Place:West End, Hampshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

The parish of West End in Hampshire is situated within the Borough of Eastleigh, and to the northeast of the city of Southampton. As well as the village itself, the parish contains the Chartwell Green suburb of Southampton.

The village was originally a hamlet which grew up around a track between Romsey and Portsmouth. The hamlet had a chapel by 1552 primarily for the use of the lords of the manor of Allington. When the track became a turnpike road in the early 19th century, the hamlet began to grow. In 1838, a national school was opened to house 192 children.

The hamlet was within the ecclesiastical parish of South Stoneham until West End's own ecclesiastical parish was established in 1840, two years after the construction of the original St James' Church. The civil parish was established in 1894. A number of boundary changes have taken place since then. In 1954, the hamlet of Harefield was transferred out of the civil parish and into Southampton.

A poor house had existed at the eastern end of the village since the early 1800s, and in 1848 this was replaced by a red-brick workhouse. This eventually became Moorgreen Hospital.

West End's becoming a civil parish occurred at the same time as the division of rural areas into Rural District. West End became part of South Stoneham Rural District from 1894 until 1932. When South Stoneham Rural District was abolished in 1932, West End became part of Winchester Rural District. In the nationwide reorganization of local government in 1974, West End became part of Eastleigh non-metropolitan District.

Chartwell Green

Chartwell Green is part of the West End parish, within the Borough of Eastleigh. It is a suburb of Southampton, England, although it falls outside the formal city boundary. The bulk of Chartwell Green was built in the late 1980s.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 3, chapter on South Stoneham includes some references to West End.
• 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