Steeple

The Windmill

The Millers

Present site condition RCHM (1961) notes a possible site shown on aerial photograph

(ref RAF V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821 : 5418) - not seen as yet

Notes and comments

This small settlement is on the south side of the Purbeck ridgeway in a fertile wealden valley a few miles north of Kimmeridge.

A possible windmill site is suggested by RCHM^[1] as surviving in the form of a circular and embanked hollow about 12 feet in diameter just west of the church. It has an access in the form of a hollow way on the north west side of the area.

This is one of a number of remains and former building platforms which formed part of a far larger settlement. This area of Dorset has many traces of former medieval domestic buildings.

It is thought ^[2] that former Royal Hunting Lodges formed part of large farms with tenants working the land and being employed in connection with the hunting during the summer periods. This arrangement survived until the C17th and it is likely that the settlements decreased in size along with associated milling needs after this time.

The local TA has no reference to any windmill place names. A water mill called Hurst Mill appears 6" OS sheet and a Deed of 1739^[3] refers to this watermill.

^[1] RCHM Historic Monuments of the County of Dorset SE Pt 1 p273 (see photo ref above)

^[2] Good, R The Lost Villages of Dorset p54-55

^[3] CRO Deed of Hurst Mill 1739 ref (D/BOH)