Bramdean Common is near

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, England. Bramdean means "the valley where brooms grow" - broom being the gorse bush originally prevalent in the valley that carries a yellow flower. There was a Roman villa near the village, excavated in 1824. The name goes back to 923. It is close to

Hinton Ampner Hinton Ampner is a village and country house estate with gardens within the civil parish of Bramdean and Hinton Ampner, near Alresford, Hampshire, England. The village and house are 8 miles due east of Winchester. The name probably derives f ...

. There is a ''Church in the Woods'' which was built in 1883 for

Gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

who used to camp in the local woods. It is built of corrugated iron and took five days to build. It was here in 1993 that the

Dongas road protest group The Dongas Tribe was a collection of Road protest in the United Kingdom, road protesters and travellers in England, noted for their occupation of Twyford Down outside Winchester, England, Winchester, Hampshire. The name ''Dongas'' comes from the No ...

moved after being driven from

Twyford Down Twyford Down is an area of chalk downland lying directly to the southeast of Winchester, Hampshire, England next to St. Catherine's Hill and close to the South Downs National Park. It has been settled since pre-Roman times, and has housed a f ...

by bulldozers.

References

Winchester {{Hampshire-geo-stub