Chineham
| Chineham | |
| Hampshire | |
|---|---|
 A residential road in Chineham | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU660551 |
| Location: | 51°17’30"N, 1°3’15"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 9,240 (2011) |
| Post town: | Basingstoke |
| Postcode: | RG24 |
| Dialling code: | 01256 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Basingstoke and Deane |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Basingstoke |
Chineham is a village in the north of Hampshire which has been engulfed to become a north-eatsrn suburb of Basingstoke. It is about three miles north-east of central Basingstoke, just north of the A33 road between Basingstoke and Reading.
The local pub is the The Chineham Arms. The village has an interdenominational church, Christ Church.
History
An Iron Age settlement has been excavated recently in Great Binfield Copse. The Agger of the Roman road from Silchester to Chichester uncovered during the laying of an electricity pipeline in 2002 and evidence of a Roman enclosure and metal working site found in Daneshill during the 1980s. Binfields Farm, now the site of Chineham District Centre, was first documented in 945 as Becmnit Felda.[1]
The manor of Chineham is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Chineham in the Basingstoke Hundred.
It is suggested that “Chine” is derived from the Old English 'cinu' which means a 'chink', 'ravine' or 'rift', which may refer to the gap in the hills which today is the route taken by the Basingstoke-Reading railway line.
The ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1990, prior to this Chineham formed a detached part of the parish of Monk Sherborne, in the Basingstoke Hundred.[2]
By 1848, Chineham had developed into a tiny hamlet with 34 inhabitants,.[3] In the same year, the Berks and Hants Railway was opened, crossing the Basingstoke to Reading road nearby. By the 1960s there were about seventy dwellings, mostly along the road from Basingstoke to Reading, with a small wooden church, a village shop, a petrol station, a small village hall, and a Toll House at the Reading end of the village.[4]
Since the late-1970s, Chineham has developed into a sizeable residential suburb, and a bypass was constructed on the main A33 road so that the growing traffic flow was moved away from the housing areas. The railway has survived and prospered, as an increasingly important link between the port of Southampton and the northern counties. No passenger station has ever been built in Chineham, despite several recent attempts to promote one.
Chineham District Centre is effectively the town centre with a wide array of high street retail outlets (including a Tesco superstore and branches of Boots, Marks & Spencer Food and Matalan) and a public library. There is also a large, modern business park called Chineham Park, which incorporates the Hampshire International Business Park, harbouring many offices of national and international organisations.
Today Chineham is partly contiguous with the Basingstoke urban area and is generally considered one of the town's outer suburbs, though many residents perceive Chineham as more of a small satellite town. In fact Chineham has its own town sign on the A33 when approaching from Basingstoke.
Society and sport
- Chineham Village Hall
- Football: Chineham Tigers FC[5]
- Running: Chineham Park Running Club
About the village
Veolia Environmental Services operates an energy recovery facility on the eastern boundary of Chineham.[6] The facility is on Whitmarsh Lane between the A33 and the River Loddon, incinerates unrecyclable household waste to produce steam and generate electricity which is then supplied to the National Grid.[7] The facility has a power output of 8 MW.[8]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Chineham) |
References
- ↑ "Archaeology and Historic Buildings Record". Hampshire County Council. 2006. http://historicenvironment.hants.gov.uk/ahbsearch.aspx.
- ↑ A History of the County of Hampshire - Volume 4 pp 231-238: Parishes: Monk Sherborne (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Chilmark - Chingford: A Topographical Dictionary of England
- ↑ Chineham Parish Council
- ↑ Chineham Tigers
- ↑ Martin, Kate (19 February 2007). "Tagging along on the rubbish ride". Basingstoke Gazette (Basingstoke). http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/1200351.0/.
- ↑ "Visitors to get a behind the scenes look at Chineham energy facility". Basingstoke Gazette (Basingstoke). 26 March 2014. http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/11103693.Visitors_to_get_a_behind_the_scenes_look_at_Chineham_energy_facility/.
- ↑ "Chineham". Veolia Environmental Services. http://www.veolia.co.uk/hampshire/energy-recovery/energy-recovery/chineham.