Charminster, Godmanstone, Cerne Abbas, Sydling St Nicholas: Dorset Conservation Area Appraisal

Having enjoyed an inspiring eight mile walk from Charminster and Godmanstone, and back to St Mary's Church, I found this conservation area appraisal online (pdf).

Of particular interest, a well-preseved granary on staddle stones, at Forston Farm.

I'm reading Sir Frederick Treves' Highways and Byways of Dorset, 1906,  page 336, about the state of Cerne Abbas at the beginning of the 20th century:

"Nothing...went well for long in Cerne after the last monk slinked out of the Abbey. One enterprise failed after another. There was still the great high-road left with its coaches, for Cerne was a comfortable stage from Dorchester. When railways made their brutal advance into Dorset the heart of Cerne gave way utterly; the coaches ceased one by one, and from that moment Cerne Abbas has never smiled again...The place...is empty and decaying and strangely silent. Grass is growing in the streets; many houses have been long deserted, many have their windows boarded up, or are falling into listless ruin. Here are empty barns, gates falling off their hinges, and doorways grown up with weeds".

Cerne Abbas, a short history