Oliver's Battery is a
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 authorit ...
in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
, England, of some 700 households located just to the south of the City of
Winchester. The parish was formed in 1956 (in the then
Winchester Rural District, and part of the
City of Winchester
The City of Winchester () is a local government district in Hampshire, England, with a city status.
The district covers the ancient settlement of the city of Winchester itself, but also covers a large area of central Hampshire including ...
District since 1974) from part of
Compton parish. The parish does not include the whole of the settlement known informally as Oliver's Battery, with the northern boundary following the
A3090 and therefore excluding Oliver's Battery Road North.
History
The name Oliver's Battery refers to a prominent
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
earthwork. A fine
Anglo-Saxon bowl from a burial within the Battery was on show for many years at the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, but has now been returned to Winchester City Museum on long-term loan. The parish also contains a number of
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 prin ...
burial mounds. The Olivers Battery name dates back to the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
and is specifically associated with
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
's siege of Winchester in 1645. A map of 1780 refers to the area as "Cromwell's Camp" and later maps show it as "Oliver Cromwell's Battery". The ancient earthwork may well have provided a suitable campsite for the besieging Parliamentarian forces, but cannon of the period would have lacked the range to fire on Winchester Castle and city walls from the so-called battery site.
For centuries, Oliver's Battery was open downland grazed by sheep. Permanent settlements only appeared in the early years of the twentieth century with the establishment of a military camp. During the First World War the army maintained an extensive Veterinary Hospital for horses. After the war, the camp was split up into small holdings with army huts being used as dwellings. Gradually, a community developed as huts were replaced with houses and other homes were built.
In the late 1970s the community was bisected by Badger Farm Road (now the A3090), which acts as a south-western ring road for Winchester. A southern Winchester park-and-ride scheme opened in 2010 and is intended to reduce rush-hour congestion on this road.
Facilities
There is a local shopping centre built in the 1960s, with Sub Post Office. A small Anglican church, St Mark's, doubles up as a village hall and there is also a Catholic church,
St Stephen's. Oliver's Battery Primary School was opened in 1973. St Peter's Catholic Primary School was built in the 1980s (having originated in Winchester in the 1850s), next to St Stephen's. The Catholic school and church are in Oliver's Battery Road North, and therefore not within the civil parish. There is no secondary school, but
Kings' School
Kings' School is a comprehensive school in Winchester, Hampshire, with approximately 1,650 pupils. The most recent Ofsted inspection (June 2014) brought forward a generally excellent classification with thirty out of thirty-one sections of the ...
is within walking distance.
Further reading
David Farmer, 2000, ''A Brief History of Oliver's Battery'' (pamphlet
References
External links
Oliver's Battery Parish CouncilOliver's Battery Primary SchoolSt Peter's Catholic School
External links
{{authority control
1956 establishments in England
Civil parishes in Winchester
History of Winchester
Villages in Hampshire