Place:Upper Eldon, Hampshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"ELDON, a parish in Stockbridge [registration] district, Hants; near the Andover railway, 3¼ miles S of Stockbridge. Post town: Stockbridge, under Winchester. Acres: 276. Population: 13. House: 1. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value: not reported. Patron: John Hussey, Esq. The church is in ruins."

A quotation from Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 4, chapter on Kings Somborne:

"South of King's Somborne is the ancient decayed parish of Upper Eldon, (fn. 21) which covers an area of only 295 acres. The old church of St. John the Baptist stands in the farmyard of the manor farm, which displays traces of 17th-century work."

Inspecting the OS map of 1900 (link below), it is found to be a very small parish surrounded by the parishes of Kings Somborne and Michelmersh. The hamlet of Eldon itself was in Kings Somborne parish on this map.

Upper Eldon was a separate parish in the Stockbridge Rural District from 1894 until 1932, but was abolished to enlarge Kings Somborne in 1932. Since 1974 the joint parish has been in the Test Valley District of Hampshire.

(Source: A Vision of Britain through Time)

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 4, chapter on Kings Somborne which contains references to Eldon.
• 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