The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books at £8. 8. 4., and in the patronage of the Rev. T. O. Bartlett. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a very ancient structure.

This parish has the English channel on the south, where is the noted cliff called St. Alban's head, one hundred and forty-seven yards in perpendicular height, with a signal-house on its summit; also the remains of a very ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Aldhelms, built and vaulted with stone, and supported by a single massive pillar, with four arches, meeting in a point at the crown: it is entered through a semicircular doorway in the north side, but has no window, only a hole on the south side. Near Quarr, which anciently belonged to the Cullifords, marble was once quarried.

Volume 4, page 576