Place:Droxford, Hampshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Droxford from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"DROXFORD, a village, a parish, a [registration] district, and a [parliamentary] division, in Hants. The village stands 3½ miles ENE of Bishops-Waltham [railway] station; and has a post office under Southampton, and a weekly market. The parish comprises the tythings of Droxford-Street, Hill, Shidfield, Swanmore, and Steeple-Court. Acres: 6,986. Rated property: £7,837. Population: 2,194. Houses: 420. The property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value: £744. Patron: the Bishop of Winchester. The church is partly early Norman. The vicarages of Shidfield and Swanmore are separate benefices. Charities, £11.

"The [registration] district comprehends the sub-district of Hambledon, containing the parishes of Hambledon, Droxford, and Soberton; the sub-district of Bishops-Waltham, containing the parishes of Bishops-Waltham, Durley, and Upham; and the sub-district of West Meon, containing the parishes of West Meon, Warnford, Exton, Corhampton, and Meon-Stoke. Acres: 48,263. Poor-rates in 1862: £6,481. Population in 1841:, 10,281; in 1861: 10,665. Houses: 2,213. Marriages in 1860: 48; births, 296, (of which 24 were illegitimate); deaths: 187, (of which 42 were at ages under 5 years, and 6 at ages above 85). Marriages in the ten years 1851-60: 585; births: 3,247; deaths: 1,892. The places of worship in 1851 were 18 of the Church of England, with 5,840 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 140 [sittings]; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 150 [sittings]; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 50 [sittings]. The schools were 16 public day schools, with 1,089 scholars; 17 private day schools, with 272 [scholars]; 16 Sunday schools, with 1,053 [scholars]; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 34 [scholars]. The workhouse is in Droxford.

"The division contains the hundreds of Bishops-Waltham, Hambledon, and Meon-Stoke; and is conterminate with the district."

Later history from Wikipedia

The railway came to Droxford in 1903 with the building of the Meon Valley Railway. A station was built around 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) outside the village on the other side of the river. A small sub-settlement grew around the station including a hotel, railway workers' cottages and a cluster of private homes.

In June (May?) 1944 Allied leaders including Churchill, Eisenhower and wikipedia:Charles de Gaulle:de Gaulle met in a train carriage at Droxford station to discuss the imminent D-Day invasion into Normandy.

Droxford was a civil parish in the Droxford Rural District from 1894 until 1974 and since then has been part of the City of Winchester Borough or District.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 3, chapter on Droxford.
• 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):

• The Hundreds of Hampshire, a map from HMSO Boundary Commissioners, dated 1832
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts as of 1900, a map from the Ordnance Survey
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts after the alterations of 1932, a map from the Ordnance Survey

• A group of maps of the post-1974 municipal districts or boroughs of Hampshire on Wikipedia Commons