Lulworth Cove holiday Day 3

We started in the ancient viilage of Worth Matravers, home of the Square and Compass Inn, where cider is brewed out the back. Food is limited to delicious homemade pies and pasties and this alehouse has not got around to having fancy bars, so all food and drinks is served through a hatch. Earlier customers have been physicist and astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell and nobel laureates Sir Alan Hodgkin and Sir Martin Ryle who were busy developing radar on the nearby cliffs from 1940 to 1942.

In the churchyard nearby are buried Benjamin Jesty and his wife. Many years earlier, in 1774, Benjamin innoculated his wife and sons with cowpox to ward off smallpox. It worked, but he failed to spread the news, especially as some of the locals feared his family would grow horns. Twenty year later Edward Jenner had the same idea, got a better publicity agent and was handsomely rewarded.

Similarly impressive was the walk that some Midhurst folk did recently. We started in the village, inspected the local cattle for pox, then headed seaward. Some then chose an easier route to St Aldhelm's Head whilst others headed fo the beautifully shaped Chapmans Pool and the cliff walk. There is part of this South West Coast Path that should be called the South West Coast Steps. It is a precipitous descent of 180 feet followed by a similar ascent to St Adhelm's Head - very tiring!! The Head is home to the 12th century St Adhelm's Chapel and a lookout station manned by volunteers of the National Coastwatch Institution. From there we travelled along the coast path to the remains of the Winspit Quarry, occasionally home to Dr Who film crews. The return to Worth Matravers was well rewarded with refreshments in the garden of the Square and Compass and no-one felt quite able to walk in the afternoon to the nearby Dancing Ledges. Another time perhaps. Thanks to Marian and Peter for additional photos.