington and East Lulworth.
Open field agriculture practised around villages in CorfeValley, subject to piecemeal enclosure by agreement mostly complete by late 18th century: present pattern of irregular hedges and fields, smaller and more irregular to the north and west.
Piecemeal enclosure to the south and east has resulted in larger fields including a remarkable series of long narrow strips marked by continuous boundary walls extending up the slopes of the limestone plateau. These land units are divided by cross boundaries creating a ‘ladder’ effect.
4.Trees and Woodland
Woodland cover, subject to clearance from prehistoric period in large parts, varies across the area. It ranges from very light or treeless to the west and on limestone plateau, to small blocks and copses in central CorfeValley. It is most extensive as a result of estate management in Lulworth Estate and other areas of East Lulworth.
5.Semi-Natural Environments
Between the edge of the Dorset Heaths and the Chalk, there is a steep slope of ancient semi-natural beech and oak woods. Unimproved grassland to Chalk.
Long standing areas of grassland and unimproved pasture are both rich in species and in the surviving visible evidence of earlier cultivation and settlement (ridge and furrow and village earthworks or the lynchets at East and WestMan.).
Extensive prehistoric remains of many periods, extensively protected as scheduled monuments. e.g. the Rempstone Stone Circle, the cross-dykes on Knowle Hill, extensive BA barrows and barrow cemeteries on the ridge and downs (e.g. Corfe Common), the Iron Age settlement and field system on Smedmore Hill.
6.River & Coastal Features
Clay vale drained by the river Corfe.
Coastal area exploited since prehistoric period for its shale, alum and stone.
Scheduled former alum works, port structures and other industrial heritage at KimmeridgeBay.