| Compton and Shawford | ||||||
| The name of Compton means "village in a
valley (or coombe)" and ti is a village in two halves
with a long street through the centre. The church can be found just off the main Southampton to Winchester road near the intersection with the M3 Motorway which caused a lot of confrontation when it was built as it slices its way straight through a hill. The church is dedicated to All Saints and has two chancels and the Norman nave and chancel is the north aisle the second chancel and the new nave were added in 1905
John Barton was the incumbent here from 1677 -168e and it was he who began the registers of burials in the parish. He also made note of any charitable collection that was made and one of these shows that £1.16s 1d was sent to St Paul's Cathedral when it was undergoing rebuilding work. Not far from here can be found the Shawford Viaduct which was nearly demolished when the M3 motorway was being constructed but after a lot of confrontation it was saved and it was till then the longest viaduct in the county measuring 2014ft long and 40ft in height. It can still be seen from the Motorway.
The village of Compton once was part of Chilcomb when it was granted to the Minster at Winchester in AD908 by King Edward and it was listed in the Domesday book as being a part of Chilcomb.. In 1250 the Manor was owned by the Wasseling family who then passed it to the de Thorncombe and Philpot's. John Philpot became the Sheriff of the county in 1460 so the manor was put in the hands of trustees till his death in 1484, it was he who ordered the trustees to build a chapel to the Holy Trinity and Virgin Mary at the east end of the parish church, and that when he died he and his wife were to be buried there and a memorial erected to them both and their seventeen children. Several other members of the family also became Sheriffs of Hampshire during the 16th century. Sir Benjamin Tichborne purchased the manor in 1640 and it stayed in his family for a further 80 years and then was passed on to the Worsley family from Appuldurcombe who then sold it to William Heatcote of Hursley in 1722 and it remained in his family till 1890. The pub and railway bridge at Shawford starred in the TV drama as the place where Victor Meldrew died in One Foot in the Grave and not far from here is a shallow ford where Charles II crossed the river on his way to sanctuary in Europe after losing the Battle of Worcester in 1651 The Itchen Navigation runs along here and the Shawford lock forms part of the canal from Alresford to Southampton. It was opened to traffic in 1710 and prospered during the time of the Napoleonic Wars which ended with the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The railway was the main reason for its demise, opened in 1837 it took most of the business away from the canal, and the last cargo carried upon it was in 1869. The station at Shawford opened to traffic on 1st September 1882.
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