Preston Candover
| Preston Candover | |
| Hampshire | |
|---|---|
 The village pump at Preston Candover | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU607417 |
| Location: | 51°10’19"N, 1°7’59"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 357 (2011) |
| Post town: | Basingstoke |
| Postcode: | RG25 |
| Dialling code: | 01256 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Basingstoke and Deane |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Winchester |
Preston Candover is a village in Hampshire, four and a half miles from its nearest town, Basingstoke. This is one of three Candover villages which north to south along the B3046 are:
- Preston Candover
- Chilton Candover
- Brown Candover
The village has two churches, only one of which is still in use.
The surrounding villages of Farleigh Wallop and Nutley, and north-west of that which rises to Wield and beyond to Bentworth. The village itself lies on the lowest ground towards the west of the parish on the road which comes northeast from Northington and the two other Candovers, and runs across the parish to enter Nutley at Axford and continues uphill to Farleigh Wallop and then to Basingstoke.
The village was home to the late Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover and his wife Anya Linden, of the supermarket Sainsbury family. [1]
History
The village of Preston Candover is probably of Saxon origin. It is recorded later as Prestecandavere: the Candover belonging to the Priests. The name derives in part from the Candover Brook which rises from springs just to the south of the village, and from a religious community which flourished here before the Norman Conquest.
By the eleventh century Preston parish had been carved up into six manors on thr common field system. Much of the higher ground in the valley was devoted to rough grazing and also held in common, this land comprising Preston and Nutley Down, Southwood Green, and Oakhills Common. The trackway across the down is today's B3046.
By Victorian times Preston Candover and Nutley had a population of over 500 people. It was a long straggling settlement of cottages is a mixture of styles.
The villages of Preston Candover and Nutley each had a church dedicated to St Mary. Preston's church lay at the southern end of the village. It had been built in the seventeenth century, the original church, dating from 1190, having been destroyed by fire. The village also had a Methodist Chapel, built in 1865.
A major change in the appearance of the village occurred in the 1920s at the point where the Basingstoke–Alresford road met the road to Wield. Previously there had been just a pond lying at the fork in the road. In 1870 a parish pump was installed next to the pond. In dry summers it was much used by farmers from Wield and Ellisfield, while the brick steps became a favourite spot for visiting Methodist preachers to conduct meetings and for pedlars to display their wares. A memorial was erected in 1919 in honour of the 16 men of the parish killed in action during the Great War.
The Candovers are now today a main crossing point to New Alresford and Basingstoke, but still the three villages still remain in peaceful countryside.
To this present day there is a primary school opposite the playing fields and tennis courts in the village, which has a nursery and a primary school up to year 6. Mrs Simrit Otway is the headteacher.
See also
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Preston Candover) |
References
- ↑ "Ex-supermarket boss Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover dies at 94" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2022-01-14. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60003334.