West Milton, Dorset
| West Milton | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 West Milton seen from the north | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SY501963 |
| Location: | 50°45’51"N, 2°42’28"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Bridport |
| Postcode: | DT6 |
| Dialling code: | 01308 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dorset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
West Dorset |
| Website: | Powerstock Parish Council |
West Milton is a village in western Dorset about three miles north-east of Bridport and a mile west of Powerstock (to whose civil parish it has been allocated). The village is on the Mangerton River, a tributary of the River Asker.
Name
The name "Milton" is a contraction of "Middleton". The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Mideltone. An entry for 1212 in the Book of Fees records it as Midelton.[1]
The name is the Old English middel tun, which means 'middle village (or farmstead)".[2] "West" distinguishes it from Milton Abbas near Blandford Forum.[3]
Chapel and church
West Milton has long been a dependent chapelry of Powerstock.[4] It had a Mediæval chapel of St Mary Magdalene, and in 1869 the architect GR Crickmay of Weymouth designed a new Gothic Revival chapel to replace it. This was built on a new site half a mile west of the old one and completed in 1874. It was a stone building with a spirelet on one side,Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09598-2page 34 and an apse at one end.
In 1873–76 the body of the Mediæval chapel was dismantled and re-erected in Powerstock as an extension to the parish school.[5] Only the embattled west tower was left in West Milton. This was built about 1500 and is now both a Scheduled Ancient Monument[6] and a Grade II* listed building.[7]
In 1976 the 19th-century church was demolished.[8]
Secular history
The village used to have two pubs: The Leopard (now Leopard Cottage)[9] and The Red Lion (now Red Lion Cottages).[10][11]
Further, there are records of ale being sold from 'The Ship' inn, however it is not known where this was in the village. [12]
In the hamlet of Mangerton, on the river about a mile west of West Milton is an early 19th-century watermill.[13] It was a grist and flax mill, and last worked commercially in 1966. It has since been a tourist attraction and café.[14]
West Milton had its own watermill on the same river. The mill was the home of the writer and broadcaster Kenneth Allsop until his death in 1973. Here he wrote In the Country, a collection of essays mostly about the surrounding Dorset countryside.[15]
References
- ↑ Ekwall 1960, Milton
- ↑ Ekwall 1960, tūn
- ↑ Best 1970, p. 8.
- ↑ Lewis 1931, p. 321.
- ↑ "Powerstock School reopens two years after fire destroyed hall". 2 October 2013. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-24345894. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1003230: St Mary's Church, West Milton (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1227969: Tower, remains of West Milton chapel (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ Connor 2016, p. 36.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1228024: Leopard Cottage (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1228004: Red Lion Cottages (Grade II listing)
- ↑ Poole 1987, p. 15.
- ↑ Connor 2016, p. 81.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1215867: Mangerton Mill, excluding the Mill House (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "Mangerton Mill | The Dorset Guide". https://www.dorsets.co.uk/attractions/mangerton-mill.htm.
- ↑ Gant 1980, pp. 130–131.
Bibliography
- Best, Rosemary (1970). Poorstock in Wessex. Dorset Publishing Company. p. 8. ISBN 090212904X.
- Connor, Tim (2016). West Milton: the last thousand years. Bridport: Milton Mill Publishing. p. 36. ISBN 978-0954057053.
- Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. ISBN 0198691033
- Gant, Roland (1980). Dorset Villages. Robert Hale Ltd. pp. 130–131. ISBN 0-7091-8135-3.
- Samuel Lewis: 'A Topographical Dictionary of England' Volume III, page 321
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09598-2page 446
- Poole, Harry S (1987). The Gate on the Hill. Bridport: Hindson. p. 15.
Outside links
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