Askerswell Tourist Guide Puncknowle West Dorset Around Bridport

Askerswell Tourist Information

Askerswell is a small village at the foot of the Iron Age hillfort at Eggardon Camp. There are several ramparts and ditches still evident and it is an excellent viewpoint south to Golden Cap and the sea.

St Michael's Church in Askerswell was much older than the present eighteenth century building. It was originally built in the fifteenth century and fortunately the Norman tower was retained. You can also find a Norman font and fifteenth century carved stone relief of the crucifixion near the west door into the tower.

The Spyway Inn in the village is four hundred years old and has had several uses as a blacksmith's as well as a pub. It is also reputed to be haunted.

Askerswell was also home to one of Dorset's most reputed smugglers, Isaac Gulliver, who bought North Eggardon Farm. He was known to operate gangs all along Dorset's coast up to Poole.

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Puncknowle Tourist Information

Puncknowle, pronounced Punnel, is just inland between Bridport and Abbotsbury. It's set amongst some beautiful Dorset countryside excellent for rural walks or even down to the coast and Chesil Beach. The village is set in the Bride Valley and is sheltered from the sea by chalk downland and The Knoll.

It is an old, historic village having been mentioned in the Domesday Book. The church was originally a Norman church but only the original tower arch and chancel arch remain.

Behind the church is the nineteenth century manor house where Henry Shrapnel lived. He invented a fragmentation bomb used in the Crimean War and whose surname has been used ever since to describe the injurious fallout from bombs. He was also a friend of William Barnes, Dorset's most famous dialect poet who often visited him here.

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