Damerham | |
---|---|
![]() Damerham | |
Location within Hampshire | |
Population | 519 [1] 508 (2011 Census including Lopshill and Lower Daggons) [2] |
OS grid reference | SU105158 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | FORDINGBRIDGE |
Postcode district | SP6 |
Dialling code | 01725 |
Police | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
Fire | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
Ambulance | South Central |
UK Parliament | |
Website | www |
Damerham is a rural village and civil parish in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England, near Fordingbridge. The area has notable Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows. It was the site of an Anglo-Saxon religious community, mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great. By the time of Domesday Book (1086), Damerham was a major settlement in the possession of Glastonbury Abbey. The village has a riverside mill and a Norman church.
Damerham lies in the valley of the Allen River, a minor tributary of the Hampshire Avon. The river flows north-west to south-east across the parish, and becomes the Ashford Water as it continues east to join the Avon just below Fordingbridge. [3]
The village is about 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Fordingbridge and is connected to nearby settlements by minor roads. The county boundary with Dorset follows the south-west and south boundaries of the parish. [4]
Settled since Saxon times, Damerham (anciently South Damerham) [5] is said to be the birthplace of Æthelflæd, wife of Edmund I. [6] Adam of Damerham (13th century), the author of Historia de Rebus gestis Glastoniensibus, was a native. [5]
Damerham is the site of a prehistoric complex including two 6,000-year-old tombs representing some of the earliest monuments built in Britain. [8] It was discovered by a team led by Helen Wickstead, a Kingston University archaeologist. These were previously undiscovered Neolithic tombs known as long barrows. [8] [9]
Another earthwork, Soldiers Ring, situated on a crest in an area of Celtic fields, is thought to be a Romano-British cattle enclosure. [10]
Damerham was a royal estate of the kings of Wessex, and a religious community there was mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great: "And it is my will that the community at Damerham be given their landbooks and their freedom to choose whatever lord as is dearest to them, for my sake and for Ælfflæd." [11] It may have been a nunnery headed by Ælfflæd, possibly a kinswoman of the king. [12] In 940–6 Edmund I granted a hundred mansae at Damerham with Martin and Pentridge to his queen, Æthelflæd. [5] Damerham may have been the birthplace of Æthelflæd. [6] Æthelflæd bequeathed Damerham to Glastonbury Abbey when she died in the late 10th century. [13]
In the time of Domesday Book (1086), Damerham was a large settlement of 80 households. [14] Glastonbury Abbey still held the manor, which remained with the abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. [5] It then passed to the Crown, and in 1540 Henry VIII leased part of the demesne land and certain farms belonging to the manor for 21 years to Richard Snell – these premises were in 1608 granted to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and remained with his descendants. [5] In 1544 Henry VIII granted the manor of Damerham to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, but it passed back to the Crown on her death in 1548. [5] In 1575 Elizabeth I granted it to the Bishop of Salisbury, and, except for the temporary sale by Parliament to William Lytton in 1649, it remained in the possession of successive bishops until 1863. [5] In 1565, Damerham was the birthplace of a noted translator and book collector, Robert Ashley. [15]
Another important manor was the manor of Little Damerham which was owned by Glastonbury Abbey. [5] Glastonbury Abbey also held lands in the manors of Hyde and Stapleham. [5] Some of these lands were also held by Cranborne Priory, and Tewkesbury Abbey, to which Cranborne Priory was a cell. [5] The hide at Lopshill (Lopushale) is mentioned as within the boundaries of the manor of Damerham in 940–6; it is now Lopshill Farm, in the south of the parish. [5]
The Domesday Book records four mills at Damerham. [14] One was given to Geoffrey Fitz-Ellis by John, Abbot of Glastonbury (1274–90). [5] In 1326 Henry Dotenel released to the Abbot of Glastonbury all his claim in a water-mill called Weremulle in Damerham. [5] In the survey of the manor taken in 1518 a water-mill called Lytellmyle is mentioned. [5] This mill probably stood near Littlemill Bridge at North End, but it has now disappeared. [5] In 1608 "all the water-mills of Damerham" were granted to Robert Earl of Salisbury. [5] The only mill now in existence in the parish is Damerham Mill in the village on the River Allen. [5]
Damerham Park is mentioned in 1226–1227 and in 1283, and at the latter date it contained deer. [5] In 1518 the park, which contained 125 acres of wood, divided into three coppices: Edmundshay, Middle Coppis, and Drakenorth Coppis. [5] It was apparently disparked before 1540. [5]
The Church of Saint George dates from the Norman period. [6] The earliest sections are the lower part of the tower and the north aisle (12th century). [5] In the 13th century the chancel was seemingly rebuilt and a south aisle added to the nave. [5] The tower was nearly rebuilt about this time. The 12th-century north aisle and transept were probably pulled down in the 15th century and the existing aisle substituted. [5] The church has rare features including a canonical sundial and a relief of St George. [6]
In 1830 the manor-house (West Park House) was attacked in a riot against the introduction of machinery (Swing riots) and several people were captured and sent to Winchester. [5] One quarter of the village burned down in the "Great Fire" of 1863, but the damage was soon repaired owing to the exertions of the vicar, William Owen. [5] [16]
Damerham was transferred from Wiltshire to Hampshire in 1895. [5] In 1953, the village gave its name to a Ham class minesweeper, HMS Damerham.
