CERNE IS MUCH MORE THAN A RUDE GIANT! 

 

When Cerne Abbas is mentioned, many will think of the very rude giant carved into a chalk hill above the village. It is thought that the carving dates back to before the coming of the Romans. However, in the eyes of the local inhabitants Cerne's main claim to fame is not the giant, but rather the very ancient streets and buildings that make up the village itself.  The village is a jewel set in the beauty of the Dorset hills.

 

 

The name Abbas comes from the Benedictine Abbey founded there in 987 AD. The Doomsday Book 1086 indicates that the whole parish and many of the villages around were attached to the monastery. In the years that followed, it developed into an important town in the County.  But with the dissolution of monasteries in 1539 the Abbey was destroyed and the town declined in importance. Today there remains a gatehouse and a guesthouse situated behind Abbey House at the end of the street in which the fine parish church stands. Incidentally, this street must be one of the finest examples of architecture from medieval through to Georgian times.  There also remains the Abbey's 14th century tithe barn, which  is at the southern end of the village. The mainly 15th century church, has a much older chancel, which  was restored in the 1960's.

Another historically interesting feature is Saint Augustine's well, which is actually a spring that rises at the foot of Giant Hill to the north east of the village in what has become the parish burial ground.

The famous Dorsetshire author Thomas Hardy, who died in 1928, referred to Cerne Abbas in his novels as "Abbots Kernel".

 Dorchester, the county town of Dorset, about eight miles to the south, was used as the background for Thomas Hardy's novel 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'. In the Dorset County Museum, in Dorchester, the original manuscript of the novel is displayed along with a reconstruction of Hardy's study. Just southwest of Dorchester is the spectacular Maiden Castle which dates from around 100 BC. This was the site of a battle between the Romans and the Iron Age people of south west England in AD 43