An attractive church built of the golden local stone (Corallian). Its origins are probably tied up with the Benedictine abbey that dominated Abbotsbury in the Middle Ages. There may have been a dispute between the parishioners and the monks and that the problem was resolved by building a new parish church outside the abbey precincts. The new church was built in the fourteenth century, the western tower was added in the early fifteenth century and the church building was enlarged and remodelled at least twice in the next hundred years or so. Orc and his wife Thola founded the Benedictine Abbey in the reign of King Canute. It was dedicated to St. Peter and it flourished for over 500 years. At the dissolution, the property passed to Sir Giles Strangways, whose descendants own it still, although the Parliamentary army destroyed the Strangways's Abbey House in 1644. Today, little remains of the abbey buildings, as the stone has mostly been re-used elsewhere. Perhaps the most imposing relic is the great barn of the Abbey, often called the Tithe Barn. Other remains can be found in the parish church, for example, the porch of the parish church contains an effigy of one of the Abbots of the abbey church. On a hill to the west of Abbotsbury village is St. Catherine's Chapel. This well-built all-stone building is built in the Perpendicular style and probably dates from the 15th century.