Bank, Hampshire
| Bank | |
|---|---|
 The Oak Inn, Bank | |
  Bank Location within Hampshire | |
| OS grid reference | SU286071 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LYNDHURST |
| Postcode district | SO43 |
| Dialling code | 023 |
| Police | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
| Fire | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
Bank is a village in the English county of Hampshire. The settlement is within the civil parish of Lyndhurst in the New Forest, and is located approximately 8 miles (13 km) from both Ringwood and Southampton. It has one inn and approximately 30 distinct dwellings.
Overview
[edit]Bank is southwest of Lyndhurst and south of the main A35 road through the New Forest.[1] It is bounded by woodland or wood pasture except on the east where there are arable lands, and former parkland of the Cuffnells Estate.[2] The hamlet is an eclectic mix of former workers cottages together with higher status buildings constructed by 19th century cultured owners seeking country retreats.[2] The hamlet has no community facilities, other than the Oak Inn.[1]
History
[edit]The village of Bank seems to begin in the 16th century, as a settlement encroaching on the Forest.[3] The original name was apparently "Annis' Bank".[3] The oldest surviving building is Japonica Cottage, which dates from the 16th century.[4] Old Cottage dates from the 17th century, although it is nowadays dominated by a 20th-century wing.[4] To the east of Bank were the large 18th-century estates of Cuffnells and Wilverley,[1] and the inhabitants of Bank may have been involved in servicing these two large estates and their associated farms.[1] The Oak Inn is a two-storey late 18th century building of painted brick,[5] which may have been a cider house in the 18th century.[6]
Nearby is a small cluster of cottages which go by the name of Gritnam. It is likely that Gritnam is the place recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name "Greteha".[7][8] It was one of the 51 manors held by Waleran the Hunter as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.[7] Prior to 1066, Bolla had possessed it from King Edward.[7] Gritnam is also mentioned in 1300 as "Grettenhamdune" (i.e. Gritnam down).[9] The name might mean "the gravelly place,"[9] or "the great homestead."[10] The famous New Forest "snakecatcher" Brusher Mills was reported living in an old charcoal burner's hut by the boundary of nearby Gritnam Wood in around 1895.[11]
The Liberal MP, Robert John Price, was a resident of Bank,[12] as was the Liberal M.P. John Fletcher Moulton,[13] who, when he entered the House of Lords in 1912, took the title "Baron Moulton of Bank".[14]
Several literary figures have stayed in Bank. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of the sensation novel, Lady Audley's Secret, built Annesley House, with her husband, in the 1880s.[14] They used it as a country home, whilst retaining a main residence in Richmond, Surrey.[14] Her son, the novelist W. B. Maxwell, also stayed here as a young man.[15] The house was later used as a Barnardo's children's home.[14]
In Christmas and New Year, 1904–05, Virginia Woolf stayed at Lane End House in Bank with her sister and two brothers.[16] Later, Rupert Brooke stayed at a cottage called "Beech Shade" in Gritnam.[10] He would later write to his friend, Bryn Olivier, about his recovery from depression in Bank:
Then there was Bank, Bryn. For three whole months I'd been infinitely wretched & ill, wretcheder than I'd thought possible. And then for a few days it all dropped completely away, and — oh! how lovely Bank was! — I suppose I should never be able to make you see what beauty is to me, — physical beauty — , just even the seeing it in spite of all the hungers that come.[17]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d New Forest National Park Authority, Draft Character Appraisals. Conservation Areas, Lyndhurst, Swan Green and Bank. October 2008. Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, page 108, retrieved 12 July 2011
- ^ a b New Forest National Park Authority, Draft Character Appraisals. Conservation Areas, Lyndhurst, Swan Green and Bank. October 2008. Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, page 137, retrieved 12 July 2011
- ^ a b Bank and Gritnam – what’s in a name?, New Forest Explorer's Guide, retrieved 11 July 2011
- ^ a b New Forest National Park Authority, Draft Character Appraisals. Conservation Areas, Lyndhurst, Swan Green and Bank. October 2008. Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, page 121, retrieved 12 July 2011
- ^ New Forest National Park Authority, Draft Character Appraisals. Conservation Areas, Lyndhurst, Swan Green and Bank. October 2008. Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, page 116, retrieved 12 July 2011
- ^ Ant Veal's Top UK Pubs – The Oak Inn, Bank, Lyndhurst, retrieved 11 July 2011
- ^ a b c "Domesday Map, Place: Gritnam". Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
- ^ An alternative suggestion is that "Greteha" is the hamlet of Swan Green just west of Lyndhurst: New Forest National Park Authority, Draft Character Appraisals. Conservation Areas, Lyndhurst, Swan Green and Bank. October 2008. Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, page 89, retrieved 12 July 2011
- ^ a b Gritnam, Lyndhurst, Old Hampshire Gazetteer
- ^ a b Mike Read, (1997), Forever England: the life of Rupert Brooke, page 67. Mainstream
- ^ G. E. Mingay, (1998), Rural life in Victorian England, page 134. Sutton
- ^ Royal blue book: Fashionable directory and parliamentary guide, (1900), page 1185. London (England)
- ^ Charles Roger Dod, Robert Phipps Dod, (1914), Dod's parliamentary companion, page 93
- ^ a b c d Annesley, Miss Braddon and the History of Bank, New Forest Explorer's Guide, retrieved 11 July 2011
- ^ Stanley Kunitz, Howard Haycraft, (editors), (1985), "MAXWELL, WILLIAM BABINGTON" entry in Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature: Volume 2, page 940
- ^ Virginia Woolf, (1994), The Essays of Virginia Woolf: 1904 to 1912: Volume 1, page 53. Hogarth Press
- ^ Nigel Jones, (2003), Rupert Brooke: life, death & myth, page 291. BBC Worldwide
External links
[edit]
- Bank and Gritnam – what’s in a name?, New Forest Explorer's Guide
- Bank and Gritnam – historic families; historic buildings, New Forest Explorer's Guide
- Annesley, Miss Braddon and the History of Bank, New Forest Explorer's Guide
