The Chiswell Walled Garden

I have written about Chesil Beach before...that thirty-five foot high wall of rocks that protects the causeway connecting the Isle of Portland to the mainland. That protection, however, is not infallible. When Mother Nature is having a really bad day, she is capable of sending waves over the top of that bank. Modern day engineers have constructed massive retaining walls made of wire, rock-filled cages and channels designed to divert the water away from homes and roadways. But the history of the Chiswell Walled Garden goes back to a time before the engineers showed up.

Since the 1600's, stone quarrying has supported the families of Portland. In 1804, one of those most prosperous families built a fine stone house, Jacobean in style, there in the village of Chesilton with only Chesil Beach to protect it from the Atlantic Ocean. Just twenty years later, the Great Gale of 1824 swept over the Chesil Bank, taking the lives of twenty-six residents and making 180 homes uninhabitable. Some of the homes were eventually rebuilt, but the 1804 Jacobean was not. For years it sat in ruins, right in the middle of the village that grew up around it. Part of it was demolished to widen the main road through town. In the 1940's, it was converted into a concrete air-raid shelter. In the 1960's, it became a public urinal.

Today, however, thanks to community efforts, it stands as a lovely garden. The exterior walls have been rebuilt while vestiges of the original interior walls still stand, as does a fireplace. The roof is open. Volunteers maintain the garden for the enjoyment of the public...a place of remembrance and reflection.

Moments like this make me glad to be keeping a journal. Without it, the ten minutes I spent exploring this garden would soon have slipped from memory. (Perhaps it was the possibility of a good blog post that led me in there in the first place!) But years from now when I reread these entries, I'll be grateful to revisit this garden and to remember the citizens who created it.