St Catherine's Chapel is a small chapel situated on a hill above the village of

Abbotsbury Abbotsbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The settlement is in the unitary authority of Dorset about inland from the English Channel coast. The village, including Chesil Beach, the swannery and subtropic ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is dedicated to Saint Catherine. It is now in the guardianship of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, and became a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1956. The chapel is also scheduled together with the

field systems The study of field systems (collections of fields) in landscape history is concerned with the size, shape and orientation of a number of fields. These are often adjacent, but may be separated by a later feature. Field systems by region Czech Republ ...

and

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

on the hill. The chapel is best seen from the viewpoint on the B3157

Bridport Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and withi ...

road, with

Chesil Beach Chesil Beach (also known as Chesil Bank) in Dorset, England is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain.A. P. Carr and M. W. L. Blackley, "Investigations Bearing on the Age and Development of Chesil Beach, Dorset, and the Associat ...

in the background. The medieval strip

lynchet A lynchet or linchet is an Terrace (earthworks), earth terrace found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the British Isles. They are commonly found in vertical rows and more commonly referred to as "strip lyn ...

s etched into the side of the hill are known locally as the Chapel Rings.

History

Although no records survive of the chapel's construction, the chapel has been dated in style to the late 14th century, the same time as Abbotsbury's tithe barn was built. The chapel is built on a definite platform which could have been originally for a pagan temple. St Catherine's Chapel was built as a place of pilgrimage and retreat by the monks of the nearby Benedictine monastery

Abbotsbury Abbey Abbotsbury Abbey, dedicated to Saint Peter, was a Benedictine monastery in the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. The abbey was founded in the 11th century by King Cnut's thegn Orc and his wife Tola, who handsomely endowed the monastery wi ...

, which the chapel overlooks high up on the hilltop. Its position on the top of a hill about 80 m (260 ft) high, overlooking the coast from

Portland Bill Portland Bill is a narrow promontory (or bill) at the southern end of the Isle of Portland, and the southernmost point of Dorset, England. One of Portland's most popular destinations is Portland Bill Lighthouse. Portland's coast has been notorio ...

, meant that it was a prominent feature for seafarers. Only a handful of chapels of the same kind are located outside the precincts of the monasteries who constructed them. The isolated setting of the chapel granted the monks to withdraw from the monastery during Lent for private prayer and meditation. In the 16th century the main abbey buildings were destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries, but the chapel survived, most likely due to its usefulness as a coastal beacon and sea-mark. In later times a navigation light used to be lit at the top of the stair turret. The chapel was repaired in 1742 and the late 19th century, but is largely unaltered. Under the care of English Heritage, the chapel is open over the peak season, with free entry. Abbotsbury's local parish holds several informal services at St Catherine's Chapel during the year, usually in the latter half of the year, from June to December.

Design

The construction of the chapel, which has a rectangular structure, is entirely of locally quarried

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

golden buff limestone. It is notably robust in order to withstand the elements; the walls are thick and supported by stout buttresses, and the roof and even the panelled ceiling are also made of stone. The construction allows rainwater to drain off the roof through holes in the parapet wall between the buttresses. In the north-west corner is a tower. At the north-east corner a stair turret, octagonal on the outside, rises above the roof and gives access to the parapet. There is also a tiny oratory at roof level. The buttresses and the stair turret would have been originally crowned with pinnacles. A porch was constructed on both north and south walls. The stone slab roof was renewed during 1983 in Clipsham stone. The chapel has an effect of looking far larger than it really is. The high walls and tall parapets were designed to impress, and this sense of splendour is further enhanced by the chapel's lofty position. Within the interior of the chapel, stained glass windows and details of the roof picked out in bright colours would have been the effect in medieval times. At the vaulting's intersections are bosses carved with foliage, figure subjects and animals. The chapel's main window is a large triple window on the east wall, although there are smaller windows on other walls.

Tradition of St Catherine

St Catherine is the patron saint of spinsters and virgins, particularly those in search of husbands, and until the late 19th century the chapel had a local tradition where young women of Abbotsbury would 'wish', which involved using the niches provided (one for a knee and two other two holes for the hands) in the east

jamb A jamb (from French ''jambe'', "leg"), in architecture, is the side-post or lining of a doorway or other aperture. The jambs of a window outside the frame are called “reveals.” Small shafts to doors and windows with caps and bases are known ...

of the south doorway to 'post' prayers and make a wish to the saint asking for her help and aid. A traditional prayer used here says:

A husband, St Catherine,
A handsome one, St Catherine,
A rich one, St Catherine,
A nice one, St Catherine,
And soon, St Catherine.

In the local dialect version the request ends with the expression "Arn-a-one's better than Narn-a-one", meaning that anyone is better than 'never a one'. The dedication of the chapel to St Catherine of Alexandria is rare, but her cult was one of the most popular in medieval England. It was St Augustine's policy that his priests, sent out from Rome around 600 A.D. to convert the English, should replace pagan temples with Christian churches and chapels. The early Christian missionaries would naturally try to choose a patron saint that continued, as closely as possible, the pagan dedication of the temple, and this chapel was most likely an example of that. Chapels dedicated to St Catherine are often found on hills, possibly in reference to Mount Sinai.

In popular culture

The chapel appears briefly in the

Powell and Pressburger The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. ...

film ''

The Small Back Room ''The Small Back Room'', released in the United States as ''Hour of Glory'', is a 1949 film by the British producer-writer-director team of Powell and Pressburger, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring David Farrar (actor), David Farrar ...

''. The chapel was the inspiration behind

PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined loca ...

's song "The Wind", from her 1998 album ''

Is This Desire? ''Is This Desire?'' is the fourth studio album by English musician PJ Harvey, released on 28 September 1998 on Island Records. It was re-released on vinyl LP in late January 2021. A separate demo compilation of tracks from the album titled ''I ...

''. The lyrics of the song discuss the chapel's location on top of the hill, and end with an inversion of the prayer for a husband mentioned above. PJ Harvey lives and grew up near Abbotsbury.

References

External links