Place:Eastleigh, Hampshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Eastleigh is in Hampshire, England. It was an urban district from 1899 until 1936, a municipal borough from 1936 until 1974 and is now the principal town in the District (or Borough) of Eastleigh. The town lies between Southampton and Winchester, and is part of the South Hampshire conurbation. The first substantial growth was as a railway town. Now it is home to many businesses, particularly in the electronic and allied industries. The town lies on the River Itchen, one of England's premier chalk streams for fly fishing, and a designated site of Special Scientific Interest.

Although settlement in the area can be traced back to Roman times, Eastleigh really got its start when the London and South Western Railway Company (L&SWR) built a railway from Southampton to Winchester in 1838. It was decided to build a station near the little village of Barton. This railway station was originally named Bishopstoke Junction. In 1868 the villages of Barton and Eastley (the early name for Eastleigh) were combined into one parish. In 1891 the L&SWR Carriage and Wagon Works from Nine Elms in London were transferred to Eastleigh. This was followed by the Nine Elms Locomotive Works which were moved there in 1909. These railway works were a dominant part of the economy of the town until they were closed in 2006.

In 1932 Eastleigh was expanded by the absorbtion of parts of the civil parishes of Chandlers Ford and Otterbourne from Hursley Rural District, part of the parish of North Stoneham from South Stoneham Rural District, and parts of the civil parishes of Fair Oak and Stoke Park from Winchester Rural District. This substantial expansion caused the alteration in the type of local administration from urban district to municipal borough. The original hundred for Eastleigh cannot be confidently identified.

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):

• 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