Stockbridge, Hampshire

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Stockbridge
Hampshire
Stockbridge 033.JPG
Stockbridge High Street looking west
Location
Grid reference: SU355351
Location: 51°6’50"N, 1°29’26"W
Data
Population: 581  (2001[1])
Post town: Stockbridge
Postcode: SO20
Dialling code: 01264
Local Government
Council: Test Valley
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Romsey and Southampton North
Website: Stockbridge Parish Council

Stockbridge is a small town, parish and conservation area[2] in western Hampshire. The parish has has an area of 1,323 acres and a population of little under 600 people according to the 2001 census. It sits astride the Test and at the foot of Stockbridge Down.

Location

The A30 road passes through the town, which once carried most of the traffic from London to Dorset, south Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. However, engineering of the A303 dual carriageway today provides a flatter, unimpeded route in the north by Andover. The bridge over the Test led to the town's name[3] as a coach stop as provisions (stock) could be taken aboard; though Salisbury is 15 miles by road. Winchester is just over eight by the B3049 road that joins the A30 by the town, this historic town is en route from the mediæval cathedral cities of Winchester and Salisbury.

The town's street crosses the River Test, marking the border of the parishes of Stockbridge and Longstock by a low bridge of three arches rebuilt and widened in 1799.[4][5]

Five smaller river channels flow through the town. For a brief time, to provide space for fish, these were split into eight artificial ditches just above the town.

The town is on a shared pedestrian/footpath, the Test Way.[6]

History and economy

Stockbridge was the scene of the capture of Robert of Gloucester by William of Ypres in 1141.[5] Edward I stayed in Stockbridge in August 1294, as did the last catholic King, James II, on his way to Salisbury to meet the forces of the Prince of Orange dining at the Swan Inn in November 1688, which still exists.[5]

The town (as the parcel known as The Street in King's Somborne manor) was given the right to hold a market before 1190 in the reign of Richard I,[5] reviewed and confirmed in 1200 and extended to an annual three-day fair by Henry III.[5] As in the 12th century, the town consists almost wholly of one long wide street[3][5] and it is to this characteristic that it owed its early name of Le Street. The town grew and prospered as an unincorporated mesne borough before, probably by plague, the place became almost deserted and the poverty of the remaining inhabitants was so great that the market which had been confirmed to the town by Henry V and Henry VI was discontinued.[7]

By the mid-Tudor era, under Edward VI, the wealthy burgages numbered 58, partly in consequence of this, in 1562 two members of parliament were granted. Charles I had confirmed the right to annual fairs in 1641, however during the start of the nineteenth century a marked decline in trade was noted at the three increasingly agricultural fairs,[8] with one continuing until after 1911[5] The population of the parish was 853 in 1871, with 185 inhabited houses.[9]

Buildings

Name Grade of Listing Century
Fairways The Grosvenor Hotel (frontage protrudes further than the others) II* 19th and an 18th cottage[10]
The Old Town Hall II* 18th, 19th and 20th[11]
Remains of Old Church II* cusp of 13th and 14th[12]
Kings Head House/Lane House (includes Residence, Antiques and Salon) II* 17th, 18th and 19th[13]
The Old Rectory II 19th[14]
Waterlow II 16th and 18th[15]
The Old Three Cups Hotel II 17th, 18th and 20th[16]
Elizabeth Viney Antiques/John Robertson, Butchers II 17th, 18th, 19th and new glazing/door[17]
J and L Inglis Stables of Vine Inn II 18th and 19th[18]
Vine Inn II 18th and 19th[19]
Mulberry II 18th and 19th[20]
Stokes Restaurant (formerly N J Stokes Garage) II 19th, see famous people.[21]
Stockbridge Motors, The Cottage II 17th, 18th and 19th[22]
Stockbridge Antiques / Stockbridge Pharmacy / Trout Cottage II 18th, 19th and 20th[23]
Stockbridge War Memorial II 20th[24]
Sheriff House Hotel II 18th and 19th[25]
White Hart Inn II 18th and 19th[26]
Seven Gables II 18th, part 20th[27]
Leet Cottage / The Greyhound II 18th, part 19th[28]
Manor House II 16th, 17th, 18th and refronted 19th[29]
Touchwood II 18th and 20th[30]
Church of St Peter II 19th but some windows 13th and 15th[31]

Political history

Stockbridge elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons - Elizabeth I granted the two members of parliament in 1562;[5] elections proved corrupted and a private Bill for the disfranchisement of the borough was introduced in 1693 but was rejected at the third reading.[5] In 1714, Mr Steele one of the members of parliament was forced out for bribery and writing seditious pamphlets.

