Place:Millbrook, Hampshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Millbrook is a former civil parish and a suburb of Southampton. It is now part of Southampton District or the Borough of Southampton. As the area developed, several settlements grew within the parish, some of them becoming parishes in their own right, thus reducing the extent of the Millbrook parish. As well as the Millbrook of today, the original Millbrook parish included Freemantle, Regents Park, and Redbridge. Some of these areas are still referred to as being part of Millbrook. Millbrook railway station was opened in 1861, and the parish formerly had open baths and a ferry to Marchwood across Southampton Water.

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

"MILLBROOK, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in South Stoneham [registration] district, Hants. The village stands at the mouth of the river Test or Anton, on the quondam Andover canal, and on the Andover, Romsey, Redbridge, and Southampton railway, 2 miles WNW of Southampton; was known, at Domesday, as Melebroc; had formerly, by means of the Andover canal, a considerable trade in corn, malt, coal, and timber; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Southampton. The parish contains also the hamlets of Hill and Sidford, and the chapelry of Shirley. Acres: 3,646; of which 630 are water. Real property: £17,319; of which £125 are on railways. Population in 1851: 6,121; in 1861: 10,107. Houses: 2,015. The increase of population arose mainly from the purchase of an estate by Building Societies. A shipbuilding yard, iron-works, and an edge-tool manufactory are at Shirley: and brass and iron foundries, and works for the manufacture of marine and locomotive engines, are at Mill Place. Traces of an ancient five-arched bridge, and of a causeway, on the river Test, are at Redbridge. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value: £487. Patron: the Bishop of Winchester. The church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt in 1827. The churchyard contains a small granite obelisk to the memory of Pollok, author of the "Course of Time", who was buried here in 1829. The rectory of Freemantle is a separate benefice. Ruins of a chapel are at Shirley. A national school, a neat building in the Tudor style, stands behind the parish church. Charities, £16.

"The sub-district contains also two other parishes. Acres: 10,056. Popualtion: 11,246. Houses: 2,215.

Millbrook was an ancient parish in the Mainsbridge Hundred and a civil parish until 1954. It was part of the Romsey and Stockbridge Rural District from 1894 until 1932 and of the South Stoneham Rural District from 1932 until 1954. It was absorbed into the County Borough of Southampton in 1954.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 3, chapter on Millbrook.
• English Jurisdictions 1851 is a series of outline maps of ecclesiastical parishes thoughout England. It is very handy for working out the neighbourhoods covered by individual parishes, particularly in large towns and cities.
• 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