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A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEW MILTON
Despite the ‘New’ part of the name of our town, the
history of Milton village and the surrounding district
can be traced back to Anglo Saxon times, before the
Norman Conquest. The village has slowly but surely
grown over the centuries. With the arrival of the
railway the growth accelerated considerably.
In our district there are a number of local place
names ending in ‘ton’. Examples of this can be seen
in the names Barton, Becton, Chewton, Wotton, and
of course Milton. In old English a ‘ton’ or ‘tune’ was a
farming settlement. Our settlement was situated in
the centre of these farms and was named the middle
tune or ton, which over the years became Milton.
The villages of Milton, Barton, Ashley, Bashley and
Hordle are recorded in the Domesday Book, which
was written in 1086. There has been a chapel or
church recorded in our town of Milton since some
time in the 1260’s. The church was dedicated to St
Mary Magdalene. In the 14 th century there was an
annual fair held in Milton on St Magdalene’s day, July
22 nd . In 1832 the original church was pulled down
Barton has given its name to the Barton Beds, a series
of grey and brown clays, with layers of sand, of Upper
Eocene age (around 40 million years old), which are
found in the Hampshire Basin of southern England.
The clay is abundant in fossils, especially molluscs.
In the 1880’s the London and South Western Railway
extended their line from Southampton to connect to
the Victorian seaside resorts of Bournemouth and
Weymouth. 1886 saw the building of the railway
station in its current location. The railway actually
apart from the tower, which is probably one of the
earliest buildings in our town. The church was rebuilt
with a brick nave and chancel.
In addition to farming there was a fair amount of
lawlessness in our area. Smuggling was widely
practised on the Hampshire and Dorset coastline.
There were a number of local landing places favoured
by the smugglers such as Chewton Bunny and
Taddiford Gap. The goods would be brought along
discrete routes through the forest often to local pubs
for concealment and distribution. On occasions
pitched battles took place between the smugglers
and the government forces. Eventually smuggling
declined caused in part by reduced taxes on
smuggled goods and the posting of Coastguards along
the coastline.
In Barton On Sea, for many years it has been possible
to find flints and fossils in the cliffs. Some of these
are now on display in the Red House Museum in
Christchurch and in the Ashmolean Museum. Indeed
commenced operations in 1888 as there were delays
caused by problems with the stability of the land,
especially at Sway which saw several landslips and
some deaths amongst the navvies constructing the
line. The Ordnance Survey map of 1909 shows the
development around the railway station. An
entrepreneur named Mr Hugh Wyeth, a Winchester
brewer, saw an opportunity to develop the land
around the railway station. He built the Milton Hotel
which was demolished in the 1990’s to make way for
the new Arnewood Medical practice. In addition to
the hotel Mr Wyeth built a hall and two shops
opposite the southern entrance to the railways
station. The hall was used for concerts, meetings and
dances. The first parade of shops was built along
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