Milton Abbas Local History Group

Exhibition 16 – 17 Sep 2017, Reading Rooms, Milton Abbas

You have missed our exhibition for September. This showed just some of the history we have discovered in the past year.

Tea and coffee and cake was a great success, although hard work (especially when a coach party of 35 descended on us!) the proceeds added considerably to our funds.

A huge thank you to all those who provided us with cakes to sell.

Entrance to the exhibition was by donation towards the costs of our further research, and again has added considerably to our funds. We will be able to complete the purchase of the 25 inch OS maps and books of social history.

This is our chance to engage with the community and show what can be achieved. About 150 visitors attended over the two days, mostly from local villages but also from Poole, Bournemouth and Northampton.

Our exhibits included some extracts from the Overseers of the Poor book 1771 – 1780 which are being transcribed. These show how a rural village reflects the changes which were taking place nationally, including the devastation of diseases such as smallpox, the methods used to control them, and the enormous costs involved. We also know how much individual rate payers were paying and how much was spent on each poor person.

Churchwardens Books have been transcribed and we are sure there were interesting happenings in 17th century Milton Abbas.

Family History results were shown for some of the names that are being researched, and this prompted a great exchange of information. We were very fortunate that visitors shared their research with us. This included work on the Gover, Vacher, White and Drake family histories. Thank you to those visitors who shared with us.

There was a display of the Lost Treasures of Milton Abbey – parts of the Abbey and its gardens that have been taken elsewhere – even as far as Milton Massachusetts.

There were also displays on the Fookes Brewery, Damer family, Domesday Book and Dissolution.