Alverstoke, Hampshire

Historical Description

Alverstoke, a village, a parish, and a liberty in Hants. The village stands adjacent to Stoke Bay station on the L. & S.W.R., opposite Spithead, 1¾ mile SSW of Gosport. It is a pleasant place, with charming environs. The parish includes also the town of Gosport, the villages of Forton, Hardway, and Elson, the watering-place of Anglesey, the villas of Alverbank, the Royal Marine Barracks, the Haslar Barracks, the Royal Naval Hospital, Blockhouse Fort, and Forts Rowner, Gomer, Brockhurst, Monckton, and Grange. Acreage, 3783, of which 1223 are water and foreshore; population of the civil parish, 25,452; of the ecclesiastical, with Anglesey and Newtown, 10,734. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The manor was given by the noble Saxon lady Alwara to the church of Winchester, and it still belongs to the Bishop of Winchester as superior. Many excellent mansions, villas, and other residences, with gardens and terraces, adorn the surface and the shores, and a rich extensive prospect is enjoyed of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. Stoke Bay is now a noted roadstead, where all the steam warships when newly fitted with their engines test their speed at the measured mile. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester, and includes the curacy of Anglesey; value, £1050. Patron, the Bishop of Winchester. The vicarages of Trinity-Gosport, St Matthew-Gosport, St John-Forton, and St Thomas-Elson are separate benefices. The parochial church is Saxon, built in 1130, repeatedly restored, and now chiefly modern. Christ Church, in the Decorated English style, was opened in 1865. Dr. Wilberforce, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, was once rector here, and Dr. Trench, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, was his curate.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient County	Hampshire
Ecclesiastical parish	Alverstoke St. Mary
Liberty	Alverstoke and Gosport

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1559.

Churches

Church of England

St. Mary (parish church)

The church of St. Mary, originally Norman, is a building of stone in the Early English style, and consists of Chancel, nave of five bays, aisles and a western tower, partly of brick, and containing & clock and 2 bells: the chancel was built in 1865 at a cost of £3,000, and the nave in 1885, at a cost of £6,000; there are sittings for 800 persons, of which 680 are free.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Alverstoke from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Alverstoke (St. Mary))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Hampshire (County Southampton) is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Alverstoke are available from a number of sites:

Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
Google Streetview.
National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
OpenStreetMap.
old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Hampshire newspapers online:

Villages, Hamlets, &c

Anglesey

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Hampshire, 1530, 1575, & 1622-34 is available to view on the Heraldry page.

District	Gosport
County	Hampshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Postal district	PO12
Post Town	Gosport