Church Micro 10626... Abbotsbury - St Catherine EarthCache

CHURCH MICRO 10626...ABBOTSBURY - ST CATHERINE'S CHAPEL

This is an Earthcache, meaning there is no container at the listed coordinates. To claim your find on this cache you must visit the listed coordinates, complete the logging tasks detailed below and then email your answers to me via email or the message centre. Before you do this cache, please take the time to read the text in red - it is very important!

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LOGGING TASKS

1. Compare the colour, feel and the 'ease' at which you can see the texture of the limestone inside and outside - give a reason for why you think it is easier or harder to see on either the inside or the outside.
2. Do you think the rock is clastic or non-clastic and why? Use evidence from the building.
3. Referring to weathering, explain why there are differences in texture between the rock on the inside and outside.
4. Examine the properties of the rock all the way round the outside of the building. Which direction do you think the prevailing wind is and give reasons as to why you think this.
5. To prove you visited: What are the initials on the door on the South side.

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GEOLOGY - WEATHERING AND ROCKS

Physical weathering, also recognized as mechanical weathering, is the class of processes that causes the disintegration of rocks without chemical change. The primary process in physical weathering is abrasion (the process by which particles are reduced in size). Physical weathering can occur due to temperature, pressure, frost etc. For example, cracks exploited by physical weathering will increase the surface area exposed to chemical action, thus amplifying the rate of disintegration.

The effects of weathering on a rock can include jaggedness if parts of the rock are being broken off, or discolouration if the chemical structure of the rock is changed through a reaction with acid rain. The entire weathering process is controlled by the arrangement of the mineral grains and size of a rock. Some of the rocks susceptible to weathering are limestone, and marble. Discolouration is also due to the minerals, metals and oxides within the rock oxidising with the oxygen in the air and with water.

The prevailing wind is the most frequent wind direction a location experiences. In most of Britain the prevailing wind is from the south west, which brings warm, moist air from the Atlantic Ocean. This contributes to the frequent rainfall. If the wind always blows from one direction, from the North for example then the most weathering of a rock will happen on the North side of it.

Properties of Limestone

The chapel is built out of locally quarried Limestone. Limestone is readily available and relatively easy to cut into blocks or more elaborate carving, which makes it good for building. It is also long-lasting and stands up well to exposure. Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate. It is generally light-coloured.

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HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL

Although no records survive of the chapel's construction, the chapel has been dated in style to the late 14th century, the same time as Abbotsbury's tithe barn was built. The chapel is built on a definite platform which could have been originally for a pagan temple. St Catherine's Chapel was built as a place of pilgrimage and retreat by the monks of the nearby Benedictine monastery Abbotsbury abbey, which the chapel overlooks high up on the hilltop. Its position on the top of a hill about 80 m (260 ft) high, overlooking the coast from Portland to Bridport, meant that it was a prominent feature for seafarers. Only a handful of chapels of the same kind are located outside the precincts of the monasteries who constructed them. The isolated setting of the chapel granted the monks to withdraw from the monastery during Lent for private prayer and meditation. In the 16th century the main abbey buildings were destroyed in the dissolution of the monasteries, but the chapel survived, most likely due to its usefulness as a coastal beacon and sea-mark. In later times a navigation light used to be lit at the top of the stair turret. The chapel was repaired in 1742 and the late 19th century, but is largely unaltered. Abbotsbury's local parish holds several services at St Catherine's Chapel during the year, usually in the latter half of the year, from June to December.

The construction of the chapel, which has a rectangular structure, is entirely of locally quarried golden buff limestone. It is notably robust in order to withstand the elements; the walls are 4-foot (1.2 m) thick and supported by stout buttresses, and the roof and even the panelled ceiling are also made of stone. The construction allows rainwater to drain off the roof through holes in the parapet wall between the buttresses. In the north-west corner is a tower. At the north-east corner a stair turret, octagonal on the outside, rises above the roof and gives access to the parapet. There is also a tiny oratory at roof level. The buttresses and the stair turret would have been originally crowned with pinnacles. A porch was constructed on both north and south walls. The stone slab roof was renewed during 1983 in Clipsham stone.

St Catherine is the patron saint of spinsters, particularly those in search of husbands, and until the late 19th century the chapel had a local tradition where young women of Abbotsbury would 'wish', which involved using the niches provided (one for a knee and two other two holes for the hands) in the east jamb of the south doorway to 'post' prayers and make a wish to the saint asking for her help and aid. A traditional prayer used here says:

A husband, St Catherine,
A handsome one, St Catherine,
A rich one, St Catherine,
A nice one, St Catherine,
And soon, St Catherine.

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CACHE INFORMATION

Whilst I was out caching I spied this chapel  on a hill, and noticed it did not have a church micro! That needed rectifying, and while up here I noticed how the rock has been weathered, so I decided to make it an Earthcache.

You can park either from Abbotsbury or at the Swannery, but from wherever you park it will be at least a 0.75 mile uphill walk, but the good news is that it will be downhill on the way back! Your reward for summiting? Why, the Earthcache of course, and some amazing views! I will upload photos of the church when my proper computer returns from the repair centre!

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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk

See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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PLEASE EMAIL ME THE ANSWERS TO THE LOGGING TASKS THROUGH EMAIL OR THE MESSAGE CENTRE WITHIN 24 HOURS OF YOU LOGGING A FIND. IF I HAVE NO ANSWERS YOU RISK YOUR LOG BEING DELETED.