ROC Monitoring Post • Worth Matravers

Royal Observer Corp Monitoring Post

Would have once been manned by volunteers from the Royal Observer Corps, who would be responsible for reporting nuclear blasts and monitoring fallout, should they have happened, during the Cold War. 

This one was opened in 1962 and closed in 1991.

As far as I'm aware this one is still complete underground, though now rather overgrown above it.

///earplugs.bolt.consumed

GRID REF: SY 98424 78367

St Aldhelm's Chapel • Worth Matravers

St. Aldhelm's is 800 years old. Legend has it that in the 12th century, a bride and groom were drowned off the coast here in a shipwreck. The brides father paid for the little building to be constructed so that a light may be lit here to guide other ships around the coast at night. In this telling, it was only later made a chapel. This isn't an unreasonable idea, as there are references in the 17th century to there being a seamark out here. It's also worth noting that the cross on top of the building is a Victorian addition. If it were built as a religious house, it's more likely to have been something like a hermitage or place of contemplation rather than a chapel for worship. 

In the 1950s, a burial was discovered nearby, and the foundations of a small structure were discovered. There has been a suggestion that this may have been an anchorite's cell, which would be in keeping with the idea that this remote spot was used for worship by a recluse rather than regular service. 

I suspect the truth is a little of all of them. The building of the structure may well have been funded by a grieving father, and it may well have acted as a place of worship before the Dissolution of the Monasteries and a seamark after (Not unlike Greyfriars Tower in King's Lynn). 

Another legend says that there was a leper colony out here, which may also have threads of truth wound through it. 

Whatever the history here, it's a stunning place to visit! You can follow my walk to get to this chapel in my latest YouTube video and blog.

 ///pesky.reprints.reassured