Plaitford

Plaitford
St Peter's Church
Plaitford is located in Hampshire
Plaitford
Plaitford
Location within Hampshire
Population352 
OS grid referenceSU2785519329
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townROMSEY
Postcode districtSO51 6
PoliceHampshire and Isle of Wight
FireHampshire and Isle of Wight
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
  • Romsey and Southampton North
List of places
UK
England
Hampshire
50°58′23″N 1°36′14″W / 50.973°N 1.604°W / 50.973; -1.604

Plaitford (/ˈplætfəd/) is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford, in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Romsey, which lies approximately 4.9 miles (7.8 km) east from the village; the large village of West Wellow is immediately west of Plaitford. In 1931 the parish had a population of 195.[1]

Etymology

The name Plaitford is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Pleiteford. It takes its name from the Old English words *pleget ("playing field") and ford ("ford"). Thus it once meant "ford beside the playing field".[2]

Nearby Melchet is one of the relatively few English place-names whose origin can be traced to Common Brittonic. The name is first attested, partly in Latin, as the name of a forest, rather than a settlement, in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Milchete silva and Milchet silva; it is first attested in fully English form as Melchetwode in 1255. The name is first attested, transferred from the forest as a settlement-name, in 1231, as Milchet; the modern spelling is first attested in 1275. The name contains that words that survive in modern Welsh as moel ("bare") and coed ("woodland"); thus it once meant "woodland on a bare [hill]".[3][4]: 302 

History and geography

Plaitford manor was anciently within the county of Wiltshire. By 1885 it had become a civil parish,[5] which was transferred to Hampshire in 1895.[6] On 1 April 1932, the parishes of Plaitford and Melchet Park (north of Plaitford and also formerly in Wiltshire) were amalgamated to form the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford.[7]

The original village of Plaitford lies to the north of the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Test, but the chief part of the population is now found further south near the A36 road, which crosses the parish from east to west. Plaitford Green is a small district in the north of the parish.[6] Plaitford Common, which occupies the southern portion of the parish, consists chiefly of rough grassland and is owned by the National Trust.[8]

St Peter's Church

Part of the church material dates from the 13th century as do parts of the font.[9] Most of the church dates from a restoration in 1856.[9]


References

  1. ^ "Population statistics Plaitford Ch/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  2. ^ Watts, Victor, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521168557., s.v. Plaitford.
  3. ^ Watts, Victor, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521168557., s.v. Melchet Court.
  4. ^ Coates, Richard; Breeze, Andrew (2000). Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in Britain. Stamford: Tyas. ISBN 1900289415..
  5. ^ "Plaitford Ch/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b Page, William, ed. (1911). "A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4 pp542-543 – Parishes: Plaitford". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  7. ^ "Melchet Park and Plaitford CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  8. ^ "Plaitford Common". Woodland Trust. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  9. ^ a b O’Brien, Charles; Bailey, Bruce; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David W. (2018). The Buildings of England Hampshire: South. Yale University Press. pp. 423–424. ISBN 9780300225037.

Media related to Plaitford at Wikimedia Commons


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