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Legend says that St. Augustine once visited Dorset. While there, he met some shepherds grazing their flocks and asked them whether they would prefer beer or water to drink. The temperate shepherds replied, ‘Water’, whereupon St. Augustine struck the ground with his staff, crying ‘Cerno El’ as the water gushed out. The words were, supposedly, a pun on Cernel, the old name of the village, and meant ‘I perceive God’.

Truth.... It is thought that the above legend was invented by the Benedictine monks of Cerne Abbey to serve as an attraction for pilgrims. Closer to the truth, probably, is the story of St. Edwold, a member of the Mercian royal family, who one day had a vision of a silver well. He went wandering through the countryside and, when he came to Cerne, he gave some silver pennies to a shepherd in return for bread and water. The shepherd then showed him a well where he could drink, and St. Edwold recognised it as the well of his vision. He built a small hermitage by the spring and lived there until his death in 871.