Shroton (Iwerne Courtney) Summers Day

Shroton (Iwerne Courtney) Summers Day, a photo by LLAP Dorset on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
iPhone 4S HDR Blending CS5 Photomatix - Landscape - View from Hambledon Hill Dorset.

Shroton, also known as Iwerne Courtney, is situated in a wide valley reached by a lane which loops off the main Blandford to Shaftesbury road. It has changed little and, sitting in the church, you can imagine the 300 Clubmen cursing and quarrelling in the pews through the long summer night nearly 350 years ago.

Briefly, if you are not a student of history, the Clubmen were country folk, often generalled by clergy, who had grown weary of the battles between Cavaliers and Roundheads, which damaged their lands and ruined the crops. Few of them knew the merits of the quarrel between King and Parliament but, armed with clubs, pitchforks and scythe blades, they took issue with both sides. Their only uniform was a white cockade. They took a battering wherever they defended their land and, finally, some of them became entrenched on Hambledon Hill, led by the Rev. Bravel of Compton Abbas.

Cromwell sent 50 dragoons to drag the Clubmen from Hambledon Hill in 1645. Cromwell's dragoons overcame them and chased 300 of them down the slopes to be locked up in Shroton church. It is said that some escaped by sliding down the hill on their bottoms, amongst them 4 clergy. Oliver Cromwell decided that they were 'poor silly creatures' and the Clubmen were released next day and went home, having had enough of battle. Later, a more modern army mustered on the Hill under General Wolfe and used it as a training ground for their assault on Quebec.