Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for FORDINGBRIDGE

FORDINGBRIDGE, a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred in Hants. The village stands on the river Avon and on the Salisbury and Dorset railway, near the New Forest, 19 miles W by N of Southampton; and it has a r. station with telegraph. It has repeatedly suffered from fires, and has lost much of its former importance; yet it still figures as a seat of industry, and a centre of country trade. It has a post office‡ under Salisbury, a banking office, two chief inns, a bridge, a church, three dissenting chapels, a literary and scientific institution, National and British schools, a workhouse, and charities £16. The bridge is a stone structure, with seven arches. The church has an early English chancel, an early decorated division within the chancel, and an early decorated nave, with later English clerestory and roof; has also an embattled tower; contains a small brass of 1568; and is spacious and interesting. Two large, clipped, bell-shaped yew-trees are in the churchyard. A weekly market is held on Friday; a fair is held on 19 Sept.; and manufactures of sailcloth, tickings, linen thread, and calico are carried on. The village was known at Domesday as Forde; and it anciently had an hospital. Highmore, the anatomist, was a native. -The parish includes the tythings of Bickton, Middle Burgate, North Burgate, South Burgate, Midgham, and Godshill. Acres, 6, 292. Real property, exclusive of Godshill, £13, 620; inclusive of Godshill and Linwood, £15, 060. Pop., exclusive of Godshill, 2, 925; inclusive of Godshill, 3, 180. Houses, exc. of G., 616; inc. of G., 679. The property is much subdivided. An ancient camp, defended on one side by a double trench and ramparts, on the other by the steep acclivitousness of the ground, is at Godshill. The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Ibsley, in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £601.* Patron, King's College, Cambridge. The vicarage of Hyde is a separate benefice. The district forms only one sub-district, or is not divided; and it contains the parishes of Fordingbridge, Rockbourn, Breamore, Hale, North Charford, and South Charford, and the extra-parochial tracts of Woodgreen and Ashley-Walk electorally in Hants, and the parishes of Martin, Whitsbury, and South Damerham, and the extra-parochial tract of Toyd-Farm-with-Allenford electorally in Wilts. Acres, 31, 167. Poor-rates in 1862, £4, 289. Pop. in 1851, 6, 834; in 1861, 6, 377. Houses, 1, 390. Marriages in 1860, 49; births, 207, -of which 22 were illegitimate; deaths, 111, -of which 32 were at ages under 5 years, and 6 at ages above 85. Marriages in the 10 years 1851-60, 441; births, 2, 091; deaths, 1, 346. The places of worship, in 1851, were 7 of the Church of England, with 2, 092 sittings; 6 of Independents, with 1, 130 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 212 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 200 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 564 s.; and 3 of Primitive Methodists, with 498 s. The schools were 8 public day-schools, with 657 scholars; 18 private day-schools, with 438 s.; and 19 Sundays schools, with 1, 464 s.-The hundred is in Ringwood division, and is cut into lower half and upper half. The l. h. contains two parishes, and part of Fordingbridge parish. Acres, 10, 743. Pop., 910. Houses, 186. The u. h. contains four parishes and part of Fordingbridge parish. Acres, 17, 855. Pop., 4, 561. Houses, 919.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Fordingbridge CP/AP       Fordingbridge Hundred       Fordingbridge RegD/PLU       Hampshire AncC
Place names: FORDE     |     FORDINGBRIDGE
Place: Fordingbridge

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