A Monastic Survival

So on we move to Dorset.

I started off by trying to find a church I’ve failed twice before. To be fair a) there are no sign posts and b) on my second visit I found the turn off down a private road (there was a sign!!) but someone coming the other way told me there was a wedding.

So today I had no joy, I tried another road and thought it was it but there was no sign. As the road was private I had visions of a landowner chasing after me with a gun. But I eventually found a delightful pre tudor manor house with the church sitting by it. I was a good lad and never took a photo of the house.

So 652 St Andrew Brympton.






My original plan had been to stop at Montacute House but decided to go to a monastic survivor…




















Ah so you were expecting ruins? The Swannery at Abbotsbury as been there over 650 years. I want to go back when the Swans have cygnets. All the birds are wild.


I then decided I was going to try and find another church that has eluded me. I had a map and this time found another private road. When you turned in you saw a sign saying no access except for the church!!

653 St Mary Tarrant Crawford. Now redundant but still consecrated and in the care of the excellent Churches Conservation Trust.





On the way back to my new country pub was Milton Abbey. The church lost its nave in 1309 and it was never rebuilt. The Earl of Dorchester demolished the old abbey building and built a house, he moved the village a mile down the valley. The house is now a school and on my latest visit some teenage girls were playing La Crosse.

Milton Abbey.