©Bryan Phillips Oct 2024

A huge thank you to Winchester College and their archivist, Suzanne Foster, for helping the Milton Abbas Local History Group with its medieval research. There are early manorial documents concerning many of Milton Abbey’s manors. These manors seem to be quite stable from the foundation charter of King Athelstan Easter 943 through Domesday Books 1086 until its Dissolution in 1539 quite unlike many other monasteries who were buying, selling, leasing and being given land.

The Winchester College archive is also comprehensively catalogued and it is easy to find the relevant documents.

and it is so exciting to look inside these rolls to see the treasures they contain:

We are finding new information in these archives, for example, there is a fine original of the Customary of the Manor of Sydling St Nicholas 1322 (WCM 18382) which fills in some gaps in the Custumal of Milton Abbey which has been mutilated over the seven centuries since its first writing. One of our members is currently translating this from the Latin. These wonderful documents tell us so much about the lives of the ordinary people living on a monastic manor. Of course, finding new information inevitably leads to more questions to answer!

You can find more information on the medieval Milton Abbey manors on our webpage.

Do please get in touch if you are interested or would like to help us unravel the meanings hidden in these records.