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to the west. The largest settlement is Swindon, and Trowbridge is the county town.
Fordingbridge is a town and broader civil parish with a population of 6,000 on the River Avon in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England, near the Dorset and Wiltshire borders and on the edge of the New Forest, famed for its late medieval seven-arch bridge.
Cranborne is a village in East Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the parish had a population of 779, remaining unchanged from 2001.
Pentridge is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial of Dorset, England, lying in the north-east of the county. It is situated on the edge of Cranborne Chase down a dead-end minor lane just south of the A354 road between the towns of Blandford Forum and Salisbury. In 2001 the parish had a population of 215. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Sixpenny Handley to form "Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge".
Hampshire is a county in Southern England with some notable archaeology and many notable historic buildings.
Wiltshire is a historic county located in the South West England region. Wiltshire is landlocked and is in the east of the region.
Liss is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, 3.3 miles (5.3 km) north-east of Petersfield, on the A3 road, on the West Sussex border. It covers 3,567 acres (14 km2) of semi-rural countryside in the South Downs National Park. Liss railway station is on the Portsmouth Direct line. The village comprises an old village at West Liss and a modern village round the 19th-century station. They are divided by the River Rother. Suburbs later spread towards Liss Forest.
Rockbourne is a village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire, close to Fordingbridge.
Whitsbury is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, close to Fordingbridge. Whitsbury is a part of a group of villages on the edge of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Breamore is a village and civil parish near Fordingbridge in Hampshire, England. The parish includes a notable Elizabethan country house, Breamore House, built with an E-shaped ground plan. The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary has an Anglo-Saxon rood.
Godshill is a village and civil parish and in New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England. It is about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) east of the town of Fordingbridge and 10 miles (16 km) south of the city of Salisbury.
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Cogges is an area beside the River Windrush in Witney, Oxfordshire, 0.5 miles (800 m) east of the town centre. It had been a separate village and until 1932 it was a separate civil parish.
North Charford is a hamlet in the New Forest district, in Hampshire, England, near the Wiltshire border. Historically the name refers to a manor which is now in the civil parish of Breamore on the west bank of the River Avon.
Bickton is a hamlet in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England. It is within the civil parish of Fordingbridge and is situated by the River Avon.
Netley Marsh is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, close to the town of Totton. It lies within the New Forest District, and the New Forest National Park. It is the supposed site of the battle between an invading Anglo Saxon army, under Cerdic and a British army under the probably fictitious king Natanleod in the year 508.
Cranborne Priory is a former priory church in the village of Cranborne, Dorset, England. Founded in 980 as Cranborne Abbey, it became a priory in 1102, remaining that way until it was dissolved in 1540. The tower, nave and aisles from the priory survive to form the Church of St Mary and St Bartholomew, the parish church of Cranborne. The building, which has fragments from the 12th century, is designated a Grade I listed building.
Bull Hill, Dorset, Daggons and Broxhill are adjoining hamlets notable for planted woodland and tree cultivation south of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB in Dorset, England. The nearest town is Fordingbridge, about 3 miles (4.8 km) ENE. They are primarily in the civil parish of Alderholt, though some of Bull Hill is in the parishes of Damerham in a north-west projection of Hampshire. The three places have indistinct borders as is normal for hamlets.
Stoke Charity is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Wonston, in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. It is on the River Dever, its nearest town is Winchester, which lies approximately 6.1 miles (9.9 km) south-west from the village. In 1931 the parish had a population of 111.