Beech, Hampshire
| Beech | |
| Hampshire | |
|---|---|
 St Peter's Church, Beech | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU693388 |
| Location: | 51°8’39"N, 1°-0’34"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 532 (2011) |
| Post town: | Alton |
| Postcode: | GU34 |
| Dialling code: | 01420 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | East Hampshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
East Hampshire |
Beech is a rural village in north-eastern Hampshire, two miles west of Alton, just west of the A339 road. It is to be found eleven miles south of Basingstoke, and fifteen miles east of the county town, Winchester.
The village has a linear nature, sitting largely within a narrow valley that descends (by minor road) for almost two miles from Alton Abbey. The road between Bentworth and Beech runs over King's Hill (715 feet), one of the county's higher points.
History
One of the first examples of the village name Beech is in Greenwood's map of Hampshire dated 1826, which shows a "Beech Farm" between "Wivelet" (the current Wivelrod) to the west, and "Wellhouse" to the east, now Wellhouse lane in the current Civil Parish of Beech.
Modern Beech started to take shape in the 1890s when the landowner began to sell off parcels of land for housing - much of it in the low-cost "colonial" style of wood and corrugated iron construction. This process accelerated after the First First World Warnspired by Lloyd George's "Homes for Heroes" programme.
The small church building on Wellhouse Road dates from 1902 and the village hall at the east end of Wellhouse lane was established 1932 in a building that was previously part of a print works.
At the west end of Wellhouse Road there was a well from which water was pumped by a large wooden wheel inside which was a track operated by a donkey or pony. This was still there in 2019.
Since the 1960s the original colonial-style housing has generally been replaced by modern detached houses of high value.