Twyford 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 Hampshire, England, approximately south of

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 ...

and near the M3 motorway and

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 ...

. In 2001, the population of the parish was 1,456. The village and parish are on the

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

of the Itchen, which passes through nearby

watermeadow A water-meadow (also water meadow or watermeadow) is an area of grassland subject to controlled irrigation to increase agricultural productivity. Water-meadows were mainly used in Europe from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Working water-m ...

s, and has been important economically for its residents.

History

The name "Twyford" means "two fords" (Old English 'twifyrd'), which cross the River Itchen and was noted from as early as 963, being also mentioned in the 1086 ''

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 ...

'' as 'Tuiforde', belonging to the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...

and containing a church and six watermills. In

Thomas Moule Thomas Moule (14 January 1784 – January 1851) was an English antiquarian, writer on heraldry, and one of Victorian England's most influential map-makers. He is best known for his popular and highly decorated county maps of England, steel-engra ...

's ''English Counties'' 1837 edition, Twyford is referred to as: "on the river Itchin ic 3 miles S. from the City of Winchester, contains 169 houses and 1048 inhabitants."

Amenities

Twyford includes a village school, St. Mary's Primary School, St Mary's Church, a travel agency, a

doctor's surgery A doctor's office in American English, a doctor's surgery in British English, or a doctor's practice, is a medical facility in which one or more medical doctors, usually general practitioners (GP), receive and treat patients. Description Doc ...

and pharmacy, a grocer's shop and Post Office, a traditional clockmaker, two public houses, a social club, and other small businesses. The village has three parks; Ballards Close, Hunters Park and Northfields Park, as well as many footpaths and large areas of water meadow which are held in trust or otherwise protected from building development.

Twyford School Twyford School is a co-educational, independent, preparatory boarding and day school, located in the village of Twyford, Hampshire, England. History Twyford states itself to be the oldest preparatory school in the United Kingdom. It moved to i ...

is a preparatory school in the centre of the village. Former pupils include poet

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

, who was expelled in the early 18th century for lampooning a master in verse. Twyford Waterworks is a preserved

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as well drilling, drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastru ...

and

waterworks Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...

situated about to the east of the village. It is 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 ...

and now operates as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Demography

According to the

2001 UK census A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...

, the village has a population of 1,456 people, comprising 735 males and 721 females, living in 613 households. In 2001 there were twelve vacant dwellings in the parish, and the average household in Twyford had 6.40 rooms. 433 of these households were

owner occupied Owner-occupancy or home-ownership is a form of housing tenure in which a person, called the owner-occupier, owner-occupant, or home owner, owns the home in which they live. The home can be a house, such as a single-family house, an apartment, ...

, 105 were privately rented and 75 rented from the Council, housing association or registered social landlord. Housing in the parish consists of 241

detached house A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...

s or

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

s, 328

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s or bungalows, and 61 flats, apartments, caravans or temporary structures.

Transport

The B3335 road runs north-south through the village, linking with Junction 11 of the M3 Motorway to the north and the neighbouring village of

Colden Common Colden Common is a civil parish in the Winchester District of Hampshire, England, approximately 5 miles south of the city of Winchester, covering an area of with a resident population of approximately 4,000 people. It includes the village of Cold ...

to the south. This road is called the High Street for the most of its route through the village; before completion of the M3 to the west it was the main A333 from Winchester to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. In the centre of the village is a crossroads, where an unclassified road crosses the High Street. The west turn-off, Finches Road, becomes Shawford Road which runs through to the nearby village of Shawford before joining the main road from

to Otterbourne. The east turn-off, Hazeley Road, travels past the Twyford Waterworks, to Hazeley Down and on towards

Morestead Morestead is a village in the South Downs, about southeast of Winchester in Hampshire, England. According to the Post Office the 2011 Census was included in the civil parish of Twyford. The village is part of the civil parish of Owslebury an ...

and

Owslebury Owslebury is a village and civil parish in the county of Hampshire, in the south of England approximately southeast of Winchester. It lies within the administrative district of the City of Winchester. Geography The village lies at the top of a ...

. The nearest rail station is

Shawford railway station Shawford railway station serves the villages of Twyford, Compton and Shawford in Hampshire, England. It is down the line from . This station and all trains serving it are operated by South Western Railway. Layout and facilities The station ...

to the east. Twyford is served by several regular bus routes, operated by

Bluestar (bus company) Solent Blue Line Limited, primarily trading under the name Bluestar, is a bus operator providing services in Southampton and surrounding areas of Hampshire. It is a subsidiary of the Go South Coast sector of the Go-Ahead Group. History Sole ...

and

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses, express coaches and a tram service in the United Kingdom. History Stagecoach was born out of deregulation of the British express coach market in the early ...

among others, linking the village with Winchester,

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

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 ...

and

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...

. The

Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Sus ...

long distance footpath passes through the village from east to west. The

Itchen Way The Itchen Way is a long-distance footpath following the River Itchen in Hampshire, England, from its source near Hinton Ampner House to its mouth at Woolston. The walk finishes at Sholing railway station. The route has been promoted by t ...

follows the western boundary.

Geology

Twyford lies on the

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...

at the northern edge of the

Hampshire Basin The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Palaeogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex. Like the London Basin to the northeast, it is filled with sands and clays of Paleocene and yo ...

, dipping south from the southern limb of the Winchester anticline. Successively younger layers of chalk are exposed from north to south, from

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded by t ...

New Pit Chalk in the Plague Pits Valley south of St. Catherine's Hill, the Lewes Nodular Chalk at

, the Seaford Chalk under the village, to the

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. The ...

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campanian s ...

Newhaven Chalk to the south. In the Itchen valley to the west the chalk is overlain by alluvium and

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertine. ...

deposits.British Geological Survey (2002), ''Winchester. England and Wales Sheet 299. Solid and Drift Geology'', 1:50,000 Series geological map, Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey, The chalk is deeply incised by a series of

dry valley A dry valley may develop on many kinds of permeable rock, such as limestone and chalk, or sandy terrains that do not regularly sustain surface water flow. Such valleys do not hold surface water because it sinks into the permeable bedrock. There ...

s running south and west towards the Itchen.

Twin towns

Twyford is twinned with: *

Saint-Pierre-Église Saint-Pierre-Église () is a Communes of France, commune in the Manche Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in north-western France. A market takes place in Saint-Pierre-Église every Wednesday. Inter ...

, France

References

External links

Winchester and its villages – TwyfordTwyford St Mary's Parish ChurchVictorian water pumping station
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire