Dewlish
Clive Hannay in the village where a mouse revealed mammoths
Published in August ’18
Old Manor Farm House: now a rather beautiful village hall
Dewlish is a strange contradiction. It is an ancient settlement, mentioned in Domesday as ‘Devenis’, but it is 19th- and 20th-century houses that seem to make up the majority of the village. There are older buildings to be found, there is a certain amount of thatch and a lot of flint and brick banding, but this is not a village of antique cottages with roses round the door climbing into low thatched eaves. Its setting, however, is lovely, in the valley of the Devil’s Brook, whose sinister name is no more than a derivation from the Celtic for ‘black stream’, and which flows down to meet the Piddle near Athelhampton.
The hummocks and hollows of Court Close cover some 17 acres to the south of the church. There is still work to be done on the dating and purpose of the buildings that were here, but they represent the earliest signs of settlement in Dewlish.
Parsonage Farm House
Looking down School Lane
Until the mid-18th century, Dewlish was on the important road that led from Dorchester to Blandford and thence on to London. Then in 1754 came the turnpike, which ran further south, roughly on the course of the present A35, allowing the village to sink back into its quiet isolation.
Some fifty years later, Dewlish came briefly to prominence again when a sharp-eyed geologist (his name, alas, is lost to posterity) noticed sand pouring from a mousehole high up on the hill to the east of the village. Now as far as its geology is concerned, it would be difficult to find a better example of the Dorset chalk than the area around Dewlish, and in such a formation, sand is the last thing you would expect to see. Further investigation revealed the remains of two mammoths, each seventeen feet tall, who a million years ago would have walked the banks of the river which then flowed high above the village and which laid down the sand where the monsters lay undisturbed until revealed by the diggings of a tiny mouse. Tusks and bones from the mammoths are in the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester.
Dewlish’s other notable find was made in 1740: a tessellated Roman pavement showing a leopard leaping onto a gazelle. It measured ‘sixty-five paces by fifteen’, so was exceptionally large. It suggested that there was a huge Roman villa in the grounds of what is now Dewlish House.
Walking round the village, you might reasonably assume that Manor House Farm, built in 1630, right next to the church, was its ‘big house’. In fact that ‘big house’ lies half a mile to the south-west. A fine example of Queen Anne architecture, but with the formality of that period softened by touches of individuality, Dewlish House was built in 1702. There is a run of eleven windows on the south front, with a classical triangular pediment
above. On the other side, the central pediment is curved, rather after the style of a Dutch gable. The most notable feature of the interior is a grand staircase with carved brackets and twisted and fluted balusters.
In the 19th century, Dewlish House was home to the Michel family. Sir John Michel was typical of his time: part soldier, part empire-builder, with a dash of buccaneer thrown in. He fought in the Crimea and in India and commanded the force that took Peking in 1860. He burnt down the Summer Palace, but not before he had looted many of its treasures and sent them back to Dewlish. He was made a Field Marshal for his pains. Michel married his daughter to his aide-de-camp, Frankfort de Montmorency, who himself became a general and whose son, Raymond,
won the VC in the Sudan and was killed in the Boer War.
Memorials to all of these may be found both within and in the churchyard of the parish church of All Saints. The church itself is something of a hotch-potch, with remnants of a Norman building being re-used, a 14th-century tower, a 15th-century chancel and a 16th-century north aisle. And that was before the ‘improvers’ of the 19th century got their hands on it. Yet the overall effect is rather pleasing and comfortable.
Dewlish’s most famous ghost is Betsey Caine, who gave her name to the corner by Parsonage Farm House. She hanged herself behind a door in the house, which remains bricked up to this day. Newberry Parsons, who was her exact contemporary and a churchwarden for forty years, saw her sitting on the gate late one night. Another Dewlish ghost actually walks some six miles away. On his death in 1756, Thomas Skinner was buried in Winterborne Stickland church, not in Dewlish, as he would have preferred. His resentful ghost has often been seen in Stickland church, where he knocks books off the altar and generally make a nuisance of himself. To bring Dewlish’s story into the 20th century, the first wave of US troops that landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day was encamped and trained in the village.
A sense of the village and its setting in its quiet valley can be obtained by a walk that is barely 1¾ miles long, but it is enough of a switchback to satisfy those who want some brisk exercise. Park and start on the side of the road opposite the gate into the churchyard (SY775982; DT2 7LR). Walk up to the cross-roads and turn right opposite the war memorial. At the bottom of the first slope, in about 200 yards, turn right into School Lane. Follow this down to meet a road at Betsey Caine’s Corner, where continue straight ahead.
The road bends to the right, crosses the Devil’s Brook on a bridge and begins to climb steeply. It reaches woodland on the right and at the end of this, just before the road bends sharply left, turn right through a wooden gate. Follow a path along the top of the wood, just inside its boundary. In about ¼ mile, the path bears gently right, towards the centre of the wood, and starts to descend.
In a further ¼ mile, with a gate emblazoned ‘Private. Keep out’ ahead, double back to the right on a narrower path and cross three stiles in quick succession to enter an open field. Continue in the same direction to reach a footbridge on the left, about 25 yards before the end of the field. On the other side of the bridge, bear right to continue again in the same direction, passing the old stable block on the left. Keep to the right of its drive, but cross a drive down to what may have been a gardener’s house, to judge by the size of its walled garden.
By this point the village church is visible through the trees ahead. Walk towards it and leave the field by no fewer than three stiles. In the next field, bear left to skirt Court Close and aim just to the left of a large tree, which itself is to the left of houses on the skyline. Cross a stile onto a lane and turn right. Walk up to the cross-roads, where turn right to return to your car.
• Clive Hannay would like to thank Margaret Groves for her help with this article .
