The Dorset Walk – Fontmell Magna – passing by Sutton Waldron
Published in December ’17
The outlook over Combe Bottom is one of the loveliest in Dorset
By the Fontmell Brook, which rises in the nearby chalk hills of Cranborne Chase, and conveniently located between the two principal market towns of Shaftesbury and Blandford, sits the pretty village of Fontmell Magna. Archaeological evidence dates settlement here to pre-Roman times and the enduring success of the community is undoubtedly owes much to the Fontmell Brook as the Domesday Book and subsequent testimony refer to there being four mills in the area at one time.
Prior to the arrival of toll roads the village was less accessibly placed for farmers to get to the two main north Dorset market towns; the main coach route, which was the primary network around the country at that time, ran east to west through either Shaftesbury or Blandford which provided over-night stops on the London to Exeter routes, missing Fontmell Magna altogether. The connecting route between Blandford and Shaftesbury was established during the early 19th century and coincided with a growth in population in the village although not necessarily in prosperity.
For most agricultural settlements, the 19th century was a time of immense hardship; wages were low, landlords cared little about their tenants and entire families could be turned out of their home at the drop of a hat. Migration between farms in search of work was becoming increasingly common – frequently families, already living in cramped conditions, found themselves providing refuge for relatives. In nearby Stourpaine, the vicar provided information for the Poor Law Commission’s report of 1867, describing conditions where an entire family might exist in a cramped small room and children were kept out of school to work on the land to provide crucial additional pennies to the family income.
Attitudes in the mid-Victorian era were filled with belief in unremitting industriousness and perseverance. Samuel Smiles publishing his book Self-Help (1859) launched a set of values that have remained central to self-help ethics right up to today, a belief that it’s not ability that’s needed to succeed but purpose and the capacity to labour: “It is not eminent talent that is required to ensure success in any pursuit, so much as purpose – not merely the power to achieve, but the will to labour energetically and perseveringly.” However, strength of character wasn’t always sufficient – hard-work wasn’t lacking when in those struggling with basic survival in rural Dorset and conditions in the mid-nineteenth century were so dire that they necessitated an outbreak of welfare organisations.
In spring and summer the hedgerows are alive with butterflies along the route. In winter, wellies and long trousers are recommended for any North Dorset walk.
Many Victorians had a romantic idyllic view of country life thanks to artists and writers, however the reality was quite different – a tough, often short life of grind, filth and exploitation. The 1869 report by the Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture included a sobering narrative on their observations of the Dorset agricultural labouring force; the hiring of an agricultural labourer in reality meant not just the man, but his whole family were employed and expected to work on the farm.
During busy seasons, wives were expected to labour in the fields as well as in the dairy, boys as young as seven were found to be working twelve hours a day (the proportion of boy labourers was higher in Dorset than in any other county) and daughters were expected to work alongside their mothers or maintain domestic and childcare duties in the home.
There was a strong ethos of welfare support in Fontmell Magna which was well-documented. The fact that there was need for such social welfare illustrates clearly just how many families were in dire straits; the nineteenth century saw the establishment of a variety of village charitable organisations such as the Fontmell Provident Society, the Sick and Poor Fund, a Coal Club, a Clothing Club and in 1876 a temporary Parish Kitchen was set up to provide daily hot meals at 2 pence per head following a period of particularly poor crops.
F
Collyer’s Brook is a collection of streams that used to be used for fish breeding in days gone by. Now it is a nature reserve.
ontmell Magna was proud to be one of a small number of Dorset villages that provided an opportunity for self-improvement through education. William Forster (himself a Dorset man born in Bradpole) introduced the Elementary Education Act in 1870 which made schooling compulsory for children between the ages of 5 and 12. For many the Act rang alarm bells as people feared that mass education would lead to a ‘thinking’ labouring class who might realise their dissatisfaction in revolution across the country.
On a more local level, farmers and landowners expressed concerns that education was an unnecessary luxury for a labourer, fearing that an educated work force would become mobile and as they sought to improve their lives they would migrate away from the land. Realistically illiteracy levels were high in most communities and it would take several generations of schooling before people really recognised the benefits that an education could provide in improving family circumstance. In Fontmell Magna the impact of the Education Act went beyond the village school as the opportunity for self-improvement through education for adults was established with the opening of a Reading Room next to the school and the establishment of an Evening School where both men and women were able to access tuition in literacy and numeracy and enjoy a free lending library.
For those who like rolling hills and wildlife, this is a lovely route
Since the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, Shaftesbury workhouse provided for the sick, elderly and destitute when they were no longer able to support themselves. However so poor were the harvests, the lack of work and housing around Fontmell Magna that the course of the nineteenth century saw a gradual appetite for change and improvement to the poor relief system as the numbers needing relief increased. As is still typical today, the momentum of change was slow, however, heavily influenced by ideologies of the time, the population was encouraged to be self-reliant, to be virtuous, respectable and exhibit self-help. Fontmell Magna is a village that demonstrates that it was not merely a helpless recipient of charitable beneficiary but a community of organised mutual aid.
THE WALK
1 Leaving the parking area at Collyer’s Brook, cross the weir, follow the path which rises steadily with view of Fontmell House on the right. The route continues over a track and rises across the field towards a stile. Once over the stile, veer left and continue with trees on each side as the path emerges from the trees follow the route uphill to cross another stile (this isn’t easy to spot and is partly obscured by the hedge).
2 Once over this stile, head uphill towards the hedgerow where there is another stile. Climb the stile, turn left and follow the track until it comes out on a tarmac road. The route seems to double-back at this point and descend towards Sutton Waldron but just continue on the road for a few yards until the gap in the hedge appears – this is the entry gate onto Combe Bottom.
3 The path now continues on a clearly marked track across the top of Combe Bottom heading towards the woods of Higher Barn
Plantation, where it then descends with the trees on the left. The route then turns right and continues along the bottom of Combe Bottom running parallel with the A350 in the distance. Follow the path which comes out on the road by Manor Farm.
4 Turn right and follow the road uphill until reaching a pedestrian gate into a field which heads between two fields and towards the tree-line. The route now continues downhill on a sunken green lane until it comes out on Parsonage Street, turn right and follow the track which goes along the back of Fontmell House before turning left back to Collyer’s Brook.
NB Combe Bottom is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its chalk grassland and butterflies, an area which has permissive access which is provided under farm conservation schemes and managed by Natural England. Please follow the Countryside Code and keep dogs under control.
Parking & start: From the A350 Blandford to Shaftesbury road, turn right on entering Fontmell Magna into Mill Street. The road follows alongside Collyer’s Brook to a parking and picnic area on the right of the road by the weir. There is limited free parking here for a small number of vehicles.
The route begins by crossing the weir.
Route: Please be aware that stretches of the route use Permissive Footpaths and Bridleways which cross farmland and environmentally sensitive areas.
Terrain: Mostly easy terrain with gradual inclines and a number of stiles – the route mostly follows tracks.
Distance: 3 miles
Maps: OS Explorer 118 Shaftesbury & Cranborne Chase.
