Views of Cerne Abbas village

The village of Cerne Abbas in the heart of Dorset grew up around the Benedictine Cerne Abbey taking its name from the River Cerne. The abbey founded in AD 987 dominated the area for over 500 years. During King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries the abbey was partially destroyed. The village continued to develop into a market town producing beer and small water-powered industries.

By the 1920s the village was in decline, now there are few remaining historic buildings. The village is famous for the Cerne Abbas Giant, the chalk figure of a naked male giant carved into the hillside in the 17th Century although there is evidence of a strong Iron Age presence nearby. The mainly 15th century church was restored in the 1960s. Cerne Abbas is known as Abbot's Kernel in the literary works of Thomas Hardy.