Copythorne, of which the parish now includes Bartley, Copythorne, Cadnam, Newbridge, Winso and Ower,stands stands halfway along this quiet country road and is first approached from Ower at the Old Well Restaurant then the church and school. The name comes from 'cropped thorn ' which derives from the practice of pollarding, the cutting  or control of trees so that they regrow  to a better shape. And there was a large common here on the eastern edge of the New Forest.

St Mary's church Copythorne

Paulton's Park. at Ower which is the old home of the Sloane Stanleys who own Sloane Square in London and since the mid 1600s it has made a large contribution to the life of the local community, not more so than the fact that it is now a well known theme park mainly for young children. There is a cricket club which dates back to 1889 and this began its life in Horseshoe Gardens which was designed by Capability Brown. But these days the matches are played just up the road at Copythorne Common.

In the south west corner of Half Moon Common  is Duck Hill which is covered with half matured Scots Pine tree which the owners of Paultons Estate planted and also there is the mire (bog, swamp) which runs at the base of the hill. This is a  Valley Mire and is extremely rare in Europe and an estimated 80% of them being situated in the New Forest alone.

The mire is of very high quality due to there not being much in the way of drainage though this area had been in decline due to the advancing Scots Pines creeping down the hill and acres of dense Rhododendron growing under them!

The area also has several Bronze Age barrow which the locals call Money Hills, which is believed to be a corruption of 'many hills' and near to where the present day church is situated the Roman road from Nursling suddenly South to Cadnam roundabout and for some reason the M27 also turns south at Ower to join the A31 to the west of the roundabout!

Local roads seem to be named after the past, there is Pollards Moor, and Pound Lane, named after the village pound, Barrow Hill  where many Gypsy families decided to set up house after living for many generations in the Forest. One example which is near to the my own 'family' is Bartley Regis at Half Moon common and this goes back to the days when William Rufus was slain at nearby Minstead. The body of the king was borne on a cart owned by Purcas the charcoal burner and carried to Winchester Cathedral by way of Bartley and Otterborne. He spent his first night at Bartley and was granted the land which was then given the name of Bartley Regis (Regis being royal).

Nearby at Cadnam between the roundabout and the M27 can be found the Sir John Barleycorn public house, said to be the oldest in Hampshire, which was a a very fashionable destination for travellers to the Forest and on a Sunday evening Johnson's Brakes which was an early form of transport ferried people to the 12th century inn.

At the Ower end of Copythorne where the Wishing Well restaurant sits on the corner can be found Barrow Hill which was just a dirt track but has now been replaced by a narrow tarmac road which takes a couple of hairy 90° turns as its winds its way to the Compass Inn at Winsor. Now demolished a cottage used to be here which belonged to Henry Robinson Hartley and it was his estate that endowed the Hartley Institute in nearby Southampton and was opened in 1862 by the then Lord Palmerston. Southampton University Colleg then received the money from its sale when it closed and this in turn was the birth of Southampton University.

Copythorne school, built in 1843 , was originally on a half acre of land that was given by a Mr Saunders of Eling and it was a school for the poor of the parish. A year later Copythorn Church of England school was opened and for the first few years it had a very bad attendance as the pupils were often absent due to having to help get the cattle and sheep to the market, pick potatoes and generally help out the grown ups of the village. Later a new infants school opened up the road in Cadnam and is still in use today while the original Cadnam School has been put to other uses.