St. Aldhelm's Chapel straddles a divide and forms a meeting point - that between the safety of the land and the menace of the sea which rages below and then the divide between historic fact and legend. The danger of the Purbeck coast at this point is undisputed. History tells of shipwrecks such as that of the Halsewell that was wrecked near Seacombe in January 1786 with 242 on board 166 of whom lost their lives or then again it tells of the French liner l'Atlantique that could be watched from the Purbeck cliffs on 5th January 1933 as it blazed in the English Channel. But such historic precision is quickly lost as we seek to trace the story of the Chapel and the coast further back in time. Even the name is confusing. The coastline is known to mariners as St Alban's Head named after the first English martyr whereas the Chapel is named after another saint - the first Bishop of Sherborne. The architecture is clearly Norman, dating back to the late 12th Century, but the doorway is more typically Saxon. When and by whom was it built? One local legend would even have it that it was the work of a local father who had been forced to witness the drowning of his recently married daughter and her husband: all is shrouded in mystery which is perhaps why it was known to locals as the 'Devil's Chapel' for it was common to associate the unknown and misunderstood with Satanism. There are more mysteries but the truth would seem to lie in the clear link between religious practice and the more temporal realities of the danger posed by the sea. There are signs of an enclosure having existed near the door in the past which may have housed a priest and it is probable that the building had been a chantry where masses were said for the safety of the sailors who passed by below and who would then, when they called in to a nearby port, have made some monetary donation for the upkeep of the priest and the chapel. Indeed it is thought that where the cross now stands atop the main central pillar there was once a bell (or less likely a beacon of some sort) which would have been rung when the sea was stormy to alert sailors to the dangers of the limestone cliffs. The idea of a monetary gift for the priest has also come down through the ages - as it has in many parts of the country with local variations - in the belief that by dropping a pin into one of the holes in the central pillar a wish could be made (usually by a young lady hoping to marry a suitable young man). Today the chapel serves as a useful turning point for walkers before they wend their way home having witnessed a monument which has endured the passing of time and testifies to the resilience of the Purbeck stone it is built from which in turn comes from the very rocks whose threat was the cause of it being built in the first place. St Adelms Chapel Winspit The Village Pond The Village Church The Cafe and Craft Centre