Bramshaw is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

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. It lies just inside the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

. The name Bramshaw means Bramble Wood. Until 1895, Bramshaw was divided into two parts, one half in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and one half in Hampshire. The village of Bramshaw is stretched out for several miles along the B3079 road, with the church to the north, the hamlet of

Brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...

to the south and Stock's Cross at its centre.

Overview

Bramshaw is a village and civil parish in the

National Park. It includes large tracts of land owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, and

Crown Land Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...

administered by the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

.Welcome to Bramshaw
– Bramshaw Parish Council It is located some 10 miles west of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. The parish contains the hamlets of

and

Fritham Fritham is a small village in Hampshire, England. It lies in the north of the New Forest, near the Wiltshire border. It is in the civil parish of Bramshaw. History The name Fritham may be derived from Old English meaning a cultivated plot (''ham ...

. Bramshaw Commons, owned by the

, comprise some of manorial wastes and commons.Points of Interest
– Bramshaw Parish Council It is some of the best surviving example of lowland heath in Europe, still managed by the common grazing of ponies, pigs, donkeys, cattle and sheep. The parish also contains the highest point in the New Forest at Pipers Wait, some 129 metres above mean sea level. The site of a 14th-century Royal Hunting Lodge ("Studley Castle"), a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

, can be seen nearby. The site of a former stocks and

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

can be seen at Stocks Cross, at the intersection of Furzley Lane and the B3079. The gallows were still in use in 1831, when records show that they were repaired. The Admiralty Shutter Telegraph Line had a station at Telegraph Hill, near Bramshaw. It was an optical shutter signal station used as a communication link for the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

History

Pigs grazing on the road at Bramshaw - geograph

Stock's Cross, Bramshaw, New Forest - geograph

Junction of the B3078 and B3080 at the Bramshaw Telegraph, New Forest - geograph

Bramshaw appears twice in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

for

, when the lands were held by Wulfnoth and a certain Edmund. Odo of Bayeux was overlord of these lands in Bramshaw at the time of the Survey. The name Bramshaw probably derives from an Old English word for "bramble bush wood." It may be that it is Bramshaw being referred to in 1418 in a legal record, (appearing as ''Bremelelsthaw''). The manor of Bramshaw, together with that of Britford, appears to have been granted by one of the Norman kings to the family of de Lacy sometime during the 12th century.Victoria County History, (1912), A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5, Pages 623–626
/ref> In the 15th century it was sold to Robert Lord Hungerford. It switched hands during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

, but in 1485 it was back in the hands of Hungerford family, being awarded to

Mary Hungerford Mary Hungerford, Baroness Botreaux, Hungerford and Moleyns (c.1468 – before 10 July 1533) was the daughter of Sir Thomas Hungerford and Anne, daughter of Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland. Titles Mary became ''suo jure'' 5th Baroness Bo ...

, wife of

Sir Edward Hastings ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

. Their grandson, the third Earl, sold the manor of Bramshaw (which from this time seems to have been also known as "Moore Closes") in 1561. It was sold several times in the next 150 years, until it was purchased in 1713 by Richard Paulet, in whose family the manor remained until 1887. Saint Peter's church belonged at an early date to the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

priory of Britford. In 1158, however, Henry II granted the church to

Salisbury cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buildi ...

, when it was appropriated to the resident

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

s, and from that date the patronage was in the hands of the Dean and chapter of Salisbury. The current church dates from the 13th century, albeit with many later additions. The earliest part of the church is the west end of the nave, which is of mid-13th-century date, and there is a cambered beam roof of late 15th century date. Much of rest of the church, including the chancel and vestry, are of 19th century construction. Bramshaw was partly in

and partly in

until the "County of Southampton Act 1894" placed it all into Hampshire. The county boundary ran through the churchyard,History of the Area
– Bramshaw Parish Council and through the church, which had its nave in Wiltshire and its chancel in Hampshire. There were separate parish councils, one for Bramshaw (Hampshire) and one for Bramshaw (Wiltshire), which survived as Bramshaw (West) and Bramshaw (East) until 1932 when they were unified. Bramshaw

village school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

was founded in 1812 and closed in July 1977. Through those 165 years it served the children of Bramshaw and nearby hamlets in the

and Furzley. Children passed through Bramshaw School, usually on their way to labouring and servant jobs in the forest and on the estates. The school began life as a Boys' School, registered as a National School in 1812 with the Girls' and Infants' School being registered in 1819. At that time it was described as 'privately owned', only being registered as a Public Elementary School in 1851 when it began to be supported with government funding. George Eyre (1772–1837), owner of the local Warrens Estate. founded the school, 'demonstrating a paternalistic attitude to the labourers and their children, while providing a picturesque addition to the village scene'. The school remained connected to the Eyre family until the death of the Mrs Eyre in 1933.Merson, 1979, p.86 After the

1944 Education Act Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Six ...

introduced the eleven plus examination, older boys and girls moved to a new

Secondary Modern School A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

Bartley Bartley is a family name and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Barrington Bartley (born 1980), Jamaican-American cricketer * Charles Bartley (1921–1996), American scientist * David M. Bartley (born 1935), American po ...

, leaving two classes of 5 to 7 and 7 to 11-year-olds. When the school closed in 1977, 5 to 8+ year olds went to Copythorne First School while children from 8+ to 12+ went to Bartley Middle School. The school building has become a private dwelling.

Notes

External links

Bramshaw Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire New Forest