Place:Kingsclere, 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

Kingsclere is a large village and civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane District of Hampshire. Kingsclere is located near to Watership Down, the setting of Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down.

Kingsclere is situated approximately equidistant (13 km /8 miles) from the towns of Basingstoke and Newbury on the A339 road.

History

Kingsclere can trace back its history to a place identified as belonging to King Alfred in his will between 872 and 888, the clere possibly meaning 'bright' or 'clearing'.

Local legend asserts that King John was troubled by a bedbug during a night in a Kingsclere inn, when prevented by fog from reaching his lodge on Cottington’s hill. He ordained that the church should erect and evermore maintain upon its tower a representation of the creature which disturbed his sleep.

Ecchinswell and Hannington were both chapelries of Kingsclere in Evingar Hundred when local government was in the hands of the church and the courts.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 4, chapter (long) on Kingsclere.
• 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