| Shroton |
| Shroton is known also as Iwerne Courtney
and is in a wide valley which comes off ot the main Blandford to
Shaftesbury Road. And was well known for its Clubmen who were country
folks often led by the clergy who were fed up of the skirmishes between
the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War. They
suffered damage to their property and crops and few of them knew what
the war was about, so armed with clubs and pitchforks etc they too issue
with both sides! The uniform was a white cockade and wherever they
defended their land they suffered severe casualties until finally a band
of them were entrenched on Hambledon Hill led by the Revd Bravel of
Compton Abbas. In the end Cromwell sent 50 dragoons to force them from
hill and they succesfully chased 300 of the Clubmen down the slopes to
be captured and locked in Shroton Church. But Cromwell felt sorry for
these 'poor silly creatures' and next day they were released and sent
home. Iwerne Courtney is recorded
in the Domesday Survey as Werne and appears in 1244 as Yuern Curtenay
the distinguishing manorial affix being from the Courtneys where were
the Earls of Devon and who held the manor from the early 13th century.
The Shroton par of the name first appears as Schyreuetone in 1337 which
is Old English meaning 'The sheriffs estate' scirrefa and tun. The village celebrated the 700th anniversary of its charter in 1961 but the fairs that were held here had already ended before World War One. Hardy and Barnes used to attend the fairs and Barnes remember it with his usual delight because he hated anything that was distasteful and ugly. In 1951 Princess Marie Louise visited the village in 1951 and they performed a re-enactment of the battle of Hambledon Hill for her.
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