Martin is a 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 ...

in the

New Forest district New Forest is a local government district in Hampshire, England. Its council is based in Lyndhurst. The district covers most of the New Forest National Park, from which it takes its name. The district was created on 1 April 1974, under the Loca ...

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 ...

. The nearest town

Fordingbridge Fordingbridge is a town and broader civil parish with a population of 6,000 on the River Avon in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England, near the Dorset and Wiltshire borders and on the edge of the New Forest, famed for its late medieva ...

is to the southeast, and the cathedral city of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

is to the northeast.

Overview

Martin straddles the

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univer ...

(a tributary of the Avon) and forms the most western projection of Hampshire. The village street runs north-west to south-east through the parish.Victoria County History of Hampshire: Martin
/ref> The hamlets of East Martin and Tidpit are close by.About Martin
Martin Parish Council The parish was part of

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 ...

until 1895. The main Dorchester -

road passes about west of the village (

A354 The A354 is a primary route in England which runs from Salisbury in Wiltshire to Easton on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, a total distance of . From Salisbury the road crosses Cranborne Chase. At Woodyates the road follows the route of Acklin ...

). The church of All Saints at Martin dates from

Norman times The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...

although much of its fabric is fourteenth century. Of note are its Elizabethan

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. Re ...

, a

paten A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium. Western usage In many Western liturgical denominations, the p ...

dated 1743 and an 18th-century baluster

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

. The village green has an old village pump over a well, an iron frame impaled by a cranked spindle. The base of the 15th century village cross can also be seen here. The chalk grasslands of

Martin Down Martin and Tidpit Downs is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Fordingbridge in Hampshire. Martin Down is a national nature reserve and an area of is a ''Nature Conservation Review'' site, Grade I. Bokerley Dyke, a p ...

are a national nature reserve. In 1983 the village was used as one of the scenes for the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' episode '' The Awakening''; the other being

Shapwick, Dorset Shapwick is a village and civil parish in east Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour five miles south-east of Blandford Forum and eight miles north of Poole. The village had a population of 190 in 2001. Within the parish, about a mile ...

History

Martin is surrounded by prehistoric sites, including

Bokerley Dyke Bokerley Dyke (or Bokerley Ditch) is a linear earthwork long in Hampshire, between Woodyates and Martin. It is a Scheduled Monument. It is also spelt Bokerly Dyke. Bokerley Dyke was excavated by Augustus Pitt Rivers between 1888 and 1891 and by ...

,Hampshire Treasures Volume 5 (New Forest) Page 224
and the very long

Grim's Ditch Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke (also Grimsdyke or Grimes Dike in derivative names) or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different funct ...

which extends into Dorset and Wiltshire. Knap Barrow is 95 metres long and is the longest barrow in Hampshire. The name Martin probably derives 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 ...

"Maeretun" meaning "boundary farm", or "Meretun" meaning "pond farm".Martin, Old Hampshire Gazetteer
/ref> Martin is first documented around 945 when land at Martin formed part of a grant by King Edmund to

Æthelflæd Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ( 870 – 12 June 918) ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith. Æth ...

. At the time of 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 it was included in the manor of

Damerham Damerham is a rural village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, located near Fordingbridge, on the River Allen. Damerham has notable Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows. It was the site of an Anglo-Saxon religious community, mentioned in the ...

, and subsequently descended with that manor. In 1266 Henry III granted to

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...

a weekly Wednesday market in their manor of Martin, and a fair on the eve, day and morrow of the

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul or Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is a liturgical feast in honor, of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which is observed on 29 June. The celebration is of ancient Christi ...

, and in 1332,

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

granted a market on Fridays. In 1483 part of the Abbot of Glastonbury's manor of East Martin was granted to the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

for the enlargement of his park of Blagdon, Dorset. There was a manor of West Martin which may have originated as a grant of land from Damerham manor granted by Henry de Sully Abbot of Glastonbury in the 12th century. It was annexed before 1400 by Robert Petevyn, and afterwards belonged to the estate of Little Damerham. The nearby manor of Tidpit was also held of Glastonbury Abbey in the 13th century, and subsequently became merged with that of Damerham.

Notes

External links

Martin Parish WebsiteMartin Down National Nature Reserve
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire New Forest District