Milton Abbas No. 1 / Mideltune / Mideltvne

There is an entry for Milton Abbas [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey https://opendomesday.org/place/ST8001/milton-abbas/] [accessed 2 June 2024]; it mentions neither priest not church in it. A font is mentioned in passing in the 3rd ed. of Hutchins (1973 1861-1874) without any description or detail. Holmes (1922) notes: "The church contains a Purbeck marble font from the abbey". Listed in Long (1923) as a baptismal font of the Early English period. In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Octagonal, of Purbeck marble, with two pointed-trefoiled blank arches on each side; late C13." Listed in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble. In the Dorset-OPC page [http://dorset-opc.com/MiltonAbbasPhotos.htm]: "this is an old font made of Purbeck marble which was removed from the Abbey." Described and illustrated in Duke (2004) [http://www.martinstown.co.uk/WEBSITE/VILLAGE/FONT/miltonabs.htm] [accessed 6 January 2010]: "Font of Purbeck Marble, with octagonal bowl decorated in each face with two shallow trefoil headed panels, below centre shaft and eight octagonal corner shafts standing on hollow chamfered octagonal base, underneath, octagonal plinth of Ham Hill stone with, on four contiguous sides, frieze of quatrefoils between chamfered and hollow chamfered mouldings; bowl, shafts and base probably of 13th century but with 18th century re-working; plinth, late 15th century. Font cover, of oak with ogee profile and foliate finial, late 18th century. This font is large of what is little more than a village church. This is because, as the name of this place suggests, it has an ancient ecclesiastical past and this font came from the Abbey at Milton Abbas when this church was dedicated in 1786. Milton Abbey also had a smaller subsidiary monastery at Whitcombe near Dorchester and this font, although much larger, is very similar to the font there. The font in today's Abbey does not come within the remit of this survey. It is an Art Nouveau piece that was commissioned in 1860. It is described in Long's paper on Dorset Fonts as "a monstrous abortion utterly unworthy of the sacred purpose it is meant to serve". To see this font, there is no better website to visit than that of the Dorset Historic Churches Trust."