Droxford
| Droxford | |
| Hampshire | |
|---|---|
 High Street, Droxford | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU607187 |
| Location: | 50°57’51"N, 1°8’11"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 600 (2011) |
| Post town: | Southampton |
| Postcode: | SO32 |
| Dialling code: | 01489 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Winchester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Meon Valley |
Droxford, archaically known as Drokensford, is a village in Hampshire.
The village is clustered with slight ribbon development along its main, north–south, undulating road. It is entirely on the lower half of the western slopes of the River Meon’s valley. Farms and residential outbuildings stretch to the west, north and south.
The village is three and a half miles east of the nearest town, Bishop's Waltham.
Church
The Church of St Mary and All Saints stands in the heart of the village. It is mainly of the 13th and 14th centuries, with a tower built in 1599. Today the church is a Grade I listed building.[1]
Next to the church stands the old rectory dating from the 18th century.[2]
About the village
The A32 road passes through the village between Gosport and Alton; a quiet route as it is largely bypassed by the A3 trunk road and the M3 motorway.
The former Meon Valley Railway has been converted into a lengthy footpath running from West Meon to Knowle Junction and the railway station converted to a house, a short walk across the water meadows from the village.
The village has a convergence of national long-distance footpaths, a number of holiday lets and bed-and-breakfast establishments, a post office, two refuelling garages, two pubs and a village hall. Neighbouring isolated Shirrell Heath commands a view of the Hamble and Meon valleys, with the often "blue" hills of the Isle of Wight on the horizon.[3]
History
During the late 5th and early 6th centuries, Jutes inhabited the Meon Valley; tey are recorded in later texts as the Meonware, and at Droxford there is the remains of a large Jutish cemetery that has produced various grave goods, providing evidence of their settlement.[4][5]
The Manor of Drocenesforda (Droxford) was granted to the Prior and monks of St Swithun, Winchester, by King Egbert in 826. In 939 king Æthelstan granted 17 hides of land at Droxford to his half-sister Eadburh.[6]
By the time of the Domesday Book, Droxford which included much of Swanmore (the name of one of its tythings) and Shedfield[3] had passed to the Bishop of Winchester, to support the monks. This arrangement continued until 1551 when it was surrendered to the crown. It was passed on to the Earl of Wiltshire.
The Bishopric regained the manor in 1558, holding it until the Civil War. During the rule of Parliament the manor was transferred into private hands but on the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 it was restored to the Bishopric.[3]
This situation continued until 1869 when the manor (amounting to a lessened, mid-19th-century, wealth and control of land management in the parish) was removed from the Bishopric as part of the Bishops' Resignation Act of 1869, and the area of the parish glebe (church lands) had also been substantially reduced by this time.[3] A Primitive Methodist church or chapel was built in 1886.
A railway came to serve Droxford in 1903 across the river in the neighbouring more rural parish with the building of the Meon Valley Railway. Droxford railway station was built to the north east of the village and settlement grew around the station including a hotel, railway workers' cottages and a cluster of private homes. These extended to the north to the Brock Bridge or Brockbridge farm and mill which retains its name.
In June 1944 Allied leaders including Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, and Charles de Gaulle met in a railway carriage at Droxford railway station to discuss the imminent D-Day invasion. There is a bench in the village to commemorate this meeting of world leaders in Droxford. British Railways closed the railway to passengers in 1955, and freight in 1962. After being used for testing and storage purposes it was finally removed in the 1970s.[7]
Church and landowner poverty relief
Aside from its state-incepted poor rate relief, the parish had minor legacies since the late 17th century and medium legacies relative to its small population since the 1850s for its poorest residents.
John Arthur, by will 1722, endowed for the poor of "the tithings of Droxford and Hill" £30; John Dee, by will 1749, gave for the local poor £50; and the Rev. James Cutler, formerly rector of the parish, by will 1782, left £50. These sums, with accumulated interest, were laid out in the purchase of consols (consolidated investments), by 1905 held by the official trustees, the dividends being applied with the similar-size Boucher charity.[3]
In 1850 James George Boucher, by will, bequeathed to the rector and churchwardens a sum by 1905 growing to £190 18s. 7d. consols for the benefit of the poor of the parish.
By Inclosure Award of 9 May 1855, two allotments of 4 acres each were allotted for the use of the poor of Shedfield, the rents of which, amounting to about £25 a year, were still in 1905 applied for public uses, subject, however, to yearly rent-charges. Under the same award 5 acres was allotted as a recreation ground. By deed of 1880 a site and buildings were given at minimal value for the purpose of reading and recreation rooms.[3]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Droxford) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1095540: Church of St Mary and All Saints (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Hampshire & The Isle of Wight, 1967 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09606-4
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 A History of the County of Hampshire - Volume 3 pp 284-288: Parishes: Droxford (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Turner, Barbara Carpenter (1978). A History of Hampshire. Chichester: Phillimore. p. 24. ISBN 0-85033-254-0.
- ↑ Smith, L. (2009). G.E.Jeans. ed. Memorials of Old Hampshire: The Jutish Settlements of the Meon Valley. London: BiblioBazaar. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-113-82344-1.
- ↑ Sawyer no. 446
- ↑ Buttrey, Pam (2012). A History Of Droxford Station. Southampton: Noodle Books. p. 12. ISBN 978-1906419936.