Damerham
| Damerham | |
|---|---|
 Damerham | |
| Population | 519 [1] |
| OS grid reference | SU103160 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | FORDINGBRIDGE |
| Postcode district | SP6 |
| Dialling code | 01725 |
| Police | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
| Fire | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
Damerham is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, located near to Fordingbridge. As well as being the location of notable Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, Damerham was an important Anglo-Saxon manor mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great. By the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, Damerham was a major settlement in the possession of Glastonbury Abbey. Today Damerham is a rural village on the River Allen.
Overview
Situated north west of Fordingbridge and close to the Dorset border, Damerham is located on the River Allen.[2] Damerham contains a mixture of cottages, with a riverside mill and a Norman church.[2] Settled since Saxon times, Damerham is said to be the birthplace of Æthelflæd, wife of Edmund I.[2]
Adam of Damerham (13th century), the author of Historia de Rebus gestis Glastoniensibus, was a native of Damerham.[3] Damerham was once in Wiltshire, but was transferred in 1895 to Hampshire.[3]
The village gave its name to a Ham class minesweeper, HMS Damerham.
History
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Damerham is the site of a prehistoric complex including two 6,000-year-old tombs representing some of the earliest monuments built in Britain.[5] It was discovered by a team led by Dr. Helen Wickstead, a Kingston University archaeologist. These were previously undiscovered Neolithic tombs known as long barrows.[5][6]
Another earthwork, Soldiers Ring, situated on a crest in an area of Celtic fields, is thought to be a Romano-British cattle enclosure.[7]
Damerham was an ancient demesne of the Saxon kings and was mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great, who desired that his men of Damerham should be free.[3] In 940–6 Edmund I granted a hundred mansae at Damerham with Martin and Pentridge to his queen, Æthelflæd.[3] Damerham may have been the birthplace of Æthelflæd.[2] Æthelflæd bequeathed Damerham to Glastonbury Abbey when she died in the late 10th century.[8]
In the time of the Domesday Book, 1086, Damerham was a large settlement of 80 households.[9] Glastonbury Abbey still held the manor, which remained with the abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.[3] It then passed to the Crown, and in 1540 Henry VIII leased part of the demesne land and certain farms belonging to the manor for 21 years to Richard Snell – these premises were in 1608 granted to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and remained with his descendants.[3] In 1544 Henry VIII granted the manor of Damerham to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, but it passed back to the Crown on her death in 1548.[3] In 1575 Elizabeth I granted it to the Bishop of Salisbury, and, except for the temporary sale by Parliament to William Lytton in 1649, it remained in the possession of successive bishops until 1863.[3]
Another important manor was the manor of Little Damerham which was owned by Glastonbury Abbey.[3] Glastonbury Abbey also held lands in the manors of Hyde and Stapleham.[3] Some of these lands were also held by Cranborne Priory, and Tewkesbury Abbey, to which Cranborne Priory was a cell.[3] The hide at Lopshill (Lopushale) is mentioned as within the boundaries of the manor of Damerham in 940–6; it is now Lopshill Farm, in the south of the parish.[3]
The Domesday Book records four mills at Damerham.[9] One was given to Geoffrey Fitz-Ellis by John, Abbot of Glastonbury (1274–90).[3] In 1326 Henry Dotenel released to the Abbot of Glastonbury all his claim in a water-mill called Weremulle in Damerham.[3] In the survey of the manor taken in 1518 a water-mill called Lytellmyle is mentioned.[3] This mill probably stood near Littlemill Bridge at North End, but it has now disappeared.[3] In 1608 "all the water-mills of Damerham" were granted to Robert Earl of Salisbury.[3] The only mill now in existence in the parish is Damerham Mill in the village on the River Allen.[3]
Damerham Park is mentioned in 1226–7 and in 1283, and at the latter date it contained deer.[3] In 1518 the park, which contained 125 acres of wood, was divided into three coppices, Edmundshay, Middle Coppis, and Drakenorth Coppis.[3] It was apparently disparked before 1540.[3]
The church of Saint George dates from the Norman period.[2] The earliest parts are the lower part of the tower and the north aisle (12th century).[3] In the 13th century the chancel was seemingly rebuilt and a south aisle added to the nave.[3] The tower was nearly rebuilt around this time. The 12th-century north aisle and transept were probably pulled down in the 15th century and the existing aisle substituted.[3] The church has some rare features, including a canonical sundial and a relief of Saint George.[2]
In 1830 the manor-house (West Park House) was attacked by the rioters against the introduction of machinery (Swing riots) and several people were captured and sent to Winchester.[3] One quarter of the village burned down in the "Great Fire" of 1863, but the damage was soon repaired owing to the exertions of the vicar William Owen.[3][10]
References
- ^ "2001 Census Neighbourhood Statistics – Civil Parishes in the New Forest". www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Hampshire Treasures – Damerham, page 73
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Victoria County History, (1912), A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5, Pages 586–591
- ^ Charter S 1507 at the Electronic Sawyer
- ^ a b Neolithic Age: Prehistoric Complex Including Two 6,000-year-old Tombs Discovered In Britain
- ^ Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles" James Owen, National Geographic News, 15 June 2009
- ^ Hampshire Treasures – Damerham, page 76
- ^ Will of Æthelflæd, at www.anglo-saxons.net
- ^ a b Domesday Map – Damerham
- ^ History, www.damerham.net
External links
- Damerham Community Web Site
- Damerham Parish Council
- The Damerham Archaeology Project An educational organisation that gives members of the public, school children and students the opportunity to visit and/or participate in archaeology.
