During the past 14 years I have visited Dorset, where my daughter lives in Charmouth, two or three times each year, and have passed through Chideock, a village on the A35, between Charmouth and Bridport on many occasions. As far as I was concerned, although Chideock was a picturesque part of rural West Dorset with its thatched roof cottages, its main feature was that it has a speed camera as one enters the village and another as you leave at the far end.

Then, with a devotion to Our Lady and particularly Walsingham, my Parish Priest lent me ‘Shrines of Our Lady in England’ by Anne Vail, and the fifth Shrine featured in the book was Chideock, no more than four miles from my daughter’s house. And you can be sure that some of the chores my daughter reserves for my attention had to wait on my next visit in the September just gone.

Entering the village from Charmouth, passing the speed camera on the left, there is a lane at the side of St Giles Church and about a quarter of a mile on the right is the small iron gate mentioned in the book, padlocked, but a hundred yards further on is the full entrance to the Church of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and St Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus.

The Church is built next to Chideock Manor which was home to the Weld family for 200 years. Four families have held Chideock Manor from the Norman Conquest until the late 1990s. Chideock Castle was built by John de Chideock in 1380. In the late Middle Ages, it passed into the hands of the Arundells of Lanherne, a powerful West Country family. When the old religion was banned, they remained loyal to their faith. The Castle became a refuge for Catholic priests and a place where loyal Catholic villagers could go to Mass. When the Castle was destroyed in the Civil War, the Arundells left Chideock, but still the local people kept the faith and worshipped in a barn near to the site of the present Manor House.

Seven Chideock men, three priests and four laymen, were cruelly put to death for their Catholic faith between 1587 and 1642. The Church is a memorial to them and to all those who kept the faith throughout the times of bloody repression.

The Church is one of the gems of English Catholicism, finished in 1872, it was the inspiration of Charles Weld. He not only designed the Church in the Italian Romanesque style, but also did much of the decoration himself. The front recalls the early churches of Tuscany. A stunning rondell above the entrance in painted terracotta contains a statue of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs encircled by her Seven Sorrows. The Church itself is immaculately kept, beautifully decorated, and a double line of portraits over the arches of the nave depict the English Martyrs and were painted by members of the Weld family.

The Church and small museum are open 10.00 am to 4.00 pm each day, admission is free and car park and toilet are available and, if you are ever in West Dorset, a visit to the Shrine is a must. Mass has now returned to Chideock and starting Friday 21st September, there will be a Mass at 6.00 pm on the third Friday of each month.

John Allen, Our Lady and St Peter, Bridlington