A HISTORY OF DORSET 



held by the abbey in 1086, Affpuddle assessed at 9 hides, and Little Puddle assessed at 

 tvvo and a half. In all Cerne Abbey had 121 i hides in 1086, all in Dorset. 



Milton Abbey had i2oi hides in Dorset and two manors in Glanvilles Wootton (nos. 

 284, 285) had also belonged to this abbey T.R.E. Its register was destroyed by fire in 

 1309, but there are in existence two versions of a charter attributed to Athelstan, one in 

 Latin and the other in English.^ If these documents represent a genuine charter of 

 Athelstan, he gave to the church 26 hides at Milborne, 5 at Woolland, three at the mouth 

 of the Frome 'on the island, two on sea and one on land, that is to say at Ower', 3 at 

 Clyffe, 3! at Lyscombe, i at Burleston, i at Little Puddle, 5 at Cattistock, 6 at Compton, 

 2 at Whitcombe, 5 at Osmington, and 6 at Holworth. In addition, he gave 30 hides at 

 Sydling St. Nicholas for victuals, 2 hides at Chelmington and 6 at Hillfield, 10 hides at 

 Ercecombe 'to timberlond', and a weir on the Avon at T\\yneham, with 12 acres to 

 support it. With the exception of Chelmington and Hillfield these lands all belonged to 

 the abbey in 1086. Milborne was presumably Milton Abbas itself, assessed at 24 hides. 

 Woolland in 1086 was still assessed at 5 hides and Ower at 3,'' but the assessments of the 

 other manors had changed from the earlier reckonings. Clyfi"e was assessed at 2 hides, 

 Lyscombe at 3, Burleston (Puddle Burston) at 3, Little Puddle at 2, Cattistock at 10, 

 Compton at 5, Whitcombe at 6, Osmington at 10, and Holworth at five. Sydling St. 

 Nicholas was assessed at 29 hides. Ercecombe appears in Domesday as Ertacomestoche 

 (nos. 106 and Ixxx), and can be identified as Stockland (Devon), which lay in Dorset 

 at that date. In 1086 it was worth ^^9 and ftiit semper de dominio monachorum ad victum 

 et vesttim eorum. The abbey held 12 acres on the Avon in 1086 and there had once 

 been a fisher}' there. ^ Since it is known that in 964 Edgar expelled the clerks from 

 Milton Abbey and replaced them with monks under Abbot Cyneweard,^ Athelstan's 

 grant, if genuine, must have been made to a community of clerks. 



Abbotsbury Abbey, with 75 hides in Dorset, was founded by Urk, who had been a 

 housecarl of both Cnut and Edward the Confessor, and his wife Tole.'° In 1024 Urk 

 received 7 manse in Portesham from Cnut, and in 1044 5 perticas in Abbott's Wootton 

 from Edward the Confessor." Both these manors belonged to the abbey in 1086, when 

 Portesham was assessed at 12 hides and Abbott's W^ootton at two and a half. In a writ 

 dating from between 1053 and 1058 Edward the Confessor commanded that his house- 

 carl Urk should have his shore, with right of wreck. This is presumably a reference to 

 Chesil Beach. A second writ of Edward, dating from between 1058 and 1066, gives 

 permission to his 7naim Tole, Urks's widow, to bequeath her land to the abbey of 

 Abbotsbur}% which he takes under his protection." One of the manors which the abbey 

 derived from Tole must have been Tolpuddle, which bears her name.'^ William I 

 issued two writs concerning the land and rights of the abbey, both addressed to Hugh 

 fitz Grip, whose encroachments on the land of this and other abbeys have already been 

 mentioned. ■"* 



' Robertson, Anglo-Saxon Charters, no. xxiii and nn. Tole to the abbey still exists, but in a ven.' mutilated 



The Eng. version is printed in Car/. 5a.v. no. 738 and Corf, condition, which makes it impossible to read: O.S. 



Dipt. no. 1119, and the Latin version in Cart. Sax. no. 739 Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon MSS. Pt. II (1881), p. xv, and 



and Cod. Dipl. no. 375. 'Earl of Ilchester', no. \'. The original charter, with some 



' Ower could not be ploughed in 1086, and was held by others relating to Abbotsbury-, is at Count>- Hall, Dor- 

 salt-workers. Chester. 



' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, f. 43b. " Cod. Dipl. nos. 741, 772. Both charters seem to be 



' Anglo-Saxon Citron., a revised translation ed. D. accepted as genuine by Miss Harmer: .(4ng/o-iSajfon PfVitf, 



Whitelock and others, 76. 576. 



'" Regesia Regum Anglo-Nonnannonim, i, no. 108. '^ Printed in Harmer, op. cit. nos. 1-2. 



Urk's charter founding the guild of Abbotsbury is trans- "In 1212 the abbey held Abbotsbur>', Portesham, 



lated by D. Whitelock, in Eng. Hist. Doc. i, no. 139. The Hilton, Tolpuddle, and Abbott's Wootton, qiie data 



Latin text is printed in Cod. Dipl. no. 942. It is one of the fuerant per Oro (recte Ore) et Tolam uxorem suam: Bk. of 



few known examples of guild statutes, providing for the Fees, 92. 



needs of the guildsmen and the minster. A charter of '■• Regesta Regum Anglo-Normatmorum, i, nos. 109, 203. 



44 



