Ringwood, Hampshire

Historical Description

Ringwood, a town and a parish in Hampshire, with a station on the L. & S.W.R, 103 miles from London, and a post, money order, and telegraph office. The town stands on the river Avon, at the junction of the railway to Christchurch, on the verge of the New Forest, 21 miles by road and 24¼ by railway W by S of Southampton. It claims, without any good evidence, to have been the Roman Regnum; was known to the Saxons as Renoved and Regnewaed, from the vadum or vade across the river; appears to have acquired some consequence before the Norman Conquest; was long famous, in modern times, for good ale and for a particular kind of woollen gloves; has still a brewery, some hosiery manufacture, and a large factory for agricultural implements. It is a seat of petty sessions; consists chiefly of four streets diverging from a market-place, and has two banks, two chief inns, a large and handsome town-hall built in 1868, a lecture-hall, a theatre, a police station, three bridges, a public library with reading-rooms, a church, an endowed school, almshouses, a workhouse, and charities. The church was Early English, has been almost entirely rebuilt, and has several memorial windows. There are Wesleyan, Baptist, Unitarian, and Congregational chapels. A weekly general market is held on Wednesday, a cattle market on every alternate Wednesday, and fairs on 10 July and 11 Dec. The parish comprises the tithings of Ringwood Town, Ashley, Bisterne and Crowe Burley, Kingston, Avon, Wattensford, Moortown, Poulner, Hop Garden, and part of Blashford. Acreage, 10,144 of land and 221 of water; population of the civil parish, 4028; of the ecclesiastical, 4372. There is a parish council consisting of twelve members. Harbridge has also a parish council of five members. Avon Castle is now occupied as a hotel. Bisterne House is the chief residence. The living is a vicarage, united with the rectory of Harbridge and the chapelry of Bisterne, in the diocese of Winchester; net value, £300 with residence. Patron, King's College, Cambridge. The perpetual curacy of Barley is a separate benefice. Lord Chief-Justice Mansfield was a native.

Administration

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

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

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Ringwood from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ringwood (St. Peter and St. Paul))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Ringwood 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:

• Portsmouth Evening News
• Hampshire Telegraph
• Hampshire Advertiser
• Hampshire Chronicle
• Aldershot Military Gazette

Visitations Heraldic

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