Chideock

The name of Chideock is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Cidihoc.{{cite book|title=Dorset Villages|author=Roland Gant|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd|pages=122–3|year=1980|isbn=0-7091-8135-3}}{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780521168557 |editor-last=Watts |editor-first=Victor |location=Cambridge}}, s.v. Chideock. This name is unusual in England for being derived from Common Brittonic, in this case the word that survives in modern Welsh as {{lang|cy|coediog}} ("wooded").{{rp|294}}

In 1379–80 John de Chideock, a manorial lord, built Chideock Castle just north of the village.{{cite book|title=Dorset Coast|author=Reginald J W Hammond|publisher=Ward Lock Ltd|pages=36–7|edition=4|isbn=0-7063-5494-X|year=1979}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2012/05/booton-foot-trails-chideock-golden-cap-and-seatown/|title=Booton Foot Trails: Chideock, Golden Cap and Seatown|author=Peter Booton|access-date=22 January 2014|date=May 2012|publisher=Dorset Life Magazine}} During the Middle Ages ownership passed to the Catholic Arundell family, who used it to provide refuge for priests and loyal followers during subsequent religious persecution. During the Protestant reign of Elizabeth I the Arundell estate became Dorset's main centre of Catholicism,{{cite book|title=Dorset|author=J.H. Bettey|publisher=David & Charles|page=99|isbn=0-7153-6371-9|year=1974}} and the locality witnessed considerable religious strife. Four local Catholic men—John Cornelius, Thomas Bosgrave, John Carey and Patrick Salmon—were martyred in the late 16th century; their trial took place in the main hall of what is now Chideock House Hotel and they were executed in Dorchester. The men became known as the Chideock Martyrs. A fifth man, Hugh Green, who became Chideock's chaplain in 1612, was tried and executed in 1642. All five were beatified on 15 December 1929.

During the English Civil War Chideock was a royalist stronghold, and the castle changed hands more than once before it was ultimately left ruinous in 1645 by parliamentarian forces under the Governor of Lyme Regis, Colonel Ceeley. Chideock House Hotel may have been the headquarters of General Fairfax as he planned the castle's overthrowing.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} Parts of the castle remained standing until at least 1733 but only some of the moat can be seen today; it is in a field, accessed by Ruins Lane, and marked by a crucifix as a memorial to the martyrs.

File:Chideock, Catholic church of Our Lady of Martyrs and St. Ignatius - geograph.org.uk - 496533.jpg

In 1802 the Arundells were succeeded by the Weld family of Lulworth Castle who in 1810 built Chideock Manor. The Welds were also Catholic and in 1870-2 Charles Weld designed and built the village's Roman Catholic church in an unusual Romanesque style. It is dedicated to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, and St Ignatius and remains in trust to the Weld family.{{cite web|url=http://www.chideockmartyrschurch.org.uk/history/|title=History - Chideock Martyrs Church|access-date=21 August 2016}}

Among other surviving relics claimed by this location is St. Thomas More's hair shirt, sent to Margaret Roper the day before his martyrdom and later presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clement.{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia= Catholic Encyclopaedia |title= St. Thomas More| url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm}}. This was long in the custody of the community of Augustinian canonesses who, until 1983, lived at the convent at Abbotskerswell Priory, Devon.{{Cite book |last=Hilliam |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpATDQAAQBAJ&dq=thomas+more+relics+hair+shirt+Chideock+castle&pg=PT56 |title=Little Book of Dorset |date=2010-12-26 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7524-6265-3 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Vail |first=Anne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjyc9bPITKgC&dq=thomas+more+relics+hair+shirt+Chideock+castle&pg=PA42 |title=Shrines of Our Lady in England |date=2004 |publisher=Gracewing Publishing |isbn=978-0-85244-603-4 |pages=42 |language=en}} More recent sources, however, state that the shirt is now preserved at the Roman Catholic Buckfast Abbey, part of a Benedictine monastery, in Devon.{{Cite web|url=http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2016/st-thomas-mores-hair-shirt-now-enshrined-for-public-veneration.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122162939/http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2016/st-thomas-mores-hair-shirt-now-enshrined-for-public-veneration.cfm|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 November 2016|title=With public rosaries, priest prays for peace, healing after shooting|date=15 April 2021}}{{cite web |url=http://royalcentral.co.uk/historic/st-thomas-mores-hair-shirt-enshrined-for-public-veneration-72241 |title=St Thomas More's Hair Shirt Enshrined for Public Veneration – Royal Central |website=royalcentral.co.uk |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127140551/http://royalcentral.co.uk/historic/st-thomas-mores-hair-shirt-enshrined-for-public-veneration-72241 |archive-date=27 November 2016 |url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/hair-shirt-worn-st-thomas-enshrined-public-veneration-possibly-first-time|title=Hair-shirt worn by St Thomas More is enshrined for public veneration for possibly the first time - the Diocese of Shrewsbury - the Diocese of Shrewsbury|access-date=24 July 2017|archive-date=25 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925230945/http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/hair-shirt-worn-st-thomas-enshrined-public-veneration-possibly-first-time|url-status=dead}}

