Place:Stockbridge, 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

Stockbridge is a small town and civil parish in the Test Valley District of Hampshire, England, 65 miles (105 km) from London. It has an area of 1,323 acres (5.35 km2) and, at the 2001 census, a population of little under 600 people. It sits astride the River Test and at the foot of Stockbridge Down.

The A30 road goes through the town, which once carried most of the traffic from London to Dorset, south Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in the southwest of England. However, recent engineering of the A303 dual carriageway near Andover provides a flatter, unimpeded route for travel between the regions mentioned.

The bridge over the Test led to the town's name as a stage coach stop as provisions (stock) could be taken aboard. Stockbridge is en route between the medieval cathedral cities of Winchester and Salisbury.

The town's street crosses the River Test by a low bridge of three arches rebuilt and widened in 1799. This bridge marks the border between the parishes of Stockbridge and Longstock.

Stockbridge was originally a chapelry in the parish of Kings Somborne. It was in the Stockbridge Rural District from 1894 until 1932, and in the Romsey and Stockbridge Rural District from 1932 until 1974. Since 1974 the parish has been in the Test Valley District of Hampshire.

History and economics

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Stockbridge.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 4, chapter on Stockbridge.
• 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