STANTON ST. GABRIEL
The old village of Stanton St. Gabriel lay some two miles to the south-west of Morcombelake and on the western slope of Golden Cap which, at 618ft, is the highest cliff on England's southern coast. Once a small but flourishing settlement, it was abandoned nearly two centuries ago.
A small community had existed there from quite early on: it appears in the Domesday Book (1086) as "Stantone". The means of livelihood was agriculture, the shore being too steep and exposed for fishing. There was an adequate water supply and, when the old coach-road from Dorchester to Exeter passed through the village, a means of communication.
The decline of the hamlet began when, during the 18th century, some of its working population left their fields and went to work in the new mills and rope-walks of Bridport, some five miles away. Then, the old coach-road proving inadequate and endangered by constant erosion, a new road was built one and a half miles inland, a turn-pike connecting Bridport and Lyme Regis (the existing A35 although not of today's dimensions and standard).
Thus was brought about the complete isolation of "Staunton Gabriel" and most of its remaining inhabitants drifted away to more accessible positions near the new road. Of the hamlet there is left only the farmhouse, believed to be of Elizabethan origin, near the ruins of the chapel and a small thatched cottage dating from around 1700.
THE OLD CHAPEL
The earliest known reference to the Church or Chapel of St. Gabriel is in an Ordinance of Robert, first Bishop of Salisbury, dated Christmas Day 1240. Originally it was a Parish Church to the small community established there but at some time during the Middle Ages it became a chapel-of-ease to the older and larger Parish Church of Whitchurch Canonicorum, St. Candida and Holy Cross.
A return submitted to the Church Commissioners in 1650 stated that St. Gabriel had a 'decent chapel' but the 'cure of souls', i.e. the parish, was supplied with a curate by the Minister of Whitchurch Canonicorum, maintained out of the small tithes of hemp and wool. A petition for their chapel to be made a parish church again, with maintenance for a settled minister, was apparently turned down. Their case - there were twenty-three families in the hamlet - they were more than two miles from Whitchurch, along a road exposed to such violence of wind and weather that they could seldom make the journey to church in winter - and they had incurred great expense for repairs to the chapel (ordered by the Vicar-General to the Archbishop of Canterbury) - went unheeded.
During the next 200 years there were continual reports of the cost of making good the toll of age and weather and of a gradual decline in the use of the chapel. By the end of the 18th century services were held there only once a month although some christenings and marriages were still taking place there in the early 19th century, the music being supplied by the church band from Whitchurch "who marched over with their instruments, with the Parson riding his horse" .
The building and consecration of a new chapel on the new turnpike in 1841 rang the death-knell of the tiny place of worship in the old village and it was no longer used -at least not for its proper purpose. Smugglers of the time made good use of its lonely location.
The Reverend T. Worthington, curate of Chideock, writing in 1880, said that within the memory of his older parishioners the old chapel had been a "receiving house for smuggled kegs". Brandy, tobacco and silks from France were rowed ashore on the quiet deserted beaches at St. Gabriel's mouth where a rough track up through the gully made a convenient route for carrying the contraband goods to the disused chapel. Thence, at the first opportune moment, the goods were taken inland via the back roads of the Marshwood Vale, no doubt to link up with similar illicit merchandise from Lyme Regis whose flourishing trade, apparently, was conducted with Morlaix in Brittany.
In course of time, when Coastguard Cottages were built at neighbouring Seatown and stiffer penalties were inflicted on those apprehended, the smuggling trade dwindled and died out. The last raison d'etre for the old chapel of Stanton St. Gabriel had vanished and it ceased to exist.
According to an old photograph, believed to have been taken between 1870 and 1880, the building at that time was still intact with a thatched roof in reasonable condition, but by the early years of the 20th century it had become a roofless ruin. Of the tiny sanctuary there remained only the porch with its outer arch, a window to its east with the lintel gone, and crumbling ivy-covered walls; the roofless aisle had become a waste of brambles and thistles. In an article in the Bridport News in 1906 John Alderton Collins said that the plot of land surrounding the ruins was believed to have been the churchyard and burial ground of the community, although there is no memorial of any kind in evidence, or record of any interment there for at least 200 years. He went on to say " although cattle have access to this ground and feed here just as in the adjacent field, yet according to what I have heard, no plough has ever been used upon it. There was a belief current among the simple village folk that if ever any attempt were made to plough up this ground the ploughshare would get broken."
The whole area, including Golden Cap, now belongs to the National Trust and is well cared for. The land is farmed traditionally so that there are rich and abundant flora and fauna to be enjoyed. The remaining buildings are restored and occupied, and the little that is left of the chapel is carefully preserved.
ST. GABRIEL'S CHURCH, MORCOMBELAKE
The Church of St. Gabriel, situated on the south side of the A35 in Morcombelake, was built in 1840-41 to serve the community which had been increasing there since the building of the new turnpike.
The foundation stone was laid in July 1840 by the Honourable Mrs. Law, wife of the Reverend William Towry Law who had been Vicar of the Church of St. Candida, Whitchurch Canonicorum. He was responsible for the greater part of the cost of building the new church.
The church was consecrated on 2nd October 1841. It provided seating for one hundred and ten: a grant from the Incorporated Society for promoting the Enlargement, Building and Repair of Churches and Chapels ensured "eighty seats free and un-appropriated for ever" .A mural plaque in the church records this.
There is documentary evidence (i) of the report that the rood beam, said to date from c.1500, was salvaged from the old chapel at Stanton St. Gabriel. Although damaged by natural decay and its fall among heavy stones it was taken to Morcombelake, expertly repaired and restored, then placed in the new church. A cross was made from some of the remaining old wood and placed on the rood-screen. According to the Parish Magazine of February 1914 a further cross was made out of more old wood and after many wanderings - as far afield as South Africa during the Boer War (ii) - eventually came back to Dorset and found its resting place as is only right and proper over the west door of the church in Morcombelake. The old font had been rescued too, its bowl re-cut and then replaced at the back of the church.
Thus links between the old chapel and the new church have been retained. Today whenever the elements permit occasional services are held at the ruined chapel in particular on Ascension Day.
It is interesting to note that during a Field Study of the old chapel carried out by a lecturer and students of the Liverpool College of Building in July 1960, two corbel heads were found among the rubble of the chancel. The heads appear to be of a man (found to the north of the chancel) and a woman (to the south) and are considered to be 15th century. These corbels are in the possession of Dorchester museum.
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(i) Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society for 1961, Volume 83 page 106 states that excavations corroborate such evidence.
(ii) In the possession of the Rev. R. M. L. Lee who later gave it to his brother, Canon E. H. H. Lee, Vicar at Whitchurch Canonicorum from 1912, who placed it in St. Gabriel's Church.