OSMINGTON

OSMINGTON

Brief History
by Mary Kempe

There have been people living around Osmington for well over 2000 years. The bronze age round barrows along the Ridgeway, Sandy Barrow and Coggins Barrow, as well as the field systems above Upton Barn are evidence of early settlements. The place name comes from the Old English personal name, Ösmund, with 'ington', a farm.

The earliest written record dates from an Anglo-Saxon charter of 940AD when King Athelstan granted the manor of 'OSMYNTONE' to the Abbott of Milton. There have been vicars continuously since 1302 and probably monks or lay brothers before that. There is a footpath known as the Monk's Walk which runs from the west end of the churchyard towards the main road, opposite Shortlake Lane where the glebe land was located. In the Domesday survey the presence of a mill at 'Osmentone' is noted.

The church was the most important building in the village. It dates from 1170 (the chancel arch and the font), with the north arcade being 14th century and the tower 15th century. In 1796 the chancel was reduced in length by 6 ft and reroofed. Then, needing more space and to remedy continuing delapidation, the nave was rebuilt in 1846, with the addition of the south arcade to match the one on the north. There is an interesting early 17th century monument in the chancel with a strange inscription (referring to a water clock) cut in crude letters and with the Warham coat of arms.

To the north of the church are the ruins of a 17th century two storey building. This is marked on the OS map as Manor House rems of. However, there was another large house of about the same period on the corner of Roman Road and Chapel Lane which was the residence of the Lord of the Manor in the 18th and early 19th centuries. This house was demolished in about 1857 when the present Osmington House was completed. The ruin is more likely to have been a farm house. There was a cottage within the western part until the 1920s.

At the dissolution of the monasteries the manor was granted to John Ashley, Master of the Royal Jewels. In the early 17th century it was owned by Lord Petre, a Parliamentarian supporter. He was supplementing the income of the vicar, John Blaxton in 1652/3, but the estate was later sequestered and passed to the Sheldon family. In about 1745 it was purchased by Robert Serrell Wood of Broadmayne.

The Methodist Chapel was built in 1847. A Methodist preacher had already been preaching out of doors at the crossroads (by the old Post Office) for some years. In the mid-1970s the congregation had declined so much that they combined with the church congregation and the chapel was used as a church hall. It is now a domestic dwelling.

The village school was opened in 1835, though children would have been taught in the church vestry before then. It was designed for 54 children aged 6 - 11, and even registered 60 children at one point in 1896. It closed in the 1960's when numbers had declined to about 20.

Close to the school building was the first village hall, opened in 1923. It was a redundant army hut from Chickerell Camp, built on glebe land purchased for £10. The remainder of the adjacent glebe was purchased by Sir Fred Pontin in 1965 and presented to the village as a recreation field. The new village hall was opened in December 2001.

The oldest surviving domestic building is the Longhouse in Lower Church Lane. It dates from the 16th century and would have housed the farmer with his family and their animals. This was formerly called Charity Farm because it was purchased in 1665 with money left by Sir Samuel Mico, of Weymouth, in order to generate income to pay for an annual sermon and to aid 10 poor elderly seamen of Weymouth.

The famous hill figure of the White Horse (the only one in the country with a rider) was cut in 1808 to honour King George III who made Weymouth a popular watering place by his patronage and who would ride along the Ridgeway to visit friends at Poxwell. It measures 280' long and 320' high and covers 0.6acre.

In 1816, John Constable, the artist, spent his 3 month honeymoon at the Vicarage, staying with his friend, Reverend John Fisher. His pictures of Weymouth Bay and Osmington were the result of that visit.

The mains water supply was connected in 1936. Before that residents had to carry water from pumps or wells at Oxey Lane, the corner by Hazeldown Cottage, opposite the Old Chapel or near the school. Mains drains were installed in the 1970's.

The road network as we know it today was largely in place by 1800. The new turnpike, apart from minor realignments, coincides with the A353, while the old turnpike to Poxwell, now known as the Roman Road, gradually fell into disuse.

THE CHARACTER

By Reg Symes

The distinctive features of a village - its character - have been shaped over time both by its original function and its location. Function will have determined the sort of settlement needed to discharge the intended objective, the number and type of the built-structures, the extent of access and service facilities required: location will have predicated the topography - the natural physical features associated with the chosen site and also, an implicit geology. Particularly in earlier times, the underlying geology determined the materials available for construction and thereby decided the style and appearance of the buildings.

Dealing first with function, for perhaps a thousand years until the middle of the twentieth century, the reasons for establishing a village can be reduced to no more than three in number. Untypically, Osmington embraced all three to a greater or lesser extent - first and undoubtedly the most common reason for founding a village - to support agriculture, secondly, to service fishing and, finally, to undertake quarrying which elsewhere would have appeared as mining or mineral extraction.

