Worth Matravers

In the graveyard of St Nicholas’ Church is the grave of a local farmer, Benjamin Jesty, whose tomb inscription is worth quoting in full: An upright and honest man, particularly noted for having been the first person known that introduced the Cow Pox by inoculation, and who, from his great strength of mind, made the experiment from the cow on his wife and two sons in the year 1774. His family’s ‘great strength of mind’ might also have been noted since the inoculation was made using a knitting needle. The man usually credited with discovering inoculation, Edward Jenner, didn’t make his first successful experiment until 1796 – twenty-two years after Benjamin’s.

Standing high on the cliffs of St Aldhelm’s Head, a couple of miles south of the village and accessible only by a bridleway, the Chapel of St Aldhelm stands alone. It is one of the oldest churches in Dorset, a low square building with a fine Norman doorway and one solitary window. Uniquely, the chapel has no east wall as the corners of the walls are aligned to the points of the compass. In its dank, dim interior the stonework is bare of decoration, just a central column from which eight ribs extend to the walls. According to legend, the church was built in 1140 by a local man in memory of his newly-married daughter and her husband. He was watching from this clifftop as the boat in which they were sailing to a new home was caught in a sudden squall and capsized. All on  board perished.