Gallows Corner and Milton Abbas

Æthelstan, regarded as the first English king, founded Milton Abbey in ad 933 as a memorial to his half-brother Edwin, who was drowned in a shipwreck. Æthelstan later received a vision predicting his victory over the Norse, and donated relics of St Sampson of Dol, on whose feast day the revelation occurred. The relics, together with the monastery, were completely destroyed by fire in 1309 after the wooden tower was struck by lightning. Although work began almost immediately on a new church, it was still ongoing by the time Henry VIII fell out with Rome and turned his attentions to relieving the monasteries of their wealth and power. The monks were evicted, and the abbey was bought by Sir John Tregonwell. Close to the King, he had, among other things, arranged the annulment of Henry’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon and overseen the closure of several monasteries, including Milton. Tregonwell allowed the church to remain in use for the parish but took the abbot’s residence for his own house.

When Joseph Damer – later Baron Milford – acquired the estate in the middle of the 18th century, he demolished the old monastery, retaining only the great hall and the church as his private chapel. In its place he built a grand mansion and employed ‘Capability’ Brown to landscape the park and create a lake. The work involved demolishing the old village (which offended him on counts of both sight and smell) and banishing it, together with a new church, to the adjacent valley, today’s Milton Abbas. Although the thatched cottages now look quite idyllic, at the time they were severely overcrowded, with each being intended to house two large families who had to use a common front door. The almshouses facing the church were re-sited from the old village, having been built there 100 years previously in 1674. In the middle of the 19th century, the merchant banker Carl Joachim Hambro bought the estate and set about restoring both the mansion and church, a commission he entrusted to Sir George Gilbert Scott. The Hambro family stayed there until 1932, after which the estate was broken up and the mansion eventually bought for the establishment of Milton Abbey School in 1954.

Begin in the centre of the village by St James’ Church, going up a footpath signed ‘Luccombe Hill’ to the left of the churchyard. This climbs steeply through the wood behind the church, mainly by steps. At the top, continue through gates up a grass bank onto the edge of a field and head straight across over the rise of Luccombe Hill to the corner of a wood, which soon appears at the far side. Turn left beside the trees to the corner of the field, then swing right though a gap along a hedged bridleway signed to the A354.

Emerging onto a lane, go left and immediately right onto another track. Later losing the left hedge, carry on at the field edge and leave through a kissing gate in the corner. Walk on by the left hedge to another kissing gate. Through that, turn right and climb away at the edge of a couple of fields. Keep ahead over the crest past a farm and follow its track out to a lane at the bottom of the hill.

Go right past Little Hewish Cottages, leaving some 20yds (18m) beyond along a bridle track signed left through a gate. Climb to a second gate and continue over the shoulder of the hill beside a sparse hedge on your left. Keep ahead at the far end to exit through a gate onto another lane.

Cross to a path opposite. Bear half right to climb across the field to the top corner. Pass through a wooded gap and continue at the right edge of two more fields over the top of the hill. Leave through a gate in the corner into a wooded strip that conceals a crossing track. Turn right to a junction at Gallows Corner.

Signed to Milton Abbas, the track to the right tunnels downhill to emerge at a junction of lanes by Spring Cottage. Walk right towards Milborne St Andrew. After 300yds (274m), just before a farmhouse, turn back sharp left on an unmarked rising track. Through a gate into fields at the top, continue over the crest of the hill. Pass through the right-hand one of two adjacent gates and carry on at the edge of successive fields, going through a gate onto a grassy track and dropping out at the bottom through Fishmore Hill farmyard onto a lane.

Follow it steeply downhill to a junction beside a lodge at the entrance to Milton Abbas Lake. Take the lane ahead, from which there is a glimpse through the trees on the left to the lake. Keep right at the next junction back into Milton Abbas.