c. 1890
"Pictorial Guide to Abbotsbury"
T Cooper
(no ISBN)
Available from any bookshop, or from Amazon.
Available from the Swannery or the Sub-Tropical Gardens in Abbotsbury, from any bookshop or from Amazon.
Not only out of print now, it is probably quite difficult to find copies other than in fairly local second-hand bookshops.
Available from ~
While it is an academic, unpublished, paper, the report and its appendices (which include transcripts of original documents) is a useful source for much of the Heritage Research Project's work.
After considering all aspects of the site, its ecology and its history, the plan assesses the significance of the site as a whole before considering each individual building in terms of its origins and function, its present condition and its future prospects. Again, not commercially available, it is an essential research tool for the Heritage Research Project.
Available from any bookshop, Amazon, or ~
Available from ~
Available from any bookshop, Amazon, or ~
For what it is worth, several copies are advertised on the "abebooks" site, at prices ranging from £70 to over £400, and these are not all complete editions.
Note ~ Amazon feature two editions: one published by EP (sic) in 1973 (ISBN 0 854099 7 43) and the other by Dorset County Library in 1979 (ISBN 0 852162 1 89), but advises that neither is in stock and should be sought under the "order it used" section.
Long out of print, there are currently three copies on the abebooks site, priced between £48 and £90.
"Ten Dorset Mysteries"
Ensign Publications, 1989
Although out of print, second-hand copies are available from Amazon and abebooks.
"The Flight of the Crane"
Epworth Press, 1994
Although also out of print, second-hand copies are available from Amazon and abebooks.
Albemarle Books 1999
Available from ~
Long out of print, the first edition, with a maroon cover, is extremely rare: the second, 1895, edition (right) has a green cover and crops up in second-hand bookshops as well as on the net. Written partly as an advert for the Ilchester Arms (Tom Cooper was the landlord) it is still a good description of 19th century Abbotsbury, well illustrated with sepia photographs and paintings of the village.
1955
"ABBOTSBURY ~ the Church, Abbey and other points of interest"
The Ven WS Moule
(no ISBN)First published in 1927, the 1955 version is the third edition and the one most likely to turn up in bookshops: out of print, it has never been revised or updated. As the title suggests, this paperback concentrates on the history and description of the parish church where WS Moule was vicar from 1925 to 1942. It has some other interesting material, including the only reproduction of PR Morris's painting of "Garland Day, Dorsetshire Coast", exhibited at the 1893 Royal Academy summer show and since lost to view.
1973
"An Appreciation of Abbotsbury"
William Bertram & Fell
(no ISBN)Prompted by the local Council of the day, the Ilchester Estate commissioned a detailed survey and development plan for the village. Starting from the historical context, the study considered the village setting, its road and lanes and its buildings, before presenting proposals for the future ~ ways of enhancing the village, dealing with traffic problems, setting design standards for future building, and describing how existing buildings might be modernised or adapted to different uses. Part of the study consists of a house-by-house photographic register of every building in the village. Never commercially published, but given to every householder at the time, copies are now only available second-hand. The text is largely by architect Peter Fell, and the photographs are by Benedict Blathwayte.
1989
"The Abbotsbury Branch"
Brian L Jackson
Wild Swan Publications
(ISBN 0 906867 80 0)The branch line from Abbotsbury to Weymouth lasted from 1885 to 1952: intended to take fish, iron, shale (and even gold, according to the prospectus) out of the village and give local folk a gateway to the continent, while bringing in the tourist trade, it never really succeeded and was closed down before the Beeching cuts. The book has an obvious appeal to railway enthusiasts, but throws an interesting light on the Victorian business world and the role of the Earl of Ilchester in the railway's formation.
1993
"Abbotsbury & the Swannery"
John Fair and Don Moxom
The Dovecote Press
(ISBN 1 874336 08 3)Published to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the earliest record of the Swannery, this book is by two local experts in their field (John Fair was Swanherd and Don Moxom was ~ and still is ~ Warden of the Chesil Bank and Fleet Nature Reserve). While it concentrates on the Swannery and its history, other chapters deal with the village and the Fleet. The brilliant photographs are by Dr Peyto Slatter.
1994
"The Seiners and the Knocker Up"
Cyril Toms
Private publication
(no ISBN)Probably the most detailed account ever printed of the Abbotsbury fishing business, written by an Abbotsbury boatbuilder and fisherman who worked as a crew member on the seine boats off the Chesil.
1999
"ABBOTSBURY sketched in Mist and Sunlight" ***
Nigel Melville
Odun Books
(ISBN 1 873129 01 7)A chatty ramble through the stories of Abbotsbury from pre-Roman times up to the Millennium. No pretensions to being an academic history, while trying to offer a little more than the conventional guidebook, this book provides a panorama of village history, especially at the moments when the outside world intervened in Abbotsbury life ~ the years of the monastery, the impact of the Dissolution, the Civil War, the infamous Mary Canning kidnap case, the gradual arrival of tourism and the development of modern Abbotsbury following the "Appreciation" era.
Odun Books. 14 Rodden Row, Abbotsbury, Dorset DT3 4JL
Price including post and packing ~
UK : £4.50
Europe : £5.50
Rest of World : £7.502002
"Abbotsbury Historic Landscape Project"
Compiled by Pat Morris
(Unpublished ~ no ISBN)Produced for the Ilchester Estates and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, this is a report of two research projects: the first providing material to help the interpretation of the Tithe Barn to visitors, and the second using the Estate's archives in an attempt to understand the early development and mediaeval land use of the Estate in the wider context of West Dorset history.
