Winchfield is a small village in the

Hart District Hart is a local government district in Hampshire, England, named after the River Hart. Its council is based in Fleet. It was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the urban district of Fleet, and the Hartley ...

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 ...

in the South-East of England. It is situated south-west of Hartley Wintney, east of

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

, north-east of Odiham and west of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It is connected to

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

and

by the South West Main Line. Winchfield consists of a recently rebuilt village hall (in 1998), a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

, a 17th-century inn called the Winchfield Inn and a combination of old residential properties and new ones. Winchfield parish currently has a population of 581 people, which was projected to rise to just over 600 in 2008. The population is scattered across this wide parish, which includes Potbridge, settlement around Winchfield church, Winchfield Hurst and Shapley Heath.

History

There was a Stone Age settlement at Bagwell Green, a few hundred yards past the church in the direction of Odiham Common. Winchfield also has a few examples of 16th- and 17th-century buildings, particularly near the church. Winchfield's manor was 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 1088. In 1838, a station was constructed, known as Shapley Heath and was renamed Winchfield Station, probably in 1840, although the exact date for this is unknown. Between 1838 and 1839, Shapley Heath station served as the terminus point for all rail services from London. From here, all mail was then distributed to the rest of the South of England by mail coach. This continued for about a year, when the railway was extended to Basingstoke late in 1839.. Notably, there was also a large workhouse located in Pale Lane which then became a hospital and has since been the subject of redevelopment into a housing development. The parish council was formed in 1894, and since then, the village has continued to slowly expand, with newer properties constructed at Winchfield Hurst and near the Station.

Notable buildings

St Mary the Virgin

St Mary the Virgin was built during the 12th century. The church has been hardly altered since its original construction in the 12th century, with the exception of the sixteenth-century south porch and a modern north aisle and top stage of the tower.

The Old School House

The Old School was built in 1860–61 by

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...

. The building is of brick, in the gothic style, with a patterned tiled roof. Its most striking feature is the pair of "full height windows with open timberwork gables marking the former schoolroom." Following alteration, the school is now a private residence.

Winchfield Festival

Winchfield holds a biennial festival, which is centred on Winchfield's 12th-century church. The festival developed from a single musical event initiated sixteen years ago to raise funds to renovate the church organ. Since then the festival has expanded with the help of the local community to include both fun and educational events. The Winchfield Festival is a properly constituted charity, with educational as well as entertainment goals. During the 2006 festival, the festival had jazz performances, a male voice choir, easy classics and the Gould Piano Trio, as well as some classical soloists such as Tasmin Little, John Lenehan and Llŷr Williams.

Proposed new development at Winchfield

On 27 November 2014, Hart District Council voted to test Winchfield as a suitable location for a new settlement of up to 10,000 homes.

Notable people

* Arthur Wood (1875–1961), Royal Navy rear admiral and

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

Notes

References

External links

Winchfield - Hart District Council WebsiteWinchfield Parish's Official Website

St Mary's Winchfield WebsiteWinchfield Action Group
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire William Burges buildings