Placenames

St Bartholemew’s Church Botley

St Bartholemew’s church in Botley feels as if its Victorian congregation had just slipped out a while

Portsmouth Harbour 1782

The artist Dominic Serres painted the scene at Portsmouth Harbour in 1782 as HMS Foudroyant and Pegase come into the harbour after their battle in the English Channel.

Charles Smith Poacher

The poacher Charles Smith buried in North Baddesley church yard, was he a victim or a perpetrator of crime?

The Southampton Plot was a conspiracy against King Henry V, concocted elsewhere in England but whose final blows were to be dealt in the city of Southampton The Southampton Plot was an intrigue that occurred in Southampton in July 1415. Southampton in 1415 was for a city preparing for war. The Hundred Years War had…

Blue Anchor Lane

Blue Anchor Lane in Southampton is a gloriously evocative reminder of the richness of Southampton’s Medieval past

The Dolphin Hotel Southampton

The Dolphin Hotel Southampton is one of England’s oldest and most historic hotels. The core of the Dolphin Hotel Southampton, dates back to the mid C13th when Southampton was a thriving merchant city, full of tradesmen and visitors putting into port. The Dolphin Hotel at this point was probably a merchant’s house, its cellars full…

Hampshire Church Treasure Ashe No 16

The Hampshire church treasure at the church of Holy Trinity and St Andrews Ashe, is hidden away behind closed doors and still a delight to discover

Jane Austen Born in Steventon

Jane Austen and Hampshire are a sublime combination, walking the lanes of Steventon on a beautiful early Summer day places you in Jane’s shoes.

Bishop’s Waltham Palace

Bishop’s Waltham Palace, the name itself conjurers up the magnificent place it must have been 900 years ago. Bishop’s Waltham Palace lies just ten miles away from Winchester Cathedral and was the noble palace of its Bishop’s who built a splendid residence for themselves and a 1000 acre park. Henry de Blois, that inveterate builder,…

Mary Mitford Hampshire Author

Mary Mitford was an author in the early C19th whose work gives as rich a view of society at that time as that written by Jane Austen, her Hampshire contemporary.

Thomas Lord

Thomas Lord lies buried in West Meon church yard, not many miles from the cradle of English cricket Hambledon

Portchester Castle As A Prison

Portchester Castle has undertaken many roles in its 1500 year history but none more colourful than when, in the C18th, it held prisoners of war.

Napoleonic Soldiers in Alresford

The five graves of Napoleonic soldiers and wives taken prisoner of war and held on parole at Alresford in Hampshire are a poignant reminder of an unsettled time in English history

Titchfield Medieval Abbey

Place House in Titchfield is the site of a former Medieval Abbey, whose doors have been open to welcome many of England’s monarchs. This once important Medieval Abbey, fell at the Reformation and once given to the influential Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Wriothesley

A Hampshire Catholic 1716

The county of Hampshire was tolerant of its Catholic families during the Jacobite uprisings of the early C18th. Whilst other counties persecuted those Catholics refusing to take the oath of allegiance to King George I, Hampshire took a much more relaxed attitude.