Ordnance Survey maps of the valley show the site of “The medieval village of Elliston” or Elston. It lies in a place called New Barn, between Sydling and Up Sydling, at the bottom of Elston Hill, by a bend in Sydling Water, and looks an ideal place for a settlement, with springs and stream, fertile meadows, and surrounding fields for crops, and downland to graze.

 

OS maps show an area of earthworks, initially described as a British Settlement.

In 1952, a Survey by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments stated that “the earthworks S and SW of New Barn consist of a series of low banks and scarps forming irregular fields or enclosures with hollow-ways.  The period is uncertain. “ 

  

 In 1956, the proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society say: 

“The rescue of an Enclosure Award plan of the parish enabled Colonel Drew to locate the medieval hamlet of Elston, to which he was able to find documentary references, at what is now New Barn Sydling St Nicholas. It is evident that the earthworks marked on the Ordinance maps relate to the hamlet. The name survives in Ellston Hill to the north of New Barn”  

Since then it has been shown on maps as “site of the Deserted Medieval Village of Elston”

 

 

What we know of its history

 

Elyston is mentioned in Milton Abbey records from the very earliest existing record of Sydling Manorial Court in 1273. In 1322 there are 3 virgators, 5 half virgators and 4 cottagers in Elyston, In the 1342 rental and extent of Sydling, it is described as “The hamlet of Elyston”, and has 3 free tenants and 3 cottagers. Throughout the 14th and 15th century it seems to remain fairly constant in size, so there is no evidence that it was decimated by plague. In the 15th and 16th centuries there was a fulling mill close to Elston.

 

By 1526 there are 4 tofts / cottages and 11 closes (Enclosures of land). It seems to have been a hamlet of 4-6 dwellings right up to the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540.

 

After this, Milton Abbey land in Sydling passed to Winchester College. There is little record of the hamlet for the next 200 years.

 

 In about 1730 New Barn was built close to the site of Elyston. The land around it had been leased from the college by John Smith of Sydling Court. There is no mention of any dwellings then, and it is likely that the hamlet no longer existed.

 

In the 19th century, spring fed watercress beds were made close to the site of the hamlet, which worked until the late 20th century, sending cress to Dorchester and beyond for sale. And a pair of cottages at New Barn are recorded on the census from 1861, and still evident in photos from the 1940s.

 

 

So what happened to Elyston? Why did it disappear?

 

Of course, this is a matter for speculation, but several factors may be relevant.

 

 The peasants at Elyston were tenants of the lord of the manor, held pieces of land from him and farmed his lands. The lord of the manor of Sydling was the Abbott of Middleton (Milton) Abbey until 1540, and after this the Warden of Winchester College.

 

If farming practices changed, there might have been less need for the lord to sustain a group of cottages there. And the 16th and 17th centuries were times of change in Sydling as everywhere.

 

Sydling produced a great deal of food for Milton Abbey’s table. Different areas of the valley had different purposes. Some was good arable land, some grazing for the abbey’s animals, other areas were common grazing for the people of Sydling, or strip fields that they cropped to feed themselves.

 

In 1535, two thirds of Milton Abbey’s entire flock of wethers (castrated male sheep, fattening for the table) grazed the pastures of Sydling, mostly at Elston, some at Curden (Cowden Hill). And they were brought here from East RIngstead and from West Compton, significant distances on drove roads, to fatten on the good pastures.

When the Abbeys were dissolved, the new Lords of Sydling may not have needed to use the land in this way. The Wardens of Winchester College were not likely to require live sheep or carcases to be transported there from Sydling. Better to earn rent from the land. And there was a gradual change from feudal tenants having to perform services for the lord, towards tenants paying rent in money.

Sheep and wool were very valuable commodities, and a hamlet occupying good grazing land might not make financial sense.

In the 18th century the college leased and rented a lot of their land in Sydling to the Smith family of Court House, and they farmed or sub-let the land. Details of the Smith’s lands do show quite a bit of arable production too, and the building of a new barn at Elston implies that there were quantities of crops to be brought in from the surrounding area.

Although workers were still very necessary, it was perhaps less important for them to live right on the spot. After all, most of the Sydling valley must have been worked by people who lived along the river, in Broad Sydling or Up Sydling and walked to the fields to work. And none of the tenants of the Elston cottages had copyholds or right of tenure.

 

So perhaps the final chapters of the story of Elston are really the story of how farming changed over the centuries.

 

Anne Brown 2025