The Reform Act 1832 resulted in the end of the borough.

Stockbridge had a railway station on the Andover & Redbridge Railway (colloquially the Sprat and Winkle Line), later a branch line of the LSWR. This closed in 1967 under the Beeching cuts.

Religious buildings

One of the branches of the River Test which flow under the High Street with the spire of St Peter's in the background

Only the chancel measuring about 25 ft by 15 ft, some of the windows[n 1][5] and the graveyard survive of the original parish church at the eastern end of the town, now known as Old St Peter's Church. A licence to give divine service from 1323-1333 was given to John Fromond, architecturally this places about a century after the likely building of the church's chancel.[5] A Victorian Gothic church, St Peter's, designed by J Colson, was built in 1866 at a central location in the High Street.[32] The Roman Catholic church of St Thomas More is a modern brick built hall off of the High Street near the Town Hall.[33]

Sport and leisure

Due to its hatchery south of the town and many channels, Stockbridge is renowned for trout fishing.[3] One of the UK's most exclusive clubs, described by Country Life as the dream of every fly-fisher, with exclusive fishing rights over 13 miles of prime trout breeding and fishing waters, the Houghton Fishing Club founded in 1822, for many years met socially at The Grosvenor Hotel, a current landmark by its prominent jutting out into the pavement.[5][10][34]

Stockbridge has a Non-League football club Stockbridge F.C., which plays at The Recreation Ground.

Famous residents

  • Hicks Withers-Lancashire was Lord of the Manor from a date in the 1890s until 1902, when sold was to Mr R. P. Attenborough.[5]
  • Lillie Langtry, mistress to the United Kingdom monarch who succeeded Queen Victoria, Edward VII lived at the property that is now NJ Stokes Garage.[21]

Notes and references

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notes
  1. ↑ 12th-century date. One of these windows, serving as the west window of the north aisle, is of two lancet lights with a circular light over and an external label with grotesque animal drips
references
  1. ↑ "Parish Headcounts, Area: Stockbridge CP". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=795180&c=Stockbridge&d=16&e=15&g=452738&i=1001x1003x1004&k=Stockbridge&o=1&m=0&r=1&s=1204127193277&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 
  2. ↑ Test Valley B.C. Conservation Areas
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Stockbridge Pocket Guide, 2011, Test Valley Borough Council, for distribution centres other than Andover and Romsey see Council website
  4. ↑ "Stockbridge Bridge". Hampshire County Council. http://www3.hants.gov.uk/localpages/north-west/stockbridge/stockbridge-attract.htm. Retrieved 12 September 2010. 
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 Parishes: Stockbridge, William Page (editor), Institute of Historical Research, 1911, A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4, retrieved 8 October 2012
  6. ↑ Test Valley cycle route missing link funded, Test Valley B.C.
  7. ↑ Duchy of Lancaster Misc. Bks, 1911, xxb folio 2b.
  8. ↑ Duchy of Lancaster Misc. Bks, 1911, xxb folio 3b.
  9. ↑ William White (1878) History, Gazetter and Directory of the County of Hampshire p 582-3
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 National Heritage List 1093088: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  11. ↑ National Heritage List 1093093: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  12. ↑ National Heritage List 1302362: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  13. ↑ National Heritage List 1093091: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  14. ↑ National Heritage List 1093089: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  15. ↑ National Heritage List 1093090: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  16. ↑ National Heritage List 1093092: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  17. ↑ National Heritage List 1093094: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  18. ↑ National Heritage List 1093095: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  19. ↑ National Heritage List 1093096: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  20. ↑ National Heritage List 1093130: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 National Heritage List 1093131: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  22. ↑ National Heritage List 1178379: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  23. ↑ National Heritage List 1178416: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  24. ↑ National Heritage List 1093099: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  25. ↑ National Heritage List 1178444: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  26. ↑ National Heritage List 1178517: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  27. ↑ National Heritage List 1302390: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  28. ↑ National Heritage List 1302477: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  29. ↑ National Heritage List 1339443: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  30. ↑ National Heritage List 1339444: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  31. ↑ National Heritage List 1339465: Stockbridge, Hampshire
  32. ↑ "St Peter's Church, Stockbridge". British Listed Buildings Photographs website. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-140382-st-peter-s-church-stockbridge. Retrieved 11 November 2010. 
  33. ↑ "St Thomas More, Stockbridge". hampshiredowns.org. http://www.hampshiredowns.org.uk/StTMMap.aspx. Retrieved 11 November 2010. 
  34. ↑ [1]
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