Chideock is in the electoral ward of Chideock and Symondsbury, which encompasses much of the coast between Charmouth and West Bay plus inland beyond Symondsbury. The total population of this ward is 1,745.{{cite web|url=http://www.ukcensusdata.com/chideock-and-symondsbury-e05003750#sthash.HP0eIP6k.dpbs|title=Chideock and Symondsbury ward 2011|access-date= 26 February 2015}} This ward is one of 32 that comprise the West Dorset parliamentary constituency, which is currently represented in the UK national parliament by the Liberal Democrat Edward Morello.

File:Chideock from Quarry Hill - geograph.org.uk - 1342258.jpg

Chideock is situated in the Dorset Council administrative area about {{convert|2.5|mi|km}} west of Bridport, {{convert|5|mi|km}} east of Lyme Regis and {{convert|0.75|mi|km}} inland from the English Channel. The parish includes the coastal hamlet of Seatown, which is less than {{convert|1|mi|km}} to the south on the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. Seatown has a long shelving pebble beach, with views up towards the hill which forms Golden Cap, which at {{convert|191|m|ft}} is the highest cliff on the south coast of England. Fossilised ammonites and belemnites can often be found on the beach due to continued coastal erosion of the soft blue lias clays which make up the cliffs. Iron-rich rocks such as lodestone and magnetite can also be found on the beaches near the village – these are thought to have been transported down the coast from Chesil Beach, having been deposited there by a shipwreck in the 1800s.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}} Similar collections of these rocks can be found on beaches along the Jurassic Coast and in the neighbouring counties of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Dorset County Council's 2013 estimate of the parish population is 550.

The population of the parish in the censuses between 1921 and 2001 is shown in the table below:

Results of the 2011 census have been published for the combined populations of Chideock parish and the small neighbouring parish of Stanton St Gabriel; the combined population was 686.{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11121901&c=Chideock&d=16&e=62&g=6418406&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1390387532223&enc=1|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=22 January 2014|title=Area: Chideock (Parish). Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics|archive-date=3 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203101249/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11121901&c=Chideock&d=16&e=62&g=6418406&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1390387532223&enc=1|url-status=dead}}

The A35 trunk road between Honiton and Southampton passes through Chideock, which in 1997 was the first village in Britain to have two speed cameras installed in response to perceived excessive speed.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZvjPhec6M8C&q=1997+chideock+speed+cameras&pg=PT48|title=Villages of Britain: The Five Hundred Villages that Made the Countryside|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|author=Clive Aslet|year=2011|isbn=9781608196722}} The National Trust refused permission for a prospective bypass over land it owns to the north of Golden Cap, citing its importance as an area of natural beauty. On 4 May 2010 a protest against the lack of a bypass was initiated by some residents and involved constant operation of a pedestrian crossing at the centre of the village for one hour's duration every week.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8661477.stm|title=Protest pensioner halts traffic|date=5 May 2010|access-date=21 August 2016|via=bbc.co.uk}} This campaign continued for a year and may result in restrictions on heavy goods vehicles in the village.{{cite web|url=http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/Light-end-tunnel-Dorset-road-campaign/story-12700984-detail/story.html|title=Light at the end of tunnel for Dorset road campaign?|date=3 June 2011|access-date=21 August 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121174035/http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/Light-end-tunnel-Dorset-road-campaign/story-12700984-detail/story.html|archive-date=21 January 2013|df=dmy-all}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Chideock}}

• [http://www.chideockmartyrschurch.org.uk/ Church of Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, and St. Ignatius, Chideock]
• [http://www.goldencapteamofchurches.org.uk/chideock.html St Giles Parish Church]

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Category:Villages in Dorset

Category:Dorset places with etymologically Brittonic names