SITUATION AND ACREAGE


The Parish of Langton Matravers contains 2,215 acres of land. Originally it was larger, but in boundary changes of 1933 it lost a neck of over 1,000 acres stretching eastwards into what is now the Parish of Swanage.
The parish is situated in the south-east of the Isle of Purbeck, between the parishes of Swanage and Worth Matravers.
 

SETTLEMENT SITE

A line of 'Celtic' or pre-Saxon fields along the north side of the present village High Street proves that this settlement was sited at its present location before the Roman Conquest and before the Christian Era. The outlying settlements of Acton, Blacklands Coombe and Knitson have been proved by archaeological finds to be of similar antiquity.
The village itself is sheltered from the prevailing south-west winds by being just north of the summit of the limestone plateau, without being far enough down into the valley to be in the muddy clay vale.
 
 
 
   
 
 
 

WATER

The settlements are situated where spring-lines occur, the principal line being from Acton to Coombe, along which there are still some thirty known wells. The most reliable of these wells was at the bottom of Coombe Hill (where the present B3069 road joins the A351), though Street Well (the common well in the village centre, the cover of which can be seen in the stone pavement just west of the Post Office) seldom ran dry. The wells at Acton were unreliable and prone to pollution owing to the proximity of so many quarry-mines.

There are six named streams within the parish, though their names do not appear on the Ordnance Survey maps. In order of size they are: La Trencheye (which flows in a trench along the clay vale to reach the sea beside the Mowlem in Swanage, where it is called The Brook); the three tributaries of La Trencheye, Knaveswell from the north and Puck Lake and Gully from the south (all three of which have given names to settlements); Broadwathe and Severallwathe, which, together with some unnamed small streams, run southwards and over the cliff into the sea. There were formerly many ponds in this parish, of which some ten are still in existence.