Acton
Clive Hannay in ‘an exposed, bare place’ that sums up the essence of Purbeck
Published in August ’17
The appropriately named Lane End Cottage in Acton
There are lots of places in Britain called Acton. Most of them derive their name from Old English ‘ac’, an oak tree, so mean ‘the place with an oak tree’. Purbeck likes to be different: its Acton appears in the Domesday Book (and elsewhere up to the 16th century) as ‘Tacton’. This means either ‘Tacca’s farm’ or, more likely, ‘the place where tegs (young sheep) are reared’.
The derivation of the name reminds us that although today, when one thinks of Acton and the other villages on the Isle of Purbeck’s limestone coastal plateau, one thinks first of stone quarrying, agriculture was at least as important until about the 17th century. So indeed was fishing, and the sighting of a shoal would bring quarrymen up from the shafts and down to the shore. Even today, it is noticeable when walking around the village how many small boats, floats and other necessities of fishing are to be seen.
The other main impression of the village is how compact it is. The cottages crowd together with very little space for gardens; in the days before modern sanitation, this also meant very little space for privies, and community bucket closets were the only solution. That at least has changed, but with its unmade roads and jostling houses, the village gives the impression of being much as it was in the 1600s. This feeling is helped by the fact that any new building or improvements have of necessity used the local stone, giving a consistency of appearance. Only if you look up do differences become apparent: most of the buildings retain their Purbeck stone roofs, but roofs of reconstituted stone and even of Welsh slate have begun to make their appearance.
The Bonfield family have been quarrying stone around Acton since 1651 and continue to do so. Back then, it would have been closer to mining than quarrying: a vertical or near-vertical shaft with galleries or ‘lanes’ running off it. Capstans would be used to haul stone along the lanes to the bottom of the shaft and then up to the surface. The air in the lanes would be stifling and the quarrymen’s candles would reduce the available oxygen still further, while the freestone was notorious for its instability and liability to cause falls. The life of the Acton quarryman should not be glamorised by the passage of time: it was unrelentingly hard and dangerous. Today, the area around Acton is honeycombed with underground lanes and parts of the village sit on a crust only fifteen feet thick.
Heavy lifting gear has replaced the capstans and giant lorries the horse-drawn carts that used to carry the stone away. In fact, the whole industry has changed with the spread of open-cast quarrying: no shaft or lanes but a large hole in the ground which is simply extended until the required stone is exposed. Despite the dangers of the old ways, open-cast met some resistance, Nelson Thomson, an old quarryman, writing: ‘Open-cast is awful destruction to me. It’s beating a lot of the ground about unnecessarily and they take the stone out and put it on top of the good land.’
The skills of dressing and carving the stone, an integral part of the quarryman’s job, are now being taught at the Burngate Stone Carving Centre, just across the road from Acton.
In the Middle Ages, Worth Matravers was one of the most important settlements on Purbeck and it was here that the priest was based who also had care of the chapel at Swanage: then a tiny fishing village of a few hovels clustered on the shoreline. The path by which he would tramp the four miles or so along the plateau between the two places, passing just to the south of Acton, is today known as the Priest’s Way. It was also an important route by which smugglers distributed their contraband.
From left to right: Mark and Jim Gillespie talking to Stanley Bonfield at Blacklands Quarry, first dug in 1950/51. The stone orders (for Quoins and Jambs) are written on an Ashlar
Just as agriculture and fishing – and smuggling – have played their part alongside quarrying in the history of Acton, so today the village harvests its share of the crop on which modern Purbeck relies so heavily: tourists. A high proportion of Acton’s properties are second homes or holiday cottages for rent.
The broadcaster and cricket commentator,
Brian Johnston, developed his love for Purbeck there before moving into Swanage. Less well-known is that the original James Bond, Sean Connery, also owned a property in Acton for a time, although it was mostly used by his son Jason, who is best-remembered for playing the title role in Robin of Sherwood.
Acton has been called ‘an exposed, bare place’ and it is certainly not part of the picture-postcard image of Purbeck. But in this rugged landscape one feels closest to the real history of Purbeck and its people. As Eric Benfield wrote in 1940 in his classic book on the Purbeck stone industry, Purbeck Shop, ‘Acton will be the last place where the pure-bred quarryman will be found when the time comes to preserve him as a relic of something worthwhile in the past.’
The edge of the bus shelter and call box on the B3069, due north of the village centre
Acton is signposted down a narrow lane which turns south off the B3069 top road between Kingston and Langton Matravers, just to the west of Langton Matravers. There is a parking space immediately on the right. Walk on down the lane, which peters out into a track. Immediately past the village notice-board and the display showing all the properties in the village, turn left. Just before this track narrows and bends sharply left, turn right up a narrow path between houses, at the end of which turn left on a broader track. Follow this as it bends to the right and reaches a junction with another track.
Here turn left and pass Blacklands on the left – if a place the size of Acton could be said to have a suburb, Blacklands would be it – to reach the Priest’s Way at a T-junction. Turn left, go through a gate and walk downhill, enjoying the view over Swanage Bay to the Isle of Wight if it is a clear day. As the track starts to bend to the right in about 250 yards, go through a gate on the left and walk up the left-hand field-edge, alongside a drystone wall.
At the end of the field, go through a gate and follow the left-hand edge of the next field. 80 yards before the first corner, go through a gate on the left and continue straight ahead on a rough drive. The drive leads up to the road, where turn left. In 70 yards turn left over a stile and bear right to cross the field diagonally, aiming for the right-hand end of the buildings of Acton. At the far side of the field, cross another stile and turn right to return to your car.
