| Lasham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Four miles northwest of Alton and just
off of the Alton to Basingstoke road is Lasham, once famous a wartime
airfield and now a nationally famous gliding centre, the National
Gliding Championships are held here. The airfield was built during the
war and there is a road between Herriard and Lasham which was built by
Italian prisoners of war. Church Farm dates back to the 17th century and has been completely refurbished internally and there is now a modern housing estate here made from the farm buildings and an old barn has been restored to be used for village functions. The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway which ran from 1901 to 1932 once served the village and today modern developments have increased thus bring a new life to what was a sleepy little village. Lash was once part of the Herriard Park estate and they were both served by the same incumbent with the rectory in Lasham. The church of St Mary was built in 1866 where once an old church stood in Saxon times. Worried over a shortage of water during the First World Warm a Mrs Beatrice Jervoise brought in a water dowser and he made such a success that Major and Mrs Jervoise were the founders of the Herriard and Lasham Water Company and so reservoirs were built in Lasham wood to contain the water which was then pumped from there to Lasham as well as other villages such as Shalden, Bentworth, Medstead, Preston Candover to mention a few and this is inscribed on the tomb of Mrs Jervoise in Herriard Churchyard. (see the Herriard page)
A lot of the houses were not sold off by Herriard Park and instead they have been modernised and some even extended, a good example is Pear Tree Cottage which was formerly the home to a blacksmith and in the grounds there is a building built in the 18th century that one held the forge, see photos below.
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