England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Milton Abbas St James

The Parish

The parish of Milton Abbas is located in central Dorset about 7 miles southwest of the market town of Blandford Forum. The parish is somewhat of a curiosity in that it is dominated by the cleared estate of the Earls of Dorchester and contains two churches, the Abbey church and the village church. Milton Abbas sits in lanes to the north of the A354 road which connects Blandford Forum with the busy A35. The parish is sited around a deeply incised downland valley which runs north to south and is partly dry due to the underlying chalk. To east and west land rises to high downs of Combe Hill and Hoggen Down. The history of the parish is complex, as there was formerly an entire market town on the site which has been cleared by the landowners. Older still the parish is the site of a 10th century Benedictine Monastery. All of this changed dramatically between 1771 and 1790 when the entire market town was swept away and a model village built to accommodate the estate workers. Where the town once stood now there is landscaped grounds and ornamental lakes. The parish has a substantial acreage and at the time of the transcript supported over 800 parishioners. In Domesday times the land, as you would expect, was owned by the Abbey and supported 18 ploughs, the parish was worth the princely sum of £20.

The Church

St James' church was built in 1786 as part of the wholesale reshaping of the area. The church is built adjacent to a steeply running lane that passes through rather quaint artisan's cottages built for the estate workers. The church has little architectural merit although Pevsner describes in as "orderly Late Georgian Gothic". The church sits back from the lane behind 20 feet of neatly mown verge and a low brick and stone wall. The site is rather hemmed in to the southeast by steeply rising and extremely well wooded land making for a rather cramped position.