The Milton Abbas Local History Group was founded in 2013 by Pamela Phillips with six members at the inaugural meeting. From the outset we focused on researching the history of Milton Abbas, its people and landscape. Our monthly meetings generally report our findings and we do not usually have presentations other than those with very close links to the history of Milton Abbas.
Nine years on we now have over 60 paid up members and some honorary members who have made a significant contribution to our research.
We built this website which has reached people particularly from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA. These contacts have provided us with information on their Milton Abbas ancestors, and have been prominent in the transcription of many thousands of records. The website has over 150 views per week.
We have a database of over 5000 records, documents, maps, articles, photographs etc which concern Milton Abbas history.
We have searched The National Archives, National Library of Ireland, London Metropolitan Archives, Dorset History Centre, other county record offices and hundreds of online catalogues and sources.
We have digital copies of many of the documents and images of Milton Abbas.
We have transcribed Overseers of the Poor Books, Churchwardens Accounts, Settlement papers, Removal Orders, Wills, Inventories, Bastardy papers, Quarter Sessions records, court cases, House of Lords documents. land tax assessments, muster rolls, protestation returns. Our digital transcripts are fully searchable.
We have produced a timeline of Milton Abbas events.
We are compiling a timeline of Milton Abbas documents.
We have over 600 photographs of the parish boundary.
We have been given family trees of former residents of Milton Abbas.
We have displayed our research findings by putting on nine exhibitions.
We have held annual social events.
We have organised five guided walks and tours of Milton Abbas.
The history of Milton Abbas was featured in a nationwide broadcast BBC documentary series ‘Pubs, Ponds and Power’ presented by Ben Robinson. The Milton Abbas history group were consultants for this program.
We possess the documents assembled by Chris Fookes, and formerly part of Milton Abbas Museum.
We have a library of about 30 books, and we continue to purchase more books and digital copies of historic documents.
We have temperature and rainfall records from the 17th to the 21st century.
We are running two major projects: WWI and The Old Town of Middleton. These groups have 6 – 12 members and are carrying out research.
We have received several grants which have allowed us to purchase exhibition display boards, camera, audio recorder and projector.
Milton Abbas Local History Group, Dorset, UK 