Place:Bordon, Hampshire, England

Watchers
NameBordon
Alt namesBroxhead Warrensource: estate in military camp
TypeTown, Military base
Coordinates51.112°N 0.864°W
Located inHampshire, England
See alsoHeadley, Hampshire, Englandparish in which Bordon was located prior to 1929
Whitehill, Hampshire, Englandtown of which it has been part since 1929
East Hampshire District, Hampshire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Bordon is a town in the in the East Hampshire District of Hampshire, England. It lies 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south-east of Alton and forms a part of the civil parish of Whitehill, the adjoining village. The civil parish is on the A325, and the A3 road between London and Portsmouth.

Before the formation of Whitehill in 1929, Bordon was located in the civil parish of Headley.

Unlike the neighbouring towns of Petersfield, Farnham and Alton, Bordon has not been a market town. Many of the facilities are situated on or near the A325, a former toll road that connects Farnham to the A3 to its south.

Military History

The town has been an army base with its own railway station. Bordon camp was first laid out in 1899 by the Highland Light Infantry, directed by Royal Engineers, and following interruption by the Second Boer War, was occupied by the army from 1903. The first occupants of Quebec barracks were the Somersetshire Light Infantry, returning from South Africa in April 1903, and the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment arrived at St. Lucia Barracks from South Africa in June 1903. Bordon Camp was home to the Canadian Army during both of the world wars and the town is dotted with concrete slabs on which tanks and armoured cars were parked. (An important Canadian Army establishment in Canada with an equally long history has been the similarly named Camp Borden near Barrie, Ontario.)

Bordon is now home to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), providing trade training, both basic and supplementary, to its soldiers, supported by the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (SEME).

In November 1902, the War Department bought the 550 acres (220 ha) Broxhead Warren estate from Sir David Miller Barbour, added to by an additional sized purchase in early 1903.

Research Tips

  • GENUKI has a list of archive holders in Hampshire including the Hampshire Record Office, various museums in Portsmouth and Southhampton, the Isle of Wight Record Office and Archives.
  • The Hampshire Online Parish Clerk project has a large collection of transcriptions from Parish Registers across Hampshire.
  • A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 together with tables listing the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered, along with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
  • The three-storey City Museum in Winchester covers the Iron Age and Roman periods, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian period.
  • Volumes in The Victoria County History Series are available for Hampshire through British History Online. There are three volumes and the county is covered by parishes within the old divisions of "hundreds".
A collection of maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrating the English county of Hampshire over the period 1832-1932 (the last two are expandible):
  • A group of maps of the post-1974 municipal districts or boroughs of Hampshire on Wikipedia Commons
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Bordon. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.