Martin 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 ...

in the

New Forest 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 ...

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. The nearest town, Fordingbridge, is to the south-east, and the cathedral 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 ...

is to the north-east.

Overview

Martin straddles the Allen River (a tributary of the Avon) and forms the most western projection of Hampshire. The village street runs north-west to south-east through the parish.Victoria County History of Hampshire: Martin
/ref> The hamlets of East Martin and Tidpit are close by.About Martin
Martin Parish Council The parish was part of

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

until 1895. The main Dorchester to

road (the A354) passes about west of the village. The church of All Saints at Martin dates from Norman times although much of its fabric is 14th-century. Of note are its Elizabethan chalice, a

paten A paten or diskos is a small plate used for the celebration of the Eucharist (as in a mass). It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium. Western usage In many Wes ...

dated 1743 and an 18th-century baluster

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

. The majority of the stained glass dates from 1880, with the glass in the north transept added about 15 years later. The village green has an old village pump over a well, an iron frame impaled by a cranked spindle. The base of the 15th-century village cross can also be seen here. The chalk grasslands of Martin Down are a national nature reserve. In 1983 the village was used as one of the scenes for the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' episode '' The Awakening''; the other being Shapwick, Dorset.

History

Martin is surrounded by prehistoric sites, including Bokerley Dyke,Hampshire Treasures Volume 5 (New Forest) Page 224
and the very long Grim's Ditch which extends into Dorset and Wiltshire. Knap Barrow is 95 metres long and is the longest barrow in Hampshire. The name Martin probably derives from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

"Maeretun" meaning "boundary farm", or "Meretun" meaning "pond farm".Martin, Old Hampshire Gazetteer
/ref> Martin is first documented around 945 when land at Martin formed part of a grant by King Edmund to

Æthelflæd Æthelflæd ( – 12 June 918) ruled as Lady of the Mercians in the English Midlands from 911 until her death in 918. She was the eldest child of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith. Æthelflæd ...

. At the time of 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 it was included in the manor of Damerham, and subsequently descended with that manor. In 1266 Henry III granted to

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...

a weekly Wednesday market in their manor of Martin, and a fair on the eve, day and morrow of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and in 1332,

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

granted a market on Fridays. In 1483 part of the Abbot of Glastonbury's manor of East Martin was granted to the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

for the enlargement of his park of Blagdon, Dorset. There was a manor of West Martin which may have originated as a grant of land from Damerham manor granted by Henry de Sully, Abbot of Glastonbury in the 12th century. It was annexed before 1400 by Robert Petevyn, and afterwards belonged to the estate of Little Damerham. The nearby manor of Tidpit was also held of Glastonbury Abbey in the 13th century, and subsequently became merged with that of Damerham.

Notes

External links

Martin Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire New Forest District