Chilworth is a village in the Test Valley district of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England, on the northern edge of

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

. Good travel connections and restricted development have led to the village becoming particularly affluent. The village was referred to as Celeworda 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, and is now in two parts: modern Chilworth lying along the straight 'new' stretch of the Southampton to Romsey road, and old Chilworth built around the 'old' road.

Etymology

''Chil'' is an aspirate mutation of the

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic (; ; ), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, is a Celtic language historically spoken in Britain and Brittany from which evolved the later and modern Brittonic languages. It is a form of Insular Cel ...

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

''cil'' meaning "angle or corner" and having the implication of "boundary". The suffix ''worth'' is the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

of the

proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

''warō'' meaning "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend". The name literally translates as two nouns: "boundary-guards."

Chilworth Old Village

Chilworth Old Village, at the west end, consists of former farm workers' thatched cottages interspersed with modern houses and bungalows built in the 1950s. The Anglican Church of St Denys, which lies on the edge of the Old Village, was rebuilt in 1812 and is noted for its old bells which date from about the year 1200. Chilworth Old Village was designated a conservation area on 1 November 1989. Most of the buildings from the 16th century are situated in the Chilworth Old Village Conservation Area. The exceptions are Manor Farm and the Beehives, the latter of which are the lodges to Chilworth Manor Hotel.

University of Southampton Science Park

Chilworth is home to the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

Science Park, formerly known as the Chilworth Science Park. Construction started in 1984 with the first buildings finished in 1986. It houses the main satellite uplink earth station of Sky UK (formerly known as BSkyB, British Sky Broadcasting and BSB, British Satellite Broadcasting). This facility uplinks signals (both Sky and some third party) to the Astra satellites at 28.2° east.

Facilities

There is a small public house on the main road through the village called ''The Chilworth Arms'' (formerly ''The Clump''). The original name of the pub, 'The Clump' comes from an old earthwork. Chilworth has a village hall and football field near the pub and there is a kennel and cattery in Chilworth Common, one of the local wooded areas. The thatched post office building was originally built as a kennel for the local hounds before being handed over to the village in 1900. Now both the Post Office and the convenience store are closed. Since the early 1960s, there has been a Village Hall, situated on the edge of the Village Green behind what is now the Chilworth Arms. Administered by a charitable trust, the Hall is available to the residents of Chilworth and the immediately surrounding vicinity, for meetings, events and many other forms of recreation and leisure-time occupation, with the object of generating and improving a local community spirit.

Chilworth Manor

Chilworth Manor was a mansion house on the Chilworth Estate. John Willis Fleming rebuilt the house in 1904. The Flemings sold Chilworth Manor in 1947. In 1967 it was sold by Catherine Ann Young, wife of British entrepreneur Jock Young (CEO of "Unity Heating"), to Southampton University and converted into a hall of residence. In 1990 it was developed into a conference and training centre. In 2001, AHM, a specialist management company, acquired the property. It is now a 97 bedroom hotel, conference and event venue run by Best Western.

Notable people

Notable Chilworth residents have included circus impresario Jimmy Chipperfield and Southampton football stars Matthew Le Tissier, Francis Benali and James Beattie. Richard Cockle Lucas (1800–1883), the sculptor, lived in Chilworth from 1854 onwards, originally at "The Tower of the Winds" (which stood opposite the former "Clump Inn"), and later at the nearby "Chilworth Tower".

Village design statement

In February 2006 the Test Valley Borough Council issued a Village Design Statement for Chilworth to foster a vibrant community and preserve Chilworth's very special characteristics: its woodland, architecture and village environment.Village Design Statement – Chilworth
Test Valley