Sydling Fifehead 

© Anne Brown Aug 2025

Up Sydling, Lost Settlements and Deserted Villages

In 934 AD, King Athelstan granted the Abbott of Milton Abbey 30 hides of land at Sydling as provision for the abbey table. In 1086, the Domesday book confirmed this holding.

 In 1311, the charter of King Edward 2nd to the Abbott and Convent of Milton confirmed to them possession of Broad Sydling, with its appurtenances namely Hilfield, La Halvehide, Up Sydling and Elyston, Chalmington and Blakemore, advowson of the church with the chapels at Hilfield and Up Sydling annexed. These were all within the Manor of Sydling

That is, Milton Abbey held BroadSydling, and the land stretching north as far as Up Sydling manor. But over Up Sydling Manor, of course they had no jurisdiction, apart from the running of the chapel. So whenever Milton Abbey records refer to Up Sydling, they mean the area roughly from the present day Marrs Cross, to the end of the road at Upper Sydling Farm, and specifically the settlement between the ford and Upper Sydling

This area was also within Sydling Fifehead, which was a tithing, a township, and its name was lost in the 19th century.

Sydling Fifehead

From medieval times, counties were divided into administrative units known as hundreds. Each hundred was divided into tithings, and a tithing was a group of about ten householders, who appointed a tithing man to represent them at manorial courts, and at meetings of the Hundred. 

In the 13th century, Up Sydling Manor was a tithing in the Stone Hundred. This Hundred included Cerne and the meeting point for the hundred was the Bellingstone, on the ridge between Up Sydling and Cerne.

Sydling Manor was in the Modbury Hundred. The meeting point of the hundred was Modbury Barrow (no longer there, but it was close to Stagg’s Folly, between Up Sydling and Cattistock). The Manor consisted of two tithings, Broad Sydling and Fifehead.

Milton Abbey owned a few other hamlets nearby, which were part of the manor of Sydling though not actually within the Sydling Valley. So, while the BroadSydling tithing man represented the village of BroadSydling, the Fifehead tithing included Up Sydling, Elyston, Chalmington and Blakemoor. A smaller population, spread over a larger area. The map below shows the locations of the settlements, and gives a very rough idea of the boundaries of the lands held by the manors for each tithing.

Milton Abbey, as Lords of the manor of Sydling, held Baronial Courts, and Courts Leet, at the Court House in Sydling. They appointed two tithing men, one for BroadSydling, and one for Fifehead. The Fifehead tithing man represented Up Sydling, Elyston, Chalmington and Blakemoor.

The lost villages

Within Fifehead tithing are two lost medieval villages; Blakemoor and Elyston. 

It’s intriguing to know what became of them.

Elyston is a fascinating spot, and deserves its own story telling more fully. 

The site of the deserted medieval village of Blakemoor is north of Chalmington, close to Chantmarle, only 2 miles from Up Sydling as the crow flies. It seems to have become uninhabited in the 14th century, perhaps as a result of plague? There is little evidence to determine exactly when or why it was deserted, but later Milton Abbey records show rental of land here, but no dwellings.

The gradual demise of Fifehead

Fifehead Tithing man attends every manorial court at Sydling right up to the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, when Milton Abbey records stop. 

 In the 16th and 17th century, there was a Fifehead Farm, and areas known as Fifehead Fields, but these were gradually absorbed into other farms, as time went by. Fifehead farmhouse became “The Old Farmhouse” in 1797, when a new farmhouse was built behind it. 

The last record of Sydling Fifehead is the 1841 census, which records “Township, Fifehead Sydling, Up Sydling. After this, the system of local government and parliamentary constituencies changed significantly, and hundreds were no longer used as county divisions. 

And so the name was lost.