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Strangways, Abbotsbury

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Abbotsbury Castle

In the civil parish of Abbotsbury.
In the historic county of Dorset.
Modern Authority of Dorset.
1974 county of Dorset.

OS Map Grid Reference: SY55828478
Latitude 50.66108° Longitude -2.62580°

Strangways, Abbotsbury has been described as a Artillery Fort although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Buildings marked as Abbotsbury castle are on the first edition OS map. (Dorset HER)

Arthur Oswald states, in his book 'Dorset Country Houses' that there was a blockhouse built by Henry VIII here, no other references and later house built on supposed site is demolished. (Wilton)

The seaside house ‘Strangways’ or latterly ‘Abbotsbury Castle’ had been built as a summer residence around 1765 by William’s grandmother, the 1st Countess of Ilchester (née Elizabeth Strangways Horner), in the Gothic style recently made fashionable by Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. (Poulson 2008)

The blockhouses of Henry VIII are well recorded in royal records so unlikely there was a royal blockhouse here. A private C16 blockhouse might be a possibility but who and how funded are major questions. Most likely a fanciful suggestion made to give kudos to the mildly Gothick Abbotsbury Castle house, rebuilt after a fire in 1913 but demolished in 1934.
Not to be confused with Abbotsbury Castle an Iron Age hill fort at SY55588657 not suggested as the site of medieval occupation.

Links to mapping and other online resources

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Sources of information, references and further reading

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I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
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This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013

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