Chapmans Pool

Chapman's Pool is a small cove to the west of Worth Matravers on the Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, England.Chapman's Pool LifeboatIn 1866, after much local pressure and because many lives were lost at sea nearby, the decision was made to build a lifeboat station at Chapman's Pool. The station was built and completed during 1867. The lifeboat George Scott was placed at Chapman's Pool in November 1866 but the station soon closed again in 1880 owing to the great expense involved in up keeping the boathouse, the land slips that constantly swept down upon it and because lacking a village nearby, and there being too few local volunteers to serve on the lifeboat. The building still stands and is used as a fishing hut.GeologyThe rocks that form the cove are the upper parts of the Kimmeridge Clay, and are rich in fossils, especially bivalves and ammonites. Most of these fossils are flattened, but three-dimensional examples are preserved in the "Rotunda Nodules", including the age-marker ammonite, the coarse-ribbed Pavlovia rotunda.Manganese oxide findingsManganese oxide may also be found at the Chapman's Pool site, but does not originate from the Jurassic rocks. In amongst the Kimmeridge shale and rock pools, as well as on the shore line, it is still possible to find small bubbly-looking lumps of manganese oxide, which is often mistakenly believed to have formed from the Kimmeridge shale. However, these are the remains of part of the cargo of the Steamship "Treveal" that was wrecked on the Kimmeridge Ledges below Hounstout on January 10, 1920.