| LAVERSTOKE | |||
| The ruined church of St
Mary, built in 1896, in Laverstoke Park is believed to date back
to the Saxon days and was one a mortuary chapel that was used by
the Portal family and there is a drinking fountain just north of Manor
Farm which was donated for the people of Laverstoke and Freefolk by the
Portal family who were well known paper makers from the 1720 to
1950, which made water marked paper for the Bank of England to be used
as banknotes. The tiny church of St Nicholas was shared with the adjoining village of Freefolk, From early days the village was a part of the possessions of Hyde Abbey and it remained in those hands until its dissolution, after this it changed hands many times up until 1759 when it was bought by Joseph Portal and has remained in his family ever since, At the time of the Domