Stockbridge is a town andcivil parish in theTest Valley district ofHampshire, England. It had a population of 592 at the 2011 census. It sits astride theRiver Test and at the foot ofStockbridge Down.

Stockbridge
Stockbridge High Street looking west
Stockbridge Location withinHampshire
Population	592 [1]
OS grid reference	SU355351
Civil parish	Stockbridge
District	Test Valley
Shire county	Hampshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STOCKBRIDGE
Postcode district	SO20
Dialling code	01264
Police	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Fire	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Romsey and Southampton North
Website	Stockbridge Parish Council[usurped]
List of places UK England Hampshire 51°06′50″N1°29′26″W / 51.114003°N 1.490646°W /51.114003; -1.490646

The town is situated on theA30 road, which once carried most of the traffic from London toDorset, southSomerset, Devon andCornwall in theSouth West, though today this route is less important than theA303 dual carriageway to the north. The bridge over theTest led to the town's name,^[2] a local legend suggested acoach stop stocked provisions, but it derives from an earlier bridge that was made of 'stocks' (tree trunks).Salisbury is 15 miles (24 km) by road;Winchester is 8.3 miles (13.4 km) by the B3049 road that joins the A30 nearby. The town's long high street was thus on a useful route between the two medieval cathedral cities. The town's civil parish has an area of 1,323 acres (535 ha).

The town's street crosses the River Test, marking the border of the parishes of Stockbridge andLongstock by a low bridge of three arches rebuilt and widened in 1799.^[3][4]

Five smaller river channels flow through the town. For a brief time, to provide space for fish, these were split into eight artificial ditches just above the town.^[5]

The town is on a shared pedestrian/footpath, theTest Way.^[6]

The place-name 'Stockbridge' first appears inCharter Rolls of 1239 asStocbrigge. InInquisitiones post mortem of 1258 it appears asStokbregg. The name means 'stock bridge', referring to a bridge constructed from stocks (meaning 'tree trunks').^[7]

Stockbridge witnessed the capture ofRobert of Gloucester byWilliam of Ypres in 1141.^[4]Edward I stayed in Stockbridge in August 1294, as did the last Catholic King,James II, on his way to Salisbury to meet the forces of thePrince of Orange. He dined at the Swan Inn in November 1688, which still exists.^[4]

The right to hold a market was awarded to the town (as theparcel known as The Street inKing's Somborne manor) before 1190 inRichard I's reign,^[4] reviewed and confirmed in 1200, and extended to an annual three-day fair byHenry III.^[4] As in the 12th century, the town consists almost wholly of one long wide street^[2][4] and it is to this characteristic that it owed its early name ofLe Street. The town grew and prospered as an unincorporatedmesne borough before, probably byplague, the place became almost deserted and the poverty of the remaining inhabitants was so great that the market which had been confirmed to the town byHenry V andHenry VI was discontinued.^[8]

By the mid-Tudor era, underEdward VI, the wealthyburgages numbered 58, partly in consequence of this, in 1562 two members of parliament were granted.Charles I had confirmed the right to annual fairs in 1641, however during the start of the nineteenth century a marked decline in trade was noted at the three increasingly agricultural fairs,^[9] with one continuing until after 1911^[4] The population of the parish was 853 in 1871, with 185 inhabited houses.^[10]

Hampshire's four touristPocket Guides cover the traditional towns ofStockbridge,Alresford,Bishops Waltham andWickham.^[11]

In themedieval centuries passed as a mentioned part and parcel ofKing's Somborne manor, not specifically in that manor at Domesday but likely as there was mention of the manor here specifically being in Richard I's time,^[4] as when they were forfeited to the crown whenHenry IV (of Lancaster) took the throne, in 1402.

Then it was let which gave rents of assizes to various men, including toJoseph Foster Barham, MP, on whose death in 1832, it went to his wife who married theEarl of Clarendon to hold for their son; then sold to George G. Maitland then to Charles Warner then to Francis Hardinge and then to the more nationally famous person mentioned below. One of the mills belonged to the lord ofLeckford Abbotts in 1548^[4]

Primary:

• Stockbridge Primary School^[34]

Secondary:

• Test Valley School^[35]

Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC South andITV Meridian. Television signals are received from either theHannington^[36] orRowridge TV transmitters.^[37]

The town is served by bothBBC Radio Berkshire andBBC Radio Solent. Other local radio stations includingHeart South,Capital South,Easy Radio South Coast,Nation Radio South Coast andGreatest Hits Radio Berkshire & North Hampshire.

Local newspapers are Andover Advertiser^[38] andHampshire Chronicle.^[39]

Stockbridge elected two members to theunreformed House of Commons –Elizabeth I granted the two members of parliament in 1562;^[4] elections proved corrupted and a private Bill for the disfranchisement of the borough was introduced in 1693, rejected at the Third Reading.^[4] In 1714, Mr Steele one of the MPs (seeStockbridge) was forced out for bribery and writingseditious pamphlets.

TheReform Act 1832 resulted in its end as arotten borough.

Stockbridge had a railway station on the Andover & Redbridge Railway (colloquially theSprat and Winkle Line), later a branch line of theLSWR. This closed in 1967 under theBeeching cuts.

Only thechancel measuring about 8 metres by 5 metres, some of the windows^{[n 1][4]} and the graveyard survive of the original parish church at the eastern end of the town, now known as Old St Peter's Church. A licence to give divine service from 1323 to 1333 was given to John Fromond, architecturally this places about a century after the likely building of the church's chancel.^[4] AVictorian Gothic church, St Peter's, designed by J Colson, was built in 1866 at a central location in the High Street.^[40] TheRoman Catholic church of St Thomas More is a modern brick built hall off of the High Street near Stockbridge Town Hall.^[41]

Due to its hatchery south of the town and many channels, Stockbridge is renowned for trout fishing.^[2]

One of the UK's most exclusive clubs, described byCountry Life as the dream of every fly-fisher, with exclusive fishing rights over 13 miles of prime trout breeding and fishing waters, the Houghton Fishing Club founded in 1822, for many years met socially at The Grosvenor Hotel, a current landmark by its jutting out into the pavement.^[4][12][42]

Stockbridge has aNon-League football clubStockbridge F.C., who were founded in 1894 and play at The Recreation Ground in the town.

• Hicks Withers-Lancashire was Lord of the Manor from a date in the 1890s until 1902, when it was sold to Mr R. P. Attenborough.^[4]
• Lillie Langtry, actress, producer and socialite, lived at the property that is now NJ Stokes Garage.^[23]
• Varyl Begg, Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord, had his home in Stockbridge^[43]

Notes

References