The History of the Site.
John Upham . 1805. Chesilton and the Common.
Introduction.
When the above watercolour was painted in 1805 to mark Governor Penn and his groom’s visit to the children of Underhill, Chiswell was the largest settlement on the Isle of Portland and even had the reputation of being somewhat “metropolitan and seedy.” The wrecks of many sailing ships lie on the sea floor off Chiswell and as in all coastal communities trade of many kinds, of goods which come from the sea, was brisk and worth the inconvenience of the sea which flooded the area every winter. John Upham, a fine topographical artist with an eye for the colourful, depicted well the clutter of the houses, the energy and bustle of this village clustered around the public house which stood proudly on top of the great Chesil Bank itself. These sturdy stone cottages stood with their gable to the sea, their ground floors built on shingle and furnished with floodways and contraband cellars, the roofs often thatched and charming with quaint attic windows. The roadways wove in and out of houses, always respecting the shifting tide of shingle. From the beach larger access lanes or ‘opes’ ran down to the main road, escape routes for the sea to pour through in times of trouble, or quiet passages for the odd fisherman or smuggler to bring his bounty home. Today the names of these opes still convey local meaning; Big Ope, Dark Ope and Pebble Ope.
The stalwart people of Chiswell were either fishermen or quarrymen, sometimes both. Many merchants and small tradesmen also flourished in this mercantile environment, for, by 1805, the village was a burgeoning centre of trade and exchange.
Chiswell has an ancient and documented history. It was known to have been inhabited in Romano-British times and named “Coesl”. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronical it was pillaged by the Vikings in the 8th and 9th Century. Attacks by pirates and other marauders followed in succeeding generations. But the sea, as well as great Provider, was also the most dangerous of its Raiders.
Just 19 years after John Upham had recorded this vibrant village, in November 1824, a hurricane blew up, overtopping the beach and sending a great sea surge through the village. In all 36 houses were destroyed, 100 made uninhabitable and 28 people died, buried in their fallen houses or swept away in the sea. An eyewitness’s account captures the fear of the people on that terrible day:
“Twern’t a sea — not a bit of it — twer the great sea hisself rose up level like and come on right over the ridge and all, like nothing in this world”
The sea overtopping the Chesil Beach at Chiswell in 1987.
There was to be no real recovery after this event, even though a thriving fishing- based industry lingered on until well into the 20th Century. But recurring floods, fear of the sea, growing affluence and the advent of the railway enticed Portlanders to move to the top of the Island where living was not so harsh.
Remnants from the time of that 1824 flood remain in Chiswell today, like fragments of faded ribbon from a once fine bonnet. At the northern end of the village in a walled enclosure there is a standing house wall and the surviving footprint of an early 17th Century house, together with the remains of a large flagstone floor. The house itself can be seen in the Upham watercolour .
Detail of Chesilton and the Common. The two stone houses in the lower right -hand corner are now part of the Walled Garden.
It is the first of a pair of two story buildings facing what is now known as Lerret Ope. Smoke from the chimneys drift up to the ridge of the beach. The houses are well built of Portland ashlar, with mullioned windows and central doorway in the ubiquitous style of a Dorset longhouse. The corner house has a very large yard, either for stone working or was it used as a smallholding? Did it belong to a master mason whose family had become prosperous during the building of Portland Castle in the 1530’s, one of Henry VIII ‘s fortifications against the French? Alongside these fine houses, to the rear is a smaller building, perhaps a typical one storey stone cottage from an earlier age when only fishermen got their living so close to the sea. To the west clinker boats lie about on the beach and people walk on top of the Chesil Bank as they do today.
Two neighbouring buildings to the right and not shown in the watercolour date from the 16th Century - Betty’s House now incorporated in the Chesil Gallery and another which locals call The Old House which was in all likelihood a house or shop for smoking fish. Further to the north in what is now Pebble Lane (originally Back Lane) was another fine 17th Century house, 25 Chiswell, which had stables to the west. Opposite built into the beach was a washhouse and a 19th Century blacksmith’s shop.
