Place:Redbridge, Hampshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Redbridge has been since 1974 a ward of the unitary authority of [[Place:Southampton District, Hampshire, England, with a population of over 14,400 in 2001. It is situated 3.1 miles (5.0 km) to the west of the city centre at the mouth of the River Test and is the southern terminus of the former Andover Canal and the modern M271 motorway.

Because of its strategic position, the settlement became a substantial trading post and shipbuilding centre, with many merchant and Royal Navy vessels being constructed in Redbridge in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Today, the area is mainly residential and industrial with Southampton Docks close by. The A35 road crosses the River Test at Redbridge, as does the South Western Main Line railway. It has a small railway station.

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

"REDBRIDGE, a village and a hundred in Hants. The village stands on the river Test or Anton, at its influx to Southampton-water, and on the Andover and Southampton railway, at the spot where terminated the quondam Andover canal, 4 miles W N W of Southampton. It was known at Domesday as Rodbrige, and in the time of Bede as Reodford; it had a small religions establishment in the 7th century, where King Ceadwalla put the brother of Arvandus to death, and which quite disappeared before the Norman conquest; it is said by Camden to have changed its name to Redbridge, on account of the erection of a bridge at it, where previously was a ford; it has, for centuries, been a place of considerable resort for coasting vessels; it was the scene, in last century, of General Bentham's experiments in the building of swift scooners and brigs; it now carries onconsiderable trade in the export of grain, and in the import of coal and timber; it is practically conjoint with the villages of Eling and Totton; and it has a post-office under Southampton, a railway station, and an endowed school."

Although the village shares a name with a Hundred, it was not an ancient parish itself. Instead it was a manor located in Millbrook Parish.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 4, chapter on the Hundred of Redbridge and the following chapter on Eling parish.
• 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