| Bishopstoke | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I now live in Eastleigh and just
the other side of the railway on the
road to Fair Oak lies the village of Bishopstoke, which today is in the
borough of
Eastleigh. Bishopstoke can be seen to reach well back to Saxon times.
A watermill once stood here over the Itchen near to the lower end of the village and it was recorded in the Domesday survey. Also a working mill was here but was pulled down in 1934. But its memory still remains as the name of a bus stop for the local people. During the days of the Victorians there were water carnivals held and running through the village is the Itchen Navigation which is one of the country's oldest canals. When the Navigation was being constructed the bargees were given a certificate of exemption from 'salt water experience' which was meant to protect them from the press gangs looking for recruits to the Navy. The last full boat to pass between Southampton and Winchester was during the 1860s. The local council have revamped this area over the past few years and a recreation ground is situated alongside the canal with a walkway and bridge and is a favourite walk for both ramblers and dog owners, as you can walk from here right through to Twyford. But the winter months can bring a bit of chaos to the local rugby teams and walkers alike as the river is prone to burst its banks and in the winter of 2002/2003 the rugby pitches were about six inches deep and there were more seagulls floating there than in Southampton waters!! (see the photos below)
There were two public houses facing the river itself The Anchor is now a doctors surgery while The Anglers is a great favourite for parties, on the opposite side of the Fair Oak Road is a pub/restaurant The River Inn which is part of a restaurant chain and is extremely popular as the carvery there is at a reasonable price and the vegetable assortment is huge! But today the village is a mixture of both old and new from a pair of 17th century thatched cottages near the church to a modern glass and concrete office block next to the recreation ground, which incidentally has just had a new pavilion built there and the car park landscaped. The 18th century Manor house stood in its own grounds just across from the Angler Inn and one can find gravestones in a small area which is the site of the old church. A memorial stone still remains there, though new flats have now been built alongside the site.
The area used to be mainly farming and the Twynams, one of the wealthier families were well known for their charitable work, and a plaque can be found honouring them in the church. Another well known and popular family were the Lavingtons who farmed at West Horton Farm from 1786 and their descenants still own the farm, the last one I can recall was Arthur Lavington.
A well know and prominent person who was also Admiral of the Fleet was Sir Henry Keppel who died in 1904 and his large neo-Gothic style house was called for some unknown reason The Cottage! But this was later changed to Itchen House and the river runs through its grounds, which was handy as the Admiral tried to experiment with trout breeding there, and rivers in Tasmania were treated to stock raised in Bishopstoke.
Before the railways came in 1840, there was no such place as Eastleigh, the railway station which today is called Eastleigh was known as Bishopstoke and the coming of the line from London to Southampton saw many drastic changes in the area, even in Bishopstoke. Land was put up for sale and 'highly desirable residences' were hastily put up and sold, one being Longmead House which was a red brick mansion with 23 bedrooms and with its own grounds of 46 acres! In 1928 it was auctioned off and some of the land was sold in small plots and houses erected on them in the 1930s. The railway station itself was opened in 1839 because the one thing that Bishopstoke was renowned for was its Cheese market! And a lot of people used to visit by horse or just by walking down the railway lines or even by train itself. During World War II Stoke Park was a mustering area for US soldiers that were being shipped there ready for the D-Day landings, and a file kitchen was set up where now is a large estate of bungalows.
The Mount was a large Victorian mansion which was converted into a sanatorium and later a geriatric hospital, but this was closed in 2003 with a large number of protests. It was a popular place and was handy for those wanting physiotherapy and rest after major hospital treatment. Just before you get to the mount and on the opposite side of the road is the church of St Mary which was construced between 1890-91 to replace the old church further down the road by the river. Most of the villagers did in fact wish to retain the old church but all that is left there now is the yew tree which was planted in 1694. On the opposite side of the road is the old school which is now a community centre and a nursery.
The Old School now a community centre
When Eastleigh became an urban district in 1894, Bishopstoke was later amalgamated with it five years later. Even though Eastleigh's main shopping centre is a mile away from Bishopstoke there are still a good number of local shops, businesses and takeaways to save the villages the journey into Eastleigh. The Post Office still thrives, and there is a popular working mens club and the villagers are proud that their history is longer than the much bigger railway town which sits alongside it.
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I
was born in 33 Longmead Ave {1935} My first memories of that
part of Bishopstoke, is what is now The Longmead Arms, well what
is now the car park, during the war a large water tank was built
to hold water in case of an air raid and resulting fire, the
building site had a six foot wooden fence around to keep the
public out. That lasted until the end of the war and the fence
was pulled down, NOW the water tank was a great attraction to
the local children, especially when sent to the shop {Norris}
what is now Howes, as then there were two shops Norris was a
grocers, and next door Spakes sold a few grocery items and
mainly cottons silks and buttons, I did not like going into that
shop as it always seemed dark. Well stopping to play by the
water sometimes resulted in money being dropped in the water
imagine going home to ask for more money! What I remember of St
Mary's Bishopstoke, after Rev Allen came to Bishopstoke, his
first task was to have the inside of the church painted, this
was duly completed. While the decorators were working the Rector
asked different church groups to chose colours/ fabrics for
parts of the church, the youth club was asked to choose the
colour for the screen, Wolverhampton Wanders being our favourite
team playing in old gold and black, and must say this greatly
influenced our decision on the colour of the screen as it is
today. Rev Allen while preaching could not see the congregation
sitting on the side isle so wanted the pulpit moved to its
present position and the lectern moved to where the pulpit was,
for this move to take place permission had to come from the
Bishop in Winchester.
