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- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Milton Abbas (#15 on map) is a large civil parish (over 1600 hectares or 4,000 acres) and a village in Dorset, England in southwest England. Since 1974 it is located in the North Dorset District, approximately 7 miles (11 km) southwest of the market town of Blandford Forum and 11 miles (18 km) northeast of the county town of Dorchester. In the 2011 UK Census the population of the parish was 755.
The village is sometimes considered the first planned settlement in England.
In 1780, Joseph Damer, Lord Milton, the first Earl of Dorchester and owner of Milton Abbey, decided that the adjacent market town of Middleton (former name of Milton), was disturbing his vision of rural peace. He commissioned architect Sir William Chambers and landscape gardener Capability Brown (both of whom had already worked on the Abbey building and grounds) to design a new village in a wooded valley (Luccombe Bottom) to the south of the Abbey. This village was named Milton Abbas. Most of the existing villagers were relocated here, and the previous village was demolished and the site landscaped.
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A fuller description is found in John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).
- "MILTON-ABBAS, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in Blandford [registration] district, Dorset. The village stands along a steep road, between two wooded hills, adjacent to an affluent of the river Puddle, 6 miles SW by W of Blandford [railway] station; was originally called Middleton; took the latter part of its name from a neighbouring Benedictine abbey; was once a market-town; underwent reconstruction by the first Earl of Dorchester; consists of two rows of symmetrical cottages, with church, almshouse, and good inn; presents a tidy and pretty appearance; and has a post office under Blandford, and a fair on the Tuesday after 25 July.
- "The parish contains also the hamlet of Holworth. Acres: 2,420. Real property: £4,746. Population in 1851: 915; in 1861: 1,014. Houses: 154. The property belongs to Baron Hambro. A Benedictine abbey was founded here after 938, by King Athelstan; went, at the dissolution, to Sir John Tregonwell; and, with the exception of the hall and the church, was taken down in 1771, to give place to Milton Abbey, the present seat of Baron Hambro. This seat was designed by Sir William Chambers; is a large quadrangular mansion, with a central court; consists of white limestone, alternating in parts with layers of flint; presents principal fronts to the N and the W; includes the monks' hall or refectory of date 1498; and stands on a natural terrace, at the convergence of three deep vales, under an amphitheatre of wooded heights. The abbey church is of the time of Edward II.; succeeded a previous church, destroyed by lightning; consists of transept, aisled chancel, and tower; contains a rich altar-screen of 1492, finely carved stalls, three canopied sedilia, two rude old paintings supposed to represent Athelstan and his queen, an old marble monument to Sir John Tregonwell, a monument of 1775 by Carlini to Lord and Lady Milton, and a Jesse window of 1849 by Pugin; underwent restoration in 1863 under the superintendence of Scott of London, at a cost of about £4,500. An old chapel, dedicated to St. Catherine, stands on a hill E of the abbey. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value: £127. Patron: Baron Hambro. The village church was rebuilt by the first Earl of Dorchester, and has a pinnacled tower. There are a Wesleyan chapel, an almshouse with £19 a year, and an endowed school with £181."
Governance
Milton Abbas was originally a parish in the Whiteway Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Dorset. From 1894 until 1974 it was part of the Blandford Rural District.
In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. Milton Abbas joined the non-metropolitan North Dorset District.
Under another set of local government reforms adopted on 1 April 2019, North Dorset District was abolished, and the County of Dorset (excluding Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole) became a single unitary authority. The area is now administered by Dorset Council.
Dorset Research Tips
One of the many maps available on the website A Vision of Britain through Time is one from the Ordnance Survey Series of 1900 illustrating the parish boundaries of Dorset at the turn of the 20th century. This map blows up to show all parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. The internal boundaries on this map are the rural districts which are indicated in WeRelate's "See Also" box for the place concerned (unless it is an urban parish).
The following websites have pages explaining their provisions in WeRelate's Repository Section. Some provide free online databases. Some are linked to Ancestry.
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- GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Dorset, but it has left the 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes to UK Genealogy Archives which presents facts differently. Neither GENUKI or UK Genealogy Archives deal with the more modern civil parishes.
- FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date, but UK Genealogy Archives may prove more helpful.
- A Vision of Britain through Time has
- organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts up to 1974
- excerpts from gazetteers of the late 19th century outlining individual towns and parishes
- reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960
- The contents of the Victoria County History is provided by British History Online for many English counties, but not for Dorset. Instead they have provided the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England (RCHME Inventory Volumes) published in 1972 in five volumes covering the county in geographical areas. Thes articles describe buildings rather than towns and villages, but may be of use in researching a manor-owning family.
- More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.
Censuses
UK censuses are taken every ten years in the years ending in "1". There was no census in 1941. Details are not made available for 100 years after a census. A number of online databases (both paid and free) provide transcriptions of censuses up to 1911. Most of these provide information for an individual or a family. Many also provide images of the originals and thus allow browsing of a page or perhaps a whole enumeration district. The 1921 census was published in January 2022. It is available at FindMyPast with a charge additional to the usual subscrition to view the manuscript entries (there is no extra charge to view the index).
The Dorset Online Parish Clerks provides a good number of 19th century census transcriptions as well as lists of baptisms, marriages and burials as recorded in the parish. The formal Home Office Numbers (those starting with HO used in 1841 and 1851), the Registrar General Numbers (starting with RG in later decades, and the Enumeration District Numbers are included. There is an illustrated article to introduce each parish.
The 1841 census differed from the later ones in two different ways.
- The question "where born" was to be answered either with the words "in county" (or "y") or "out of county" (or "n") with perhaps a more specific place in the case of those born abroad.
- Ages for adults (usually those over 15, though some enumerators gave specific ages up to 20) were rounded down to the nearest 5 years. (i.e., for persons aged 15 years and under 20 write 15; 20 years and under 25 write 20; 25 years and under 30 write 25; and so on up to the eldest interval.
From 1851 onwards people were asked for the county and civil parish in which they were born whether in or out of the county, and ages were expressed exactly (in months for infants).
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