Godshill 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

and in

New Forest National Park The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

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. It is about east of the town of

Fordingbridge Fordingbridge is a town and broader civil parish with a population of 6,200 on the River Avon in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England. It is located near the Dorset and Wiltshire borders and on the edge of the New Forest. It is sou ...

and south of the city of

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

Description

Godshill is a small village, scattered on either side of the B3078 road east of Fordingbridge.Norman Henderson, (2007), ''A Walk Around the New Forest: In Thirty-Five Circular Walks'', page 111. Frances Lincoln The village is generally 18th and 19th century in date, with a number of cob-and-

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

cottages intermixed with

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

-with-

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

-roof buildings. The village

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

is known as "The Fighting Cocks" because there was once a

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

here. The village

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

pitch of Godshill Cricket Club is half a mile east of Godshill village, surrounded by the gorse and heather of the New Forest. Godshill is also the location of the

Sandy Balls Sandy Balls is of woods and parkland near the New Forest in Hampshire, England. Located between the village of Godshill, Hampshire, Godshill and the town of Fordingbridge, it is bounded on the western edge by the River Avon (Hampshire), River A ...

holiday park.

History

People have lived in the Godshill area since prehistoric times. On Cockley Hill, east of Godshill, an earth pit, used for boiling water, has been discovered dating from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, around 3000 years ago. Half a mile west of the village is the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

of Frankenbury Camp. The east bank of the River Avon at Armsley, in the north-west of the parish, has yielded evidence of Iron Age and

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

occupation. Four coins of the

Durotriges The Durotriges were one of the Celtic tribes living in British Iron Age, Britain prior to the Roman invasion of Britain, Roman invasion. The tribe lived in modern Dorset, south Wiltshire, south Somerset and Devon east of the River Axe (Lyme Bay), ...

tribe were found in 1959 together with a bronze

fibula The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

. Excavations have also found glazed pottery from the 1st or 2nd century AD, as well as evidence of metal-working. Godshill is not 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. One New Forest location listed as ''Godesmanescamp'' was erroneously identified by

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

s as Godshill, and as a consequence, the name ''Godesmanescamp'' mistakenly appeared on some

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps as an alternative name for Frankenbury Camp. About one mile northwest of Godshill, (although within the parish of Woodgreen) is Castle Hill, which is said to be the only likely relic of a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

fortification in the New Forest. In 1571 the so-called manor of Godshill was sold by Henry Earl of Arundel, John Lord Lumley and Joan his wife, eldest daughter of the earl, to a certain Reginald Howse.Victoria County History of Hampshire: Fordingbridge
/ref> Some years later Robert Howse, who seems to have been a son of Reginald, sold it to William Dodington, from which date it descended with Breamore. Historically, Godshill village was a

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

parish. The population of the village in the mid-19th century was around 100 people, although census counts in the 19th century are somewhat variable because Godshill Wood was often used as a

Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

camp. It is related that Gypsy women used to go alone to a particular

holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

tree in a sheltered spot along Godshill Ridge to give birth. In 1868 a new civil parish called Ashley Walk was created, which incorporated much of what is now the eastern half of the current parishes of Godshill and Hyde;Relationships / unit history of ASHLEY WALK
, A Vision of Britain through Time, retrieved, 8 July 2011 the new parish did not include Godshill village, which remained part of Fordingbridge. The civil parish of Ashley Walk lasted until 1932. To the west of the village is the estate known as

, which is now a holiday park owned by the Westlake family. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Sandy Balls was the headquarters of the Scouting-like movement known as the

Order of Woodcraft Chivalry The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry is a scouting-like movement operating in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 1916 by Ernest Westlake. It was inspired by Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft Indians, and Seton was its honorary Grand Chieftain. Wh ...

.John Springhall, (1977), ''Youth, Empire, and Society: British Youth Movements, 1883-1940'', page 112. Taylor & Francis

Notes

External links

Godshill Village and Parish Council Website
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire