The owners of Abotsbury were (and are) the Fox-Strangways family, the Earls of Ilchester. Whether they actually owned the site of the iron mine I am not sure. However, in the Fox-Strangways archives in the Dorset Record Office in Dorchester there are certainly documents relating to the mining (catalogued at D/FSI/).
Peter Northover--
Dr Peter Northover, Materials Science-Based Archaeology Group,
Department of Materials, University of Oxford
Tel +44 (0)1865 283721; Fax +44 (0)1865 841943 Mobile +44 (0)7785 501745
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