Chilbolton Church

Welcome to Chilbolton Web Site.

It has now been a while since this website came into being as a means to raise awareness of broadband in the village. The intention was to make the web site the first point of reference for information about Chilbolton and to promote the village. To generate more awareness and interest we created the Family and the Dog of the Month features about Chilbolton at War, Local Walks, and History and Digging up the Past, current photographs together with lists of local businesses, restaurants etc, etc. Some of the features have been very popular some not so.

This year we hope to be working closely with the Parish Magazine to incorporate some of the items they have and will publish a page from the web site in the Magazine to remind readers just what they can find on www.chilbolton.com. We are also liaising with Richard Rowles who is the web master at Wherwell to ensure that the two sites complement each other. The Notice Board will be put back, this proved popular and various items were sold and announcements made before, for technical reasons, we dropped this feature.  This was a pity as we reunited ancestors of those who lived in the village with people here now. A feature on ordinary people of the villages will be started as these are the folk which sustain our community.

The Chilbolton Cow Common will have a regular monthly update with photographs. As the Common is such a central part of the village in every way this seemed appropriate. It is also the part of the village best remembered by friends and family and former inhabitants of Chilbolton who now live abroad. The web site receives around 10,000 visitors a year and many come to look at photographs of the village so more will be included. For this we need your help so a photographic competition will been started with the winner chosen this time next year.

We hope that 2009 will see an enlargement and wider use of the web site.

Best wishes from Alan Crisp.

One important new happening is the reopening of the Mark Way. 

 

This is a photograph sent to me of the best roses display in the area, we all know the cottage concerned don't we?

	The New Mark Way

In Chilbolton we have the remnants of a pre-historic trade and drove way called the Mark Way. The Mark Way started at Totton at the end of what are now Southampton waters. At this point the water would have been low and easy for primitive boats to be loaded for their passage around the coast. The River Test comes out at this point, it is known that the Romans and the Vikings navigated the Test and so there might have been a series of loading areas here. The line then went to Braishfield and can still be seen the lane which runs below and through the village. From there to Chilbolton the line is lost but Little Somborne could well have been the next staging point. From here across what is now the A30 and has been the line of the Roman road to Salisbury and beyond to the west. The Way at this point crossed Chilbolton Downs and down to the Mayfly bridge. At the point where it leaves the top of Downs (the Leckford estate) to the bridge it is clearly seen in a sheep worn pathway about 30 feet wide at the edge of the Downs. The hedging along the several hundred yards of this Way is very, very ancient. The Mark Way was used up to Victorian times to move enormous herds of cattle and sheep across country.

	A view over the Leckford Downs inthe Winter evening light

From here to the North and West of Andover on a line traced by the lanes between Penton Mewsey and Linkenholt, which continues to Wantage, and then up into Warwick. Much of this is guess work based on looking at OS sheets and the sites themselves. If anyone can point to any books on the subject please let me know.

The new owner of the farm at the top of the track adjoining the Mark Way has agreed with the Hampshire County Council to clear and relay the footpath along the line of the Mark Way. Now that this is done it will be a considerable improvement for walkers as the views across the Leckford Downs from the new path are delightful.

I lived in Chilbolton from 1963 to 1980 when I left for foreign shores, I lived in a House (called the “Red House”) which was nest to the old village hall, my neighbours were the Lockyer’s one side and Mrs Scarrott on the other and the church yard at the back. Both my parents John and Audrey Read are buried to the left of the main entrance of st Marys church Chilbolton This is my connection with chilbolton and wherwell where I went to school I would so love to here from anyone who may be still around to remember….walking from Chilbolton to Wherwell school and the village disco’s in both villages halls and the great youth reviews that the produced by my mum and dad to keep the local kids busy and out of trouble.. the scrumping of apples and plums and not forgetting the summer swims in the river test on the common in the deep hole (if its still there)Tickling the trout on the edge on the river BOY I THINK I SHOULD COME BACK FOR A HOLIDAY I love both websites come on Chilbolton get a guestbook happening and anyone can contact me at paula_noonan@health.qld.gov.au   Paula Read now Noonan Country: Australia

The deep hole referred to by Paula is up on the Wherwell streach of the Test and only accessed from Edward Painers land. Why not e mail her.