Monument record MWX3855 - Works Wall, Langton Herring

A feature marked as Works Wall, on the first edition OS map.

A feature marked as Works Wall, on the first edition OS map (1) Also marked on the second edition (2) The feature is called 'Herbury Wall' and is dated to 1665 by the DCF MAD. (3) In a lease dated 6 June 1665; the said William Fry his executors administrators and assigns shall ….. endeavour to drain and make dry the said plott or peece of ground called Yerberry Hope.(Raishley Papers 57a) William Fry was steward of the Abbotsbury estate, a practical man who had chosen his ground well. The bay at Herbury (SY 610 812) is large and shallow with a comparatively narrow entrance, Hope or Ope is a local word for bay, still used on Portland (e.g. Church Ope Cove). His plan was simple, a sea wall was to built across the entrance to keep the waters of the Fleet out. A small stream flowed into the bay from the north, but this would not have posed a problem to contemporary technology. There seems to have been no reason why this scheme should have failed, but it did so. Within a hundred and fifty years hardly anything was remembered of William Fry’s attempt. In 1808 Robert Pittman the decoyman at Abbotsbury, then aged 60, was asked about past aspects of the Fleet. Amongst other things he; Says that at a point called Yerbury in the Parish of Langton there is an embankment thrown up called Frys works that it appears to be the rems of an Old wall & has heard old people say that a man by the name of Fry tried to drain that part of the Fleete. Don’t know who Fry was. (Dorset Records Office D/FSI 312) (4)

Record last edited

Apr 10 2008 9:26AM