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| The pretty little village of Amport derives its
name from the Celtic name of its river, the Anne which is
combined with the name of its first Norman overlord, Hugh de Port, thus
giving us Anne de Port , Anne of the Ports, later this became Andeport
until finally Amport. The land was given to Hugh de Port by William the
Conqueror. The village itself is not very large and can be found just west of Andover and sits about 300ft above sea level in the valley of Pillhill brook. There is evidence to show that man first occupied this area over 5,000 years as there can be found two dozen Neolithic burial grounds. By the brook is the site of a Saxon Christian village and even today tracks can be found that date back being straight Roman roadways. Boys were taken from the area by the Romans and used as slaves and nearby is a burial ground in which there have been found the bones of more than 60 baby girls.
The de Ports and the Paulets (Powletts) This was the time that Henry Paulet came to live at the manor in 1794. For another century the Paulets purchased more land until their six thousand acres spred over Thruxton, Grately and Quarley but in the 1880s it was found that the depression in agricultural meant that country houses could not long be support by the agricultural rents. But the family continued their luxurious lifestyle and entertained Edward VII at the Stockbridge Races and other events, but debts and tax gradually crept up on them and it was in 1919 that the estate was broken up and put on the market for sale. Weyhill which is nearby was until the start of the 20th century famous for its sheep fair and some of these fairs had over 140,000 sheep being sold in the course of one days trading. There were also gold merchants from Cornwall attending to sell their wares to London jewellers and Thomas Hardy is said to have attended one of the fairs and he records in his book The Mayor of Casterbridge that he saw a drunk selling his wife and baby for the sum of five pounds.
In 1957 the MOD purchased Amport House, which had been built in 1857 and had replaced two other houses on the same site, and it is now the home of the RAF Chaplains School with its impressive building set in a beautiful surroundings laid out by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Another famous activity in Amport is the Hawk Conservancy and this is reputed to have the greatest collection of birds of prey in Britain, owned by Reginald Smith and his family they train and breed all the birds and hold flying demonstrations of both hawks and falcons on a daily basis throughout the summer months as well as attending various shows and also on television. There are several flocks of geese near the brook and brown trout can be seen moving into the River Test, and the nearby forests are the home of deer which can often be seen drinking from the brook. Horses have been bred in the area now for many centuries and many well known racehorses have been bred and trained here. And often a string of racehorses can be encountered on the surrounding roads and passing through this lovely little village of thatched cottages with climbing roses and other summer flowers adding to its beauty.
HISTORY OF ST MARY'S CHURCH
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