Milton Abbas Local History Group

The Parish Boundary has often been in existence since middle Anglo-Saxon times, c. 700 AD, and is often described in early charters. Our earliest written evidence for the parish boundary of Milton Abbas is described in 1384.

As W G Hoskins says in his Local History in England – “you should walk around and
describe the boundaries of the ancient ecclesiastical parish. The boundaries of the
ancient ecclesiastical parish are not always easy to discover. Those boundaries
marked on the modern Ordnance Survey maps are the boundaries of the civil parish
which may or may not coincide with the boundaries of the ancient ecclesiastical
parish. Many civil parish boundaries are relatively modern, the result of nineteenth
century administrative changes, and therefore of no particular significance.”
Parish boundaries have been in existence since middle Anglo-Saxon times, c. 700
AD, and are often described in early charters. Our earliest written evidence for the
ecclesiastical parish boundary of Milton Abbas is a perambulation of the boundaries
of the Manor of Middleton of 1384-5, transcribed and mapped by Peter Traskey in
Appendix XII of Milton Abbey, A Dorset Monastery in the Middle Ages, p. 135 and
232-4.

The present civil boundary follows this ancient boundary for over 90% of its length.
Boundaries were always walked in one direction, in medieval times on Rogation
Sunday. Their written description relies on this. Ancient parish boundaries are
usually best obtained from nineteenth century tithe maps. Unfortunately, Milton
Abbas was never tithed. However, the parish boundary was mapped by William
Woodward in his survey of the Milton Abbas estate in 1769-1771, which also includes
a brief perambulation of the manor. We can also refer to the tithe maps of the
adjacent parishes and, in addition, we have photographed the documents of the
Meresmen’s Notebooks of the Ordnance Survey 1888 which are at The National
Archives.

It is remarkable how the manor boundaries were marked in the past, some of the
northeast boundary of Milton is now a bridleway called Bramblecombe Lane, where
there are two parallel banks and ditches, then the track and two further banks and
ditches; all banks being topped with coppiced trees. Clearly these places were of great
importance to the medieval people of Milton Abbas.

We have now photographed the whole of the present civil parish boundary, 14.5
miles using GPS, and a mapping app on an iPhone. It would be good to record in the
same way the previous boundaries of the earlier ecclesiastical parish where they
differ from the present boundary, using the perambulations of 1384 and 1769.

Boundaries were always walked in one direction, in medieval times on Rogation Sunday. Their written description relies on this.

The ancient parish boundary is best obtained from the tithe maps. Unfortunately Milton Abbas was never tithed and there is no tithe map. However the adjacent parishes are and these can be used to determine the boundary.

We have, in addition, photographed the documents of the Meresmen’s Notebooks of the Ordnance Survey 1888 which are at The National Archives.