Taking the main road from Romsey to Winchester the motorist will notice a straight stretch of road after leaving Romsey which is called Straight Mile, he may not notice the signs for Ampfield but hidden along this stretch is a lovely little village that got its name from the spring that still rises in the grounds of the church. "An-felde" was the earliest name with "an" being the Celtic word for a spring.

It was up to the 1930s that Ampfield was a feudal area dominated by Ampfield House and its estate, owned in 1902 by the Faber family and on the death of David Faber in 1931 the final break up of the village began and eventually with a year it was gone. The House today is owned by one of the most famous nurserymen in the country Hilliers, renowned for its arboretum and for returning many endangered trees back to their natural habitat.

Sadly the local tradesmen and business are being driven out by the expansion of nearby towns and cities. the post office and local shop have gone.

For many years the village was part of Hursley parish and also part of the huge Hursley estate, Ampfield Estate being part of this when the White family built Ampfield House in the middle of the 16th century. Only a small part of the village at that time belonged to the Ampfield Estate, the majority was part of the Hursley Estate. Later the Whites decided to lease out the copyhold of the estate from Hursley for the hole of the Ampfield Tenure and it was then sold as a separate entity to the Fabers who had been renting it decided to buy it. The Ampfield Estate properties were sold around 1932 while Hursley Estate cottages with the Ampfield boundary were sold off in the middle of the 20th century.

The lake at Wooley Green has the village boundary with Braishfield running through its centre and on May Days the local lads would wade through the water, which was about six feet deep and under the dividing chain to try and steal a kiss form the girls that waited for them on the opposite bank!

Gosport Farm was once the site of God's Port, a pilgrims inn, which served the old Saxon Road running between Winchester and Romsey and getting is water from the Washers Well an ancient spring. It was at Gosport Port that in 1610 a man by the name of Wooll hanged himself and he was buried as far away from the hallowed ground of the cemetery as possible. He was buried by the railway bridge near Pound Lane and a to stop his soul being taken by the Devil a wood stake was driven through his heart.e - with a stake driven through his heart, to stop the Devil stealing his soul.

St Marks Church, Ampfield

The original 'Morleys' was demolisehd at the beginning of the 20th century as the 17th century "Hedge Poet" lived at the farm for much of his life and a scythe was put in the thratch to stop witches scaring the children at night

		THE POTTERS HERON This famous local restaurant is located on the main Winchester to Romsey Road and the name goes back to the old cottage opposite which is marked on the map of 1588. The name stems from the word HYRN meaning a corner, though it is now just a 'T' junction this was a five road junction once upon a time, and  originally there was a brickworks at nearby Ratlake, which was the brickworks for the Hursley Estate and the bricks were used for both Hurseley Park Hosue and many of the other buildings on the estate

The church of St Marks was consecrated in 1841 and is affectionately known as the "church in the wood" The consecration also shared the day with the formation of a separate parish of Ampfield.

St Marks church from the US war memorial

It was here that a world famous locomotive found its way into the worlds, a story, even a television programme that has come into the hearts of thousands of children world wide as well as grown ups, I am talking about Thomas the Tank Engine, as the author Rev W Awdrey was born and in Ampfield and was raised here as a small boy. His father was the vicar of St Mark's and he can remember climbing the embankment of the London and South West Railway at the end of Pound Lane as a child and he had many happy memories of the village itself but the walk down Pound Lane was the most vivid. His father was in fact a great friend of the staff on the railway here and he would often spend time with them as they waited for some special train to pass by.

Ampfield during WWI was a 'holding camp' for horses that were being sent to the front in France and it is reported that about 20 of them perished in the bogs near to Pound Lane when a train caused them to panic and bolt..

This area was also used to decieve the Germans in WWII when it was made to look like an airfield, a dummy control tower was built and landing lights installed. The Old Thatches pub was a First Aid post and the White Horse a motuarym and quite a bit of damage occurred just north of Body Farm which is in Pound Lane, brought about by a landmine coming down on a parachute. A few bombs did in fact fall on the village due to the Germans either jettisoning them or mistaking the village for Southampton.

THE BOBCAT

A friend of mine from the US asked me to trace an old friend of his in the village who was one of the first on the scene of the accident below, and who managed to gather a few souvenirs of the event, which later he presented back to the family of the crew in a ceremony in the US.

A Bobcat similar to the one that crashed at Ampfield

It was in 1945 not long after the end of the war that a United States Cessna Bobcat crashed in the woods behind the church, killing all five of its crew members.

The plane at the time was returning from Normandy and to commemorate the lives of the crew a simple monument has been unveiled in the woods and can be easily reached from the churchyard.

The Test Valley Borough Council also erected a seat here on 2nd July 1999

The momument to the five US airman killed in a plane crash in the woods with the wooden seat

.

The memorial commemorates the crew members:

0-666861 Capt. Billy Bryan born18th May 1921, 313rd Fighter Squadron.

0-695310 2nd Lt. Dale C. Frances born 3rd May 19218, 1st Fighter Squadron

0-792988 1st Lt.Walter Hayes born 20th January 1922, 81st Fighter Squadron

0-411160 Capt.Norman H. Nelson born 31st July 1919, 313rd Fighter Squadron

0-695340 2nd Lt.Duran F. Quinn born 2nd July 1920, 313rd Fighter Squadron                       

The plaque on the seat and the story of how the airmen were killed

IMAGES OF AMPFIELD

A renovated cottage in Ampfield		Knapp Lane, Ampfield
The War Memorial at Ampfield		Ampfield School
The Old Post Office, which had a serious fire 10 years ago and is now essentially a rebuild.

The Revd John Keble, the famous Tractarian vicar of Hursley, together with Sir William Heathcote of Hursley Park, decided that there was need for a church in the growing hamlet of Ampfield and Heathcote gave both the land and the cost of the new building. 

The church was consecrated on 21st April 1841 and subsequently became a separate ecclesiastical parish.  The architect was Owen Browne Carter of Winchester, with help from William Yonge (father of the novelist Charlotte Yonge of Otterbourne)  It was built of unusual bricks with a blue-grey face, now somewhat weathered, and the stonework  was of imported Caen stone and the roof of Welsh slate. 

The building stood high above the road on a plateau, surrounded by woodland, though this effect is today less dramatic since the road level has been greatly raised. 

The church remains little changed since it was finished, though in 1904 a north gallery was removed.  It is considered today to be an unspoiled example of early Victorian neo-Gothic church building.  To the rear a church room was added in 1991 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the consecration, care being taken that the modern materials used should be in keeping.

When the new parish was established, those parts of Braishfield and modern Chandlers Ford which had been in Hursley parish were all included in Ampfield .  In 1855 the area now in Braishfield was transferred when a church was built there, and the Chandlers Ford area was included in a new parish created there in 1902.

In March 1985 history turned full circle and Ampfield and Hursley were once again joined together, becoming a United Benefice, and sharing one vicar, though retaining separate PCCs and church wardens.  

 AMPFIELD VILLAGE WEBPAGES