Allbrook
The  tiny village of Allbrook lies just outside of the former Railway town of Eastleigh and was once the home of a brickworks which was established in nearby Boyatt during the 17th century. It also had saw mills and a timber yard and sits beside the railway.

Approaching the village from the Allbrook Roundabout just off of junction 12 of the M3 can be rather harrowing due to the narrowness of the main road through the village, which is a notorious bottle neck during rush hours.

The village shop picture below has now gone and now the village pub the Victoria Inn has been demolished in 2006 to make way for modern flats and appartments.


The old village shop


 		  

"The truly virtuous Mrs Mary Beale amongst whose least accomplishments it is, that she has made Painting and Poesy, which in the fancies of others had only before a kind of likeness, in  her own to be really the same"

Writes the Rev Samuel Woodforde in his description of local artist Mary Beale. She is described as being one of the best documented artists to have worked in 17th century England.

The diaries and letters plus her notebooks have been carefully retained and describes not only her artistic life but also a brief glimpse into her daily life. She is said to be the first professional artist in the country.

It was at Allbrook Farm, which stands just opposite the Victoria Inn, that she honed the craft that would soon allow her to set up a studio in London. The family moved to Allbrook in 1665 due to financial difficulties and plague in London and for the next five years the seventeenth century two storey timber framed building with its red tiled roof was the family home. Due for restoration the farm can still be found at the junction of Pitmore Road and Allbrook Hill in Eastleigh

  
     

 

 

The Victoria Inn which is now replaced by a block of appartments.