2003
"Abbotsbury Abbey, Dorset"
ASI Heritage Cousultants and Keevill Heritage Counsultancy
(Unpublished ~ no ISBN)A conservation plan on behalf of the Ilchester Estates, following on from the 2002 landscape report, but going in to much greater detail and concentrating on the precincts of the former Abbey.
2004
"Greetings from Abbotsbury" ***
Paul Atterbury
Postcard Press
(ISBN 0 9545372 1 1)Authored by Paul Atterbury, the book actually features some of the huge collection of local historic postcards collected by Dave Stevens, Chairman of the Abbotsbury Heritage Research Project. Starting with general views of the village it goes on to street scenes, village life, the gardens and the swannery. Dating from the Edwardian era through to the 1950s, the cards provide a unique view of Abbotsbury in the years before the development that followed the "Appreciation" and its plans for modernising the village.
Postcard Press, Whin Bridge, Eype, Bridport, Dorset DT6 6AL
2006
"ABBOTSBURY ~ the "Appreciation" Revisited" ***
Nigel Melville, with photographs by Benedict Blathwayte
Odun Books
(ISBN 1 873129 02 5)Funded by the "Awards for All" lottery-based scheme, this book retraces the steps of the architect and photographer who compiled the "Appreciation of Abbotsbury" development statement for the Ilchester Estate in 1973. Each building in the village is photographed from the same angle as in the 1973 book, and is accompanied by notes on the history of the buildings. The account is brought up to date with photographs of the houses built since the earlier book.
Odun Books. 14 Rodden Row, Abbotsbury, Dorset DT3 4JL
Price including post and packing ~
UK : £5.00
Europe : £6.00
Rest of World : £8.00Several other books include Abbotsbury in a wider context ~ putting "Abbotsbury" into Amazon as a keyword turns up 243 titles.
"A Particular Survey of the Countie of Dorset"
Thomas Gerard (ed. Rodney Legg)
Dorset Publishing Company, 1980
(ISBN 0 902129 2 01)Sometimes referred to as "Coker", because it was believed for many years that the author was the 18th century author of this earliest guidebook to the county, until it was discovered that it was really written by Thomas Gerard in 1621. This edition is a reprint edited by Rodney Legg ~ Abbotsbury's entry runs to one or two pages, a reflects a view of the village centuries before tourism caught on, when the village mattered for nothing alongside the history of the Abbey and the parish church.
Dorset Publishing Company, Wincanton Press,
National School, North Street, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 9AT"History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset"
The Revd J Hutchins, 1774
The original 1774 edition is now scarce and can probably only be found in academic or reference libraries, but the 3rd edition, published in 1863 might just turn up in a second-hand bookshop. Both editions are very detailed and offer transcripts of a great deal of source material.
"An Inventory of Historical Monuments in Dorset,
Vol 1, West"
HMSO/Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England)
1952A genuinely monumental (the pun is deliberate) study, one of five volumes covering the county. Every building listed at the time as a historic monument in the care of the then Department of Works is here in considerable detail.
The Abbotsbury section runs to 11 two-column pages in smallish print, complete with architectural drawings of the Parish Church, St Catherine's Chapel, the gatehouses, Tithe Barn, plus a map of the village as a key to the listed buildings described in rather less detail. In addition, there are a dozen or so black-and-white photographs of some of the buildings described.
Roger Guttridge
(ISBN 1 85455 012 8)Subtitled "True Tales from the County", this book includes the usual suspects ~ TE Lawrence's death on a motorcycle, the possibly faked suicide of John Damer of Milton Abbey, and the theory that Jack the Ripper is buried in Wimborne.
From an Abbotsbury point of view, the most interesting chapter is the one that contains the full mysterious record of the Canning kidnap ~ briefly, the story runs that a London servant girl called Elizabeth Canning was kidnapped by a gang of gypsies led by one Mary Squires. A guilty verdict prompted some Dorset and London dignitaries to check out the gypsies' alibi, coming up with a comprehensive crowd of witnesses to the Squires family celebrating the critical period of the kidnap in various romps around the Abbotsbury area. The verdict was overturned, but the truth has never ~ despite Roger Guttridge's researches ~ been satisfactorily uncovered.
Elizabeth Green,
(ISBN 0 7162 0498 3)"The Crane" was the Chinese name given to Harry Vine Norman, an apprentice wheelwright, trained in Abbotsbury, who was funded by the Earl of Ilchester to train as a medical missionary. Posted to China, he arrived in time for the Boxer uprising, and was hanged in front of his burning church in 1900 at the age of 32.
One of several surviving relatives still living in Dorset, Elizabeth Green has pieced together the story of his career in Abbotsbury, Warminster, Salisbury and China and told the story as what the cover notes call "a rattling good yarn"."The Monasteries of Dorset"
Alan Miller
(ISBN 0 9535263 0 5)A useful introduction to the main religious houses of Dorset, how they met their end, and what still remains of them today. Opening chapters on monastic life and buildings set the scene for the dissolution process, before the main body of the book describes each of the ten houses (Abbotsbury, Bindon, Cerne, Christchurch, Fore, Milton, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Tarrant Kaines and Wimborne) in more detail.
Briefly scanning the history and the closure of each house, Alan Miller adds a "guidebook" section for each, describing the remnants of what were once great establishments.
Albemarle Books, 11 Marlborough Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH4 8DB