Although danger from sea flooding is, and has been ever present in this stretch of coast, much of the 20th century’s dereliction in Old Chiswell can be attributed to a mixture of poverty, gross municipal neglect, and private greed.
Community Garden for Chiswell
By 2001, after the bad storms of the late 1970’s, and the completion of the Chesil Sea Defences, a surge of social housing started to replace the open spaces and lost houses of Chiswell. The community, small though it was, reacted to this by demanding some good quality community space. At that time the Countryside Agency was promoting a new and innovative project, Doorstep Greens, that is green spaces to be acquired and managed by local people themselves. A pressure group in the village formed a Trust, a Company Limited by Guarantee, the Chiswell Community Trust, and applied to the Countryside Agency for a grant to rescue at least one of the empty sites. The one chosen had high three metre stone walls and measured approximately 240 square metres. But the site was sorry indeed and mostly covered in concrete and tarmac. In the 1940’s a reinforced concrete air-raid warden’s shelter had been built in the south corner and in the 1960’s on the northern side where the 17th century houses stood in John Upham’s painting, a public urinal had completely obscured the fine internal ashlar walls of the once proud little houses.
Where a 1960's Public Urinal had once stood , September 2004.
At some stage the local Authority had demolished part of the wall facing the High Street in order to park lorries and sandbags in the enclosure The site itself was claimed by Weymouth & Portland Borough Council who registered their ownership in October 2002.
Now, armed with a generous grant from the Countryside Agency and a number of other lottery based grants, the Chiswell Community Trust paid for a 30 year lease on the walled area in order to create a community green space, a community garden. Nobody knew what actually lay beneath the accumulation of modern concrete and tarmacadam. Planning Permission was applied for and was given to change the storage yard into a community garden.
Because of the restrictions imposed by a harsh marine environment and the ever- present threat of flooding, traditional garden planting was not an option in Chiswell. Advice on what to plant was sort and generously given by professional gardeners and garden designers, in particular Penelope Hobhouse. The community wanted trees, so Crataegus species and Tamarix in raised beds were decided upon. Shrubs such Convolvulus cneorum, and various species of Olearia were bought. When it was realised that the high walls were sunny and sheltered, people asked for espalier fruit trees and climbers of every kind. Joy in creating this garden was abundant, for few people in Chiswell have gardens big enough to grow trees of their own.
At an early stage it was realised that there would be very little soil, but there were plenty of pebbles. So matching the Chesil Beach itself, it was decided that part of the garden site would be planted with shingle ridge plants, the yellow horned poppy, sea kale, sea pea and sea campion, plants well able to survive the vicissitudes of sea and shifting shingle .
The flowering plants of the Chesil Beach. 2005
The local children were keen to have birds and bugs. So the builder incorporated bird holes in the walls as he re-pointed them — ‘penthouses for birds’ the children call them!
It was only early in 2005 that the 17th Century house at the north end of the Garden was discovered and identified .
March 2005. Where the Public Urinal had once been - now revealed as part of the 17th Century house in Upham's painting.
Recently, while digging to plant climbers against a sunny wall, part of a beautiful flagstone floor was uncovered and we realised we had another cottage inside the compound.
Clearly the Chiswell Community now had an archaeological site as well as a garden. The discovery has strengthened the sense of pride people feel. Old photographs have been found and poems written. There is a great desire now to protect all these finds in order to celebrate the uniqueness of both the history and ecology of this community on the margins of the Chesil Beach.
Very unfortunately, the local authority, instead of working in partnership with the community, is actively engaged in opposition to it. Despite the designation of this area as a Conservation area, the Planning Department is insisting that a metre door be inserted into the fragile 17th house wall, regardless of any need for such a damaging intrusion. The integrity of our historic finds is being jeopardised. If we do not comply, the Council has threatened to forfeit the community’s lease in March 2006. We are aware that a developer is keen to build houses on the site.
There is quiet despair among local people that yet again the heavy hand of municipal bureaucracy will disregard their needs and aspirations.
M.Somerville
Chiswell - December 2005