When it comes to agriculture, contractors can nowadays live in urban surroundings and commute daily to their rural work places but this was certainly not the case even just a few years ago. Then, if one tilled the earth. raised stock or quarried stone, there was no alternative but to live and sleep adjacent to the job. This also applied to fishing; fishermen had to live wherever there was a safe haven for whatever boats were involved. Again, until recently, most rural settlements were part of an estate so the villagers tended to be wage earners living in tied or rented cottages. Agricultural workers are accustomed to seasonal, multi-skilled employment and are capable of growing most of their own vegetables. The general economic status within a village would have been relatively low and this together with its isolation resulted in rural communities having to be largely self-sufficient. Accordingly, some cottages would have housed villagers who practised individual crafts and trades. There is evidence that Osmington housed blacksmiths, farriers, masons, carpenters, cobblers, basket makers, tranters and the like and their ~ by auxiliary buildings associated with the trade of the occupant. From quite early days, there was certainly a village pub and also a brew house, a slaughterhouse, a bakery and an undertaker. Since the middle of the nineteenth century there was a small village school and a separate house for the school master. Until recently there were shops, a post office eventually combined with a general store and a newsagent and giftshop. Paraffin was also sold - a most important commodity from Victorian days onwards for lighting and cooking.

The location chosen by the monks of Milton Abbas for Osmington village ensured that there was a source of excellent building stone within the parish so the original cottages and field boundaries were made from this material. Wheat reed was also readily available before combine harvesters were invented so cottages and ricks were thatched. Topography led to the village developing in an intermittent linear form - small knots of relatively small dwellings with allotment spaces between each group of cottages. The settlement grew up astride an ancient trackway which ultimately became part of a turnpike linking Weymouth to Badbury Rings - the local Spaghetti Junction from ancient days - and there was a toll keeper's cottage in the village. Osmington also played an important part in the former practice of droving - the movement of herds and flocks towards centres of population.

The parish church, now dedicated to St Osmund, has stood at the centre of the village from the earliest days of the settlement serving the community as a meeting place and refuge as well as a place of worship. Until the Victorian rebuild of 1846, there was no south aisle and the building did not have the symmetry it possesses today.

Superficially, one might conclude that any changes to modify Osmington's function have been slight and extremely slow in operation. There is no question that major changes have been few in number but the rate of change has certainly not always been slow. Major changes can be listed as just two in number - the transfer of the manor from monkish into secular hands was the first and the second was the switch from farming in the immediate past. The first does not appear to have produced any rapid or dramatic physical change other than the construction of the small, hall-type building whose ruins are visible today, adjacent to the church: the second has been much more far reaching in its consequences and surprisingly rapid in reaction time. When main drainage was introduced to the village in the 1970s, all the lanes had to be trenched and it was necessary for orders to be made to allow the milk from eight village farms to be collected throughout the upheaval. As new residents are unlikely to be able to name the holdings concerned they are listed here to confirm they actually existed! Grove Hill Farm, East Farm, Hitts Farm, White Horse Farm, West or Court Farm, Charity Farm, Netherton Farm and Hall's Farm.

Plainly there has been such that we need to outline the developing at the beginning a radical change in function aver the last thirty years village scene in the 70s and contrast it with the situation of the New Millennium.

First it must be recalled that not long before the 1970s, we had passed through a period of total war preceded by a decade of general economic depression. All this had its effect on the characteristics of the village! On the positive side, these would still have included the display of a high degree of self-sufficiency within a closely-knit community, relatively small, simple dwellings, mostly upon ancient foundations built of local materials - stone and thatch, an essentially static population formed from local families, a display of rustic but somewhat decayed charm and, on the negative side, little evidence of any material wealth, primitive sanitary arrangements, only very limited piping of water into individual properties, no gas or electricity, loose brown gravelled lanes. (During the 1920s and 1930s - the last days of Dorset's great remoteness, the thatched cottages of the area were described as presenting so vile a scene of tubercular squalor that ......) Anyway, one thing is certain, at the end of the Second World War, the whole centre of Osmington had been condemned by the local authority as unfit for human habitation!

This marked the end of ownership by the "big house" and gradually the houses were sold off and improved by 'incomers' or 'exiles' returning to their natal county as owner-occupiers. Mains water arrived, then electricity followed by mains drainage - initially to the village's own treatment plant - and, finally, by piped gas. Road surfaces were hardened, the village was declared a conservation area, some of the previously condemned houses were 'listed' and tree preservation orders set up. The parish was incorporated into the West Dorset District Council when this was created in 1974 and subsequently made part of the Purbeck Heritage Coast within an area of outstanding natural beauty. To control inappropriate development, a tight village envelope was established. The original villagers were largely relocated in Osmington's first council-owned properties, built as a group on the seaward side of the Weymouth road: Mr Pontin built the first of his holiday camps at Shortlake, within the parish, and one of the Galipoli huts from Chickerell Camp was dragged up Osmington Hill, in sections by teams of horses to be re-assembled as the first Village Hall on former glebe land presented to the village by Mr Pontin. Even a bypass was planned but has yet to materialise. Slowly the village infrastructure began to diminish so now there is no longer a pub, no shops, no school and no working farms. Instead, we have the Sunray Bars, a garage that no longer sells petrol, a dairy that supplies bottled milk to quite a wide area, a small holding and many stables and paddocks. The form of the settlement has radically changed. It is no longer an intermittent linear village but is now fully nucleated. This is a direct consequence of the tight village envelope which resulted in widespread 'infilling'. New buildings were built on any vacant land - the former allotments were the first to go followed by any bits of garden space that could be exploited. Where possible, new construction has been undertaken in stone or approximations to the erstwhile Broadmayne Brick but the "stone" has often been reconstituted or quarried in Purbeck neither of which has long-term resemblance with the local Osmington material. There is now more slate and tile used for roofing, the slate being obtained from Spain or even China! Roads are now tarmacadamed and have risen appreciably as a result of successive re-coatings: there is extensive hard surfacing throughout the village so that surface water runoff after heavy rain is becoming an increasing problem. More recently, small groups of new houses have been built in mini-closes with private roads accessing the individual properties. The ~ are thereby separated from the village scene which has certainly contributed to rapid loss of the former community feeling.

