| Little Somborne | ||||||
| To the north of Kin's Somborne and East
of Stockbridge lies the Parish of Little Somborne, which is one of a
collection of villages name 'The Sombornes', these lie in the Test
Valley and here can be found Woolbury Ring which is a prehistoric
earthwork that rises to the north of the A272 between Winchester and
Stockbridge. There are other tumuli that may be associated with Woolbury
and they lie immediately South to the parish of Stockbridge.
Somborne Park sits to the north of the village and this large brick built mansion can be seen from the churchyard and it was in 1934 that he bought Gloucester Aircraft and joined up with Harry Hawker in 1935 and founded the H. G. Hawker Engineering Company which later became the Hawker Siddely Group, it was in 1936 that he designed yet another world famous aircraft the Hawker Hurricane which helped to win WWII with the Spitfire. But this did not stop him as later the Hawker Siddely Group developed the first British Jet engine that was designed by Fred Whittle, ant his was the Meteor which was the only jet used by the allies in WWII. Among other famous aircraft that the group developed were the Hawker Hunter, Javelin, and the Vulcan Bomber. |
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The
church has origins in Saxon times and is now redundant though it is used
twice a year, and it is in the churchyard that Thomas Sopwith who was a
pioneer in the flying industry, and who in 1910 achieved the British
Flying Duration Record of 108 miles in 3hours and 12 minutes
and in December of the same year he won the Baron de Forrest trophy for
the flight fro Eastchurch to Tirlemont in Belgium thus making it the
longest flight from England a distance of 161 miles in 3 hours. His wife
Phyllis Brodie lies beside him Sopwith was also famed for his exploits
in both motorboat and car racing and his most famous plane was the
Sopwith Camel that came into its own in WWI.
