The western gable of St Luke's chapel. The crude buttressing of the late 1920s can be seen. The Milne-Watson graves are marked with stone slabs and a wall memorial plaque has been recently added. The alter and crucifix were erected by Lady Milne-Watson.

Ashley chase lies hidden by a picturesque wooded landscape. The photograph was taken with a telephoto lens from a hill to the south-east.

The Dorset historian John Hutchins, who was for some time Rector of Swyre, described Ashley in the mid-18th century as ‘a farm of whose ancient condition or lords we have no account’ which was granted to Sir William Paulet in 1557, adding briefly ‘here was a chapel dedicated to St Luke’. Ashley, until 1899, was part of Litton parish & it was while the writer was searching the records of the mediaeval deer park there that early history of Ashley came to light. In 1302 Ralph de Gorges, then Lord of the Manor of Litton, was challenged in court by the Abbot of Lettle (Netley near Southampton) to prove the to land in Ashley. Ralph insisted that it, being adjacent to his park at Litton, had always been in his family. The Abbot, however, was able to show by deed dated 25th June 1246, that William of Litton (Ralph’s predecessor) had given the land to the monks of Netley in return for their perpetual prayers for himself & his family. William must have given the land soon after the founding of the Cistercian abbey by Henry III in 1239. Certainly from 1246 till the dissolution of the monastery in 1538 it was held by Netley, probably as a ‘grange’ or farm run as a community by monks or lay brethren. Ashley’s remoteness would have well suited the Cistercian love of seclusion. In 1338 the Abbot had to sue William Gurle, clerk, to render an account while he was bailiff at Ashley. It is likely that the chapel was built on the slope hard by the farm for the use of the community, and, being deserted when the monastery was dissolved, soon fell into decay.The abbey and its land were in fact bought by Sir William Paulet who thus acquired Ashley some 20 years before the date given by Hutchins. Today only the western gable end of the small mediaeval building survives. It retains its window opening but this has been enlarged to give the impression of a doorway. Sir David and Lady Milne-Watson who bought the farm and built the nearby house in 1925 had a great love for the chapel and lie buried there. To prevent the gable end from falling, one of the stonemasons working on the house was employed to strengthen it. He did this without professional advice so that, while it was saved from falling, the resulting architecture was somewhat bizarre. Years later, in a letter to the writer, he described how he used stone from the bed of the stream to buttress the arch and how, when digging a hole for scaffolding, he found a skull - perhaps of a member of the Cistercian community. The Paulets soon sold off Ashley and its story thereafter is very much bound up with Litton. The Hurdings owned it in 1657 as part of their 1250-acre estate in the valley. From them it passed to the Richards family and then to the ~Sheridans. The word ‘chase’ has become associated with the woodland at Ashley but in fact is no earlier than the house which was so named by the Milne-Watsons. The building, to the plans of Sir Guy Dawber, has mellowed to blend harmoniously with its landscaped garden and the woods beyond. Only later in the day, when the light falls on the west front, is the natural camouflage ineffective.

Park’s Farm

This farm occupies much of what was once the mediaeval deer park of the manor of Litton. Such parks not only provided hunting but also helped fill the Lord'’ larder with venison. The park ‘pale’with its bank, fence and ditch prevented the deer breaking out; it did not, however, prevent poachers from breaking in. The ancient court records are especially helpful in establishing the manor park. Thus the Patent Rolls for 1304 refer to a case on complaint of Ralph de Gorges that ‘Nicholas de Maundevill, Geoffrey le Harpour and Henry de Combe, with others, broke his park, hunted therein and carried away his deer’. No doubt Henry provided the local knowledge necessary for the trespass! Another court action, this time between Ralph and the Abbot of Netley in 1320, was over the possession of Ashley. It proves that the park was already in existence when Ralph’s grandfather became Lord of Litton in 1253: ‘The Abbot says that a certain William de Lideton, formerly Lord of the Manor of Litton, which is now the manor of Ralph and Alianora de Gorges, gave to the Abbey of Netley all his land is Assheleghe . . . and all the Long Grove up to his park, which is now the park of Ralph and Alianora’. The Long Grove is still there today as ‘Long Coppice’; the bank of the park pale is well preserved within the wood and can be traced to the road near Ash Bed. Elsewhere it has been destroyed by cultivation. It showed clearly on an air photograph taken in 1947 and was traced by the writer on the ground in the 1950s. As the map shows it has not been possible to trace it between Ash Bed and Rowden Bridge. Now the area is dairy pasture but within living memory the fields were dotted with oaks, and mature trees are still a feature of the lanesides. They may well be the descendants of those in Ralph’s park 600 years ago.

Ralph de Gorge's 13th century deer park lay in the parish of Litton between the river Bride on the north and the Netley Abbey's manor of Ashley on the south. It is shown as surveyed in 1958. It is now in Long Bredy parish.