The population has changed quite markedly over the past few years: it is now predominately composed of born-again country men who commute into towns as remote as Southampton and retirees. There are also some holiday homes. It is therefore no exaggeration to consider that the new function of Osmington - like so many other villages - has changed to being a dormitory settlement. With its lack of services and the absence of most of its residents during the working day, the loss of any significant sense of community is essentially complete and most villages have become rural suburbs - the expression 'exurbia' is beginning to be applied. On the other hand, the general appearance of Osmington has been much 'improved' by the efforts of its 'professional', private owners who come and go on a very short time cycle compared with the virtually static generations of yesteryear!

So, the present day characteristic of Osmington could be briefly summarised as an enhancing visual concept of a typical Dorset village as imagined by a relatively affluent group of private home owners, some of whose forebears might have experienced the genuine article! The question that remains is for how long can this idealised form of theatre be sustained? Will it simply die of suffocation - being choked by on-street parking?

Reg Symes

30 November2002

THE SETTING

By Susan Biddiss

Although Osmington lies three hundred feet above sea level the overwhelming impression is of a village nestled in the folds of the countryside. The village is surrounded by special features of both natural and archaeological interest, many of which have special protected status – some of it with statutory government protection in the form of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Scheduled Monuments.

There are many fine trees within the village that provide year round interest and a diverse range of architecture including some quite fine large houses and many thatched cottages. Osmington has many features that enable those of us who live there, and those who visit, to make important connections with the past, some of those features are very ancient and others more modern. They include the old water pump and the Monks Way/Passage, The Roman Road, the church and it’s associated ruins – from which exceptionally fine views can be had into the distance, and the old trackways. All of these add greatly to the essential character of the place.

There are many fine walks to be had from Osmington and all of them allow for commanding views in all directions.

The White Horse dominates the landscape and is notified for both natural and historic features. It was first cut in 1808 and is part of a long and ancient tradition of chalk hill figures unique to England. It forms part of the steep south- facing scarp at the southern edge of the Dorset chalk, overlooking the valley of the River Jordan. The site is surrounded by herb rich grassland that supports a variety of plant communities, some of them nationally rare, such as Bastard-Toadflax, and these in turn support a wide range of uncommon butterfly species, such as Adonis Blue.

Below the site lies a small area of meadow that is home to the nationally scarce Corky-fruited Water-dropwort.

The village is only a short distance from the sea and the new World Heritage status Jurassic coastline.

Apart from the White Horse there are several other ancient and historic features including several Bronze Age barrows, (Round, and Ditched Bowl Barrows) a Stone Circle (Poxwell), Celtic field systems, Strip Lynchets and Broad Ridge and Furrow features and ancient wells. Additionally, Iron-Age and Romano-British finds, including the Roman Road – still in use today - indicate a pattern of settlement that has been virtually continuous for at least a millennia and the visible remains of these various peoples settlement of Osmington are a powerful and important link for those of us who live today with our own past.

A short distance to the S.E of the village is the deserted Mediaeval village of West Ringtead, a site considered to be of national importance, it is visible to us now as a series of settlements and earthworks in the landscape.

Also at Ringstead are the remains of an Ice House (probably created and used by local fisherman in the nineteenth century as there is no associated Manor house) and an artificial fishpond, created for much the same purpose.

To the east of Osmington at Poxwell, lies an important geological site, which contains the remains of extremely well preserved fossil insects from the earliest Cretaceous period. Preservation is extremely good and the fauna is both diverse and rich. Due to their delicate nature fossil insect faunas of this age are extremely rare not only in Britain but across Europe.

The village is interestingly placed geologically with chalk, Upper Greensand and Gault, Kimmeridge Clay and even some Portland Stone to name just some of the formations. This diversity is reflected in the plant communities that thrive in these differing habitats which in turn creates the potential for more biodiversity in the fauna.

At times, the village merges seamlessly with the wider countryside which is quite open and rolling, although there are small wooded areas within that landscape and still some hedgerow features.

It is sometimes difficult to separate landscape features from historic features so connected have they become and one can actually ‘read’ the history of Osmington in the land. People have left their mark on the countryside and will continue to do so, the challenge now is to ensure that the impact we have continues to be as positive as theirs, for the benefit of ourselves and for future generations.