Iwerne Courtney

Five centuries before the birth of Christianity, the folk living here in the early days of the Iron Age occupied the huge earthen ramparts they had built for themselves on Hambledon Hill, which rises above the village of Iwerne Courtney, also known as Shroton.
 
Following the conquest by Roman Armies under General Vespasian the people left their hill town and made their homes in the valley and lowlands. We know the Romans were here from remains of a Roman residence discovered at nearby Preston in 1880 by General Pitt-Rivers.

The dual place names relate to the ownership of the manor before the Tudor period. Iw(erne) or Yw(erne) is from the Celtic for yew tree and the chalky soil here would certainly favour that tree. But what of (Iw)erne? Possibly it is a reference to a heronry, as one was mentioned in a Charter of King Edwy in 986 as a “cranemere” or heron pool and there is a Heron Grove on Preston Hill. In 1244 the affix Curtney appears and relates to the Earls of Devon who owned the manor from the early 13th century; their family name was Coutney.

Seward, a Saxon thane, owned the manor at the time of the Norman invasion but we learn from the Domesday Book that twenty years on in 1086 the manor was the property of Baldwin of Exeter, the Sheriff of Devon. Locally the parish is often referred to as Shroton, a derivation of scir-refa and tun, which translated from the Old English, means the sheriff’s estate.

The village is found in an expansive valley off the main Blandford to Shaftesbury road. It hasn’t changed very much down the centuries; its thatched cottages and interesting church remain but the fairs and sales allowed under a Charter granted 750 years ago died out in the early years of the 20th century. Shroton Fair was held on the Fair Field every 25th and 26th of September for the sale of horses, cattle and all manner of produce. William Barnes wrote in 1888: “Some high holidays of Dorset people have been those of their great fairs such as…Shroton, to which were formerly brought stores of all kinds of wares for the life-gear and house-gear of Dorset homes and to which the house-wives were wont to lay in the year’s stock. I have heard that a ball-room was put up at Shroton Fair where, I was told, young ladies were brought out in a County Ball.” There were stalls and booths, games and sporting events including boxing with bouts between local champions.

Gallows corner on the road from Iwerne Courtney to Farringdon probably got its name from a gibbet erected to display some sad soul from Monmouth’s rebellion, or to frighten deer poachers; something that was rife here during the 18th and 19th century.

Soon after it was rebuilt in the early years of the 17th century the church was to play a cameo role in the Civil War. Parliamentarian dragoons rounded up some 400 protesting Clubmen off Hambledon Hill and locked them in the church overnight. Such was the reputation of Cromwell that they feared they would never see their families again. The following morning they were doubtless much relieved to be released and sent home. (For the full story see our article: “Poor Silly Creatures.”)

All that remains of an earlier church is the 14th century battlemented tower. In 1610 Sir Thomas Freke, owner of several manors in Dorset, rebuilt the church in the Gothic style. There is a monument in memory of Sir Thomas in the mortuary chapel on the south side, enclosed west and south by a carved wooden screen that has been described as the most beautiful in Dorset. In 1871 the south aisle was extended and the roof replaced. The inside of the chancel was much altered in 1872 when new windows and a terracotta reredos were added; the outside of the chancel is as it was built in 1610.

An Inventory of Church Goods made in 1588 includes some grand priestly vestments: “one greene velvet with birds, one blue sylke with pecocks, one changeable green and yellow.”

A Muster Roll of 1542 lists the names of able bodied men possessed of arms and may be of help to family historians. The following names were included: Goodbynes, Burden, Baker, Copp, Gellet, Tyllet, Hancke, Here, Simons, Trevell, Sanysberry, Candeljou, Mychel, Swetnam, Hogger, Smythe, Mullens, Porter, Pyres, Danys, Best, Somers, Pyllwyn, Lamere, and Talbot.

The summer of 1756 saw a military camp established at Iwerne Courtney and for a short while it was home to six battalions of infantry and two troops of light horse, with twelve pieces of artillery. General Wolfe wrote: “the men were encamped upon a pleasant spot open to the wind which scoured the camp and purified it.”  This was three years before the General fell during the battle of Quebec in 1759.

About a quarter of a mile to the east of the St. Mary’s church and set in 100 acres surrounded by woodlands is Ranston House, seat of the Baker Baronetcy from its creation in 1805. On the death of her father, Sir Randolf Baker, Mrs Selina Gibson Fleming inherited the estate in 1959; she passed away in 2010. With her husband, Major William Gibson Fleming, she made significant changes to the estate and the Grade I listed house, which was built in 1755, is considered one of the finest in Dorset.