A BRIEF HISTORY OF BADDESLEY - 3

Sometime during the later half of the 16th century an Elizabethan Manor House was built on the site of the Knights Preceptory as can be seen on the

(Click here to see) Isaac Taylor Map of 1759

Isaac Taylor Map of 1759 - at the centre is a drawing of St. John’s Church and the ‘e’ shaped Elizabethian manor house – to the north is Gosport, Gosport farm is there today – Ampfield – then Baddesley heath – Sionshill – the present farmhouse is thought to go back to the 16th century – also see Chandlers Ford – to the south Chilworth, Baddesley Crossroads, Sandy Lane, Toothill, Ashfield, Broadlands, Whitenap and Romsey Common !

It was also in the 17th century that Thomas Tomkyns the Rector from 1693-1702 gave a Bible, a 1620 second issue of the 1611 authorised version, as well as being a very fine example, it also contains the genealogy of Christ from Adam and Eve through the tribes of Israel to Mary and Jesus, some 32 pages in all. 

Compiled by John Speed an historian in the reign of Charles I;  he was allowed to charge a royalty of 2s for every Bible that contained it.

In 1728 the manor passed into the hands of Anthony Chute whose brother John subsequently sold it in 1767 to Thomas Dummer of Cranbury Park Otterborne. Thomas Dummer was responsible for building the present Georgian Manor House, the Elizabethan one having succumbed to a fire in the 1770’s.

(Click here to see) Map of 1826

Map of 1826 - Baddesley crossroads and up Nutburn Road to the Church and Manor House – over to the right, Knights Wood, the farmhouse was built in 1843 – down to Sionhill farm, Castle Lane, and Chilworth – Toothill, Luzborough, Halterworth, Woodley – and Baddesley Common.

The Manor was bought for the last time in 1767 by Thomas Dummer of Cranbury Park, Otterbourne, from whom it devolved to the Chamberlayne family. The Manor House and farms were sold to private buyers in the 1980’s.

Baddesley gradually expanded and in 1876 the Chilworth and North Baddesley National School was opened, with the School House along side, the first buildings south of the crossroads.

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The arrival of the twentieth century was to change Baddesley forever, propelling it from a small hamlet to the largest village in the Test Valley with population akin to that of a small town.

Through the ebb and flow of the centuries the one thing that has always linked the past with the present has been the beautiful little church of St. John the Baptist in Flexford Road. It is still in a surprisingly rural setting that belies the hustle and bustle of the twenty-first century a mile away at the crossroads.