The Milton Abbas Local History group are excited to announce that we have today, 14 May 2018, completed our transcription of the Overseers of the Poor Account Book 1771 – 1798, that is 275 double pages, and we now have over 18 000 records in a searchable database.

A huge thank you to a team of transcribers from Australia, Canada and England, who have dedicated hundreds of man (and woman) hours on this unique project.

These give us an insight into the social history of Milton Abbas in the second half of the 18th century, just when Joseph Damer, Lord Milton pulled down the market town they had inhabited for over 800 years, and built some cottages in a valley out of sight for his estate workers to live in.

We now have an insight into the lives of the ordinary people – their poverty, their suffering, their diseases, their hardships, and the ruin of their livelihoods. And all because that “mighty, imperious Lord” wanted a nice view from his manor house.

This is a doubly unique achievement: we know of no other lost village who have examined their history in this way, nor are their searchable transcriptions of Overseers Books.