Climb back out of the quarry. At the top of the cross the third field diagonally to the corner of a Walk guide written by Paul Hyland Ancient dry stone wall cliff turn right along the coast path. Go through paddock. Climb into the paddock and continue The Museum of the Stone Industry, run by Photography by Ben Osborne and Angie Green A short walk to the next gate. Now consider the route to Langton diagonally over two more stiles which give access the Local History and Design by Artcore Studio Ltd. and the loads smugglers routinely carried home. to a path beside a private garden. The path leads Preservation Society*, is behind the © Artsreach 2009 to a rough road, The Hyde; turn right into it and church, off St George’s Close. Reg Saville, Smuggling was almost a respectable emerge onto Langton High Street. its founder, recalls how an elderly and Further information: much respected quarryman finally crossed Dancing industry here. Langton’s best-known Eric Benfield Purbeck Shop smuggler was Thomas Hayward. He rented Turn left towards the King’s Arms. Licensed the threshold. Once inside he wept to see Cambridge University Press 1940 how his trade – his life – was valued. the quarry from Mrs Serrell, an ideal place in 1742 as the Mason’s Arms, it was rebuilt and R.J. Saville (ed.) Ancient Order of Purbeck rechristened early in the nineteenth century. for a quiet landing. Quarryman and At the corner of the Marblers and Stonecutters: Articles of Ledge Smuggled spirits were decanted into English smuggler, he was also sometime postmaster, churchyard stands Agreement etc. Langton Matravers Local parish clerk, sexton and church warden. bottles on the premises and telltale barrels burnt History & Preservation Society 1996 on fragrant bonfires. Cross the road to the cemetery. the Purbeck Quarryman carved Ilay Cooper Purbeck Revealed Ascend diagonally across the field. Before by Mary Spencer James Pembroke Publishing 2004 reaching the corner pass through a gap in the Many names in the graveyard match those Watson (1913-2006) Paul Hyland Purbeck: The Ingrained Island wall, then turn right and through a gap in the of sixteenth-century signatories to the Purbeck Quarryman Articles of Agreement of the Ancient Order who, as a girl, rode Gollancz 1978, Dovecote Press 1989 next hedge-covered wall. Turn left and climb the up from her home at Downshay and learnt the of Purbeck Marblers and Stonecutters. Langton Matravers Local History and hill, keeping field boundaries on your left, elements of the sculptor’s craft in Lander’s Quarry. through a scrubby patch at the top, and over a Close to the road, on the left, Frederick Preservation Society (10.00-12.00 and stile. Soon you reach a gateway and a stone stile Harris shares a grave with his father Alfred St George’s Church’s nave roof is higher 14.00-16.00hrs from April 1st to on your left. Walk through, or climb the stile’s and a niece he never knew. Fred looked than its fifteenth-century tower. By 1828 September 30th; closed on Sundays). steps. Continue to after the pony in his dad’s quarry. He was the roof and ceiling were in bad World Heritage site: the north, killed at the top of the slide in 1888, aged condition, partly because of the weight of www.jurassiccoast.com Cpation here? keeping the wall 11. The capstan’s spack (the pole that smuggled goods frequently concealed in on your right for turned the winding gear) spun when a Please let us know if you have enjoyed this the church’s loft. Rebuildings of 1828 and Purbeck Footprints a field’s length, chain broke and struck him on the head. 1875-6 swept memorials away, but you can walk by emailing [email protected]. until you come to see the medieval roof-line on the inner Caption here? the Priest’s Way. Walk up towards the church. Notice the stone west wall and the 1946 statue of St www.artsreach.co.uk everywhere, from paves to roof tiles, the product Leonard by the marbler Walter Haysom. 01305 269512 A walk of about 3 miles Cross it, ignoring the waymark, and go of Langton’s exploitation of the Downsvein for with steep ascents straight ahead for two field lengths. When you which London developed such a voracious appetite Time warps aside, your car should be where at the coast are level with Langton House (away to the left) after the Civil War and the Great Fire. you left it. Purbeck Footprints Radar was researched here in World War Mrs Serrell had the Great Barn built Look at the cliff: the top shows the lowest Two. The Telecommunications Research c.1800. Smugglers employed Spyway Barn’s of the Purbeck Beds. Then come the Establishment (TRE), based at Worth bull to guard contraband; what’s more, the Portland Shrimp Bed and the rest of the Matravers, requisitioned houses in Serrells’ cottages in Durnford Drove had Portland Freestone. The Under Freestone A short walk Langton. It was in the grounds of Spyway communicating roof spaces where ‘hot’ was taken from galleries now walled-up to Dancing Ledge House that TRE developed H2S Town goods could be hidden and moved around. and left to bats. Beneath the quarry floor Finder radar for Lancaster bombers, the the Cherty Series begins. Chert is to Start in Langton Matravers, ‘long town’ by name and by ‘sixth sense’ essential for the bombing of Walk straight across the field and between limestone as flint is to chalk. Dancing nature. Park on High Street, near the church (OS map German cities. stone gate posts in a dry stone wall. Here you Ledge itself is the Prickle Bed or Puffin reference: SY995787). Begin by turning up Durnford are on top of the limestone world, with the Ledge. See the cart tracks punched into Drove, a short distance above the church on the opposite Continue past Langton House and through wind, ravens, butterflies and blown grass, the floor and worn smooth by the wheels side of the road. Spyway Farm’s gate. Soon you cross the Priest’s between walls which mimic the rise and fall of of man-drawn ‘horn carts,’ with outcurved Way, a romantic but in parts stark road by which strata beneath your feet. shafts, used to shift stone to the boats. Durnford Drove is not exciting, but walk the priest travelled from his church in important in a time warp and you may meet to its dependent chapel at the quarrymen in frock coats and top hats humble fishing village of Sandwich, or . coming from Dancing Ledge, a crocodile The path takes a dogleg through Spyway of boys from one of Langton’s schools Barn’s farmyard. In a stone shed, next to the marching to swim down there, boffins Great Barn, the National Trust have installed from the research establishment, good information boards. smugglers with tubs on their way to church, and maybe the occasional escapee from the institution up the road. Dancing Ledge looking West The headmaster’s swimming pool

Go straight ahead up the track towards Across the next field is a kissing gate between In 1893, Thomas Pellat, first headmaster Langton House. This was a secure institution – stone posts by a carved cow’s head. Beyond of Langton’s first private school, then Spyway House – for boys with behavioural that a waymark sends you down over steep turf, Durnford House, had the swimming pool problems; it was less popular in the village than bald rock and steps. Aim for the end of a dry blasted out of the ledge and fenced in by the six private schools established between 1893 stone wall at the bottom of the valley. Cross the iron grilles to keep the riffraff out. The and 1929. It resembles a well-kept asylum, but fence by a stile and descend rough steps into the power of the sea favoured the riffraff. now comprises twenty-five apartments. Caption here? quarry above Dancing Ledge itself.