Fritham is a small village in

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 in the north of 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 ...

, near the

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 ...

border. It is in the

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 ...

Bramshaw Bramshaw is a small village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. It lies just inside the New Forest. The name Bramshaw means Bramble Wood. Until 1895, Bramshaw was divided into two parts, one half in Wiltshire, and one half in Hampshire. The ...

History

The name Fritham may be derived from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

meaning a cultivated plot (''hamm'') in scrub on the edge of a forest (''fyrhth'').Old Hampshire Gazetteer - Fritham
/ref> The oldest feature in Fritham is a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

Bowl barrow A bowl barrow is a type of burial mound or tumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms include ''cairn circle'', ''cairn ring'', ''howe'', ''ker ...

, known as ''The Butt'', which lies just east of the village, although it has been partially damaged on top by a brick structure. Fritham is not mentioned 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 ...

of 1086.Througham (Truham)
, Pastscape It was once thought that the Domesday settlement of Truham (or Trucham) may have been Fritham,Victoria County History, (1912), A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5, Pages 623-626
/ref> but this is now thought unlikely as Truham was within

Boldre Boldre is a village and civil parish in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It is in the south of the New Forest National Park, above the broadening (estuary) of the Lymington River, two miles (3 km) north of Lymington. In the 2 ...

Hundred. The first mention of Fritham appears early in the 13th century, when Geoffrey de Baddesley held land in Baddesley and Fritham. Fritham remained attached to the manor of

South Baddesley South Baddesley is a small village in the civil parish of Boldre in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire, England. It lies 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north-east from Lymington, its nearest town. The ''Groaning Tree'' of Baddesley In his ''Rema ...

in the parish of

at least until 1429. The Royal Oak - a thatched cottage with red-brick additions - is one of the oldest

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s in the New Forest, dating back to the 17th century. Fritham Lodge, dating from 1671, may have been one of Charles II hunting lodges. A school and chapel opened in Fritham in 1861. Eyeworth Pond, Fritham - geograph

From the 1860s until the 1920s Fritham was home to the Schultze

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

factory.Norman Henderson, (2007), ''A Walk Around the New Forest: In Thirty-Five Circular Walks'', pages 87-8. Frances Lincoln The factory specialised in smokeless powder for sporting guns. Established in 1865, it was at one time the largest nitro-compound gunpowder factory in the world, with sixty separate buildings and a staff of one hundred.Kenneth Hudson, (1968), ''The industrial archaeology of southern England: Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Gloucestershire east of the Severn'', page 35 It supplied three-quarters of the world's annual consumption of gunpowder for sporting purposes and often sent 100-ton consignments to the Americas loading road vans and special railway trucks for the docks at

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 ...

. Little now remains of the factory except for the superintendent's and gatekeeper's houses.Eyeworth Pond, Fritham, and the Schultze Gunpowder Factory
/ref>

Eyeworth Pond Eyeworth Pond is a pond located near Fritham in the New Forest, in Hampshire, England. The pond was created in 1871 by damming Latchmore Brook, with the purpose of supplying water to a nearby gunpowder factory. The factory, the Schultze Gunpowde ...

, near Fritham, was specially created by the factory as a reservoir to hold water needed during the manufacturing process. In 1904 the village gained a church in the form of Fritham Free Church. Four young men from Fritham went down with the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

'' in 1912: Lewis Hickman (aged 32), Leonard Mark Hickman (aged 24), Stanley George Hickman (aged 21), and Ambrose Hood (aged 21). A gravestone in memory of the Hickman brothers can be found in Riverside Cemetery in the town of

Neepawa Neepawa is a town in Manitoba, Canada located on the Yellowhead Highway at the intersection with Highway 5. its population was 5,685. Neepawa was incorporated as a town in 1883. It is bordered by the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford and ...

in Manitoba, Canada.Find A Grave website The

Ham class minesweeper The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers (IMS), known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. All of the ships in the class are named for British place nam ...

HMS Fritham HMS ''Fritham'' was one of 93 ships of the of inshore minesweepers. Their names were all chosen from villages ending in ''-ham''. The minesweeper was named after Fritham in Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial ...

, launched in 1953, was named after the village.

Notes

External links

Eyeworth Pond, Fritham, and the Schultze Gunpowder Factory
New Forest Explorers Guide {{authority control Villages in Hampshire New Forest