St Alban's Head

St Aldhelm's Chapel is a Norman chapel on St Aldhelm's Head in the parish of Worth Matravers, Swanage, Dorset. It stands close to the cliffs, 108 metres (354 ft) above sea level. It is a Grade I listed building.The square stone chapel stands within a low circular earthwork, which may be the remains of a pre-Conquest Christian enclosure. The building has several architectural features which are unusual for a chapel; the square shape, the orientation of the corners of the building towards the cardinal points, and the division and restriction of the interior space by a large central column.The lack of evidence for an altar or a piscina suggests that the building may not have been built as a chapel. It may have originally been built as a watchtower for Corfe Castle, covering the sea approaches to the south. Its identification as a purpose-built chapel rests on records of payments to a chaplain in the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272).The interior of the chapel is approximately 7.7 metres (25 ft) square. In the centre is a square pier supporting four square rib vaults, with the heavy ribs leading to transverse arches, all stop-chamfered. In the north-west side is a Norman round-arched doorway. A small window is contemporary with the doorway. The corners of the chapel are orientated towards the cardinal points. The interior of the chapel contains a 12th-century groin vault, supported by a central column. Evidence uncovered during 20th century repairs to the chapel roof suggest that it may have been topped with a beacon at some time. The roof now bears a stone cross erected in 1873.In 1957 a monumental slab of Purbeck stone was uncovered by ploughing in a field 400 metres (1,300 ft) NNE of the chapel. The slab, about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) long and 0.75 metres (2 ft 6 in) wide at the head, was carved with a Celtic-style cross in relief. Below the slab was a grave containing the skeleton of a woman with arms crossed, placed within a row of upright stones. Eight pieces of iron, with traces of wood, were also found in the grave. The woman's age was estimated at 30 to 40 years, and the grave dated to the late 13th century. Nearby were the foundations of a building 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) square. The slab is now in the porch of St Nicholas' Church, Worth Matravers.

Chapman's Pool is a small cove to the west of Worth Matravers on the Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, England.

Winspit is a disused quarry on the cliffs near Worth Matravers in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England. To the west and east are the hills of West Man and East Man. Until around 1940 Winspit was used as a stone quarry, providing stone for buildings in London. During World War II it was used as a site for naval and air defences. After the war the caves were opened to the public.The quarry is now a lesser-known tourist attraction. Recently many of Winspit's caves have been closed off for public safety and bat conservation.In March 2022, it was announced that the National Trust had purchased the 350 acre Weston Farm, including Winspit and its bat caves, adding to its other landholdings in the village and its vicinity such as Spyway.

Worth Matravers () is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The village is situated on the cliffs west of Swanage. It comprises limestone cottages and farm houses and is built around a pond, which is a regular feature on postcards of the Isle of Purbeck.The civil parish stretches from the coast northwards to, and just beyond, the A351 road from Corfe Castle to Swanage. The village of Worth Matravers is situated on side roads towards the south of the parish, which also includes the village of Harman's Cross on the main road to the north.

Egmont Bight is a shallow embayment at the southern end of the Encombe valley in Dorset, England. It is part of the Jurassic Coast.

The Square and Compass is a Grade II listed public house in Worth Matravers, Dorset. Built in the 18th century as a pair of cottages before becoming a public house, the Square and Compass got its name in 1830 from a landlord who had been a stonemason. The building includes a museum of fossils and other local artefacts and the pub is one of only five nationally that has been included in every edition of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide since 1974. In 2015, the landlord built a sculpture of tree trunks, dubbed Woodhenge. He was told to take it down by the local council, but after an online petition he was allowed to keep it standing for two years. As of December 2020, Woodhenge remains standing.

Encombe House is a privately owned, Grade II* listed country house built in 1735 on the Encombe Estate near the village of Kingston and about 1-mile (1.6 km) inland of Dorset's Jurassic Coast in southern England. The parkland is Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

The Halsewell was an East Indiaman that was wrecked on 6 January 1786 at the start of a voyage from London to Madras. She lost her masts in a violent storm in the English Channel, and was driven onto the rocks below a cliff on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. The vicar of nearby Worth Matravers recorded the event in his parish register: On the 4th, 5th and 6th day of January, a remarkable snow storm, sometimes a hurricane, with the wind at south. On the latter day, at two in the morning, the Halsewell East Indiaman, 758-tons burthen, commanded by Captain Richard Pierce, bound for Bengal, was lost in the rocks between Seacombe and Winspit quarries in this parish. Never did happen so complete a wreck. The ship long before day-break was shattered to pieces... Of over 240 crew and passengers, only 74 survived. The shipwreck shocked the nation. The King visited the scene of the tragedy. The wreck of the Halsewell was the subject of poems, paintings and an orchestral symphony. Many years later Charles Dickens described the wreck in a short story.

Kingston is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck in the county of Dorset in southern England.

Scoles Manor, also known as Scoles Farm House, is former farmhouse and a Grade II* listed building, two miles from Corfe Castle in Dorset, England. It is believed to be the oldest continuously occupied building in Corfe Castle parish. The main part of the house was built in 1635 and there is a medieval structure attached which has been dated to 1280 and which was either a chapel or a small hall house. The name Scoles is derived from the family called Scoville or Scovil who originally came from the village of Escoville in Normandy. There are records of Scovilles living here in the 13th and 14th centuries but the property was then passed to their female descendants (including Dacombes and Colsons) before being bought in c. 1810 by John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon.

Spyway is an isolated property in the parish of Worth Matravers in Dorset and is owned by the National Trust. It is located on the route of the Priest's Way. It is notable for having 140 million-year old dinosaur footprints.

The Priest's Way is the historical route taken by clergy from St Nicholas's, Worth Matravers to St Mary's Church, Swanage in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. The track arose as a result of St Mary's being a chapel of ease to St Nicholas's, and followed the route priests took to say mass in Swanage. A modern footpath and bridleway follows much of the route.