Milton Abbas

Milton Abbas is a parish and pretty village, formerly a market town, situated in a deep valley sheltered on the north and south by very steep and chalky hills and surrounded by scenery of the most picturesque description, 7 miles south-west from Blandford and 11 north-east from Dorchester, in the Northern division of the county, Whiteway hundred, Cerne sub-division, Blandford petty sessional division, union and county court district, Whitchurch rural deanery Milton portion, Dorset archdeaconry and Salisbury diocese: the present appellation of this place is a contraction of its ancient name of Middleton, the adjunct being given from its ancient lords the abbots: the earliest mention of it is in the reign of King Athelstan, who founded a monastery here: the whole village was removed to its present site by the first Earl of Dorchester in 1787, when Milton Abbas Grammar school was removed to Blandford; the old town of Milton lay around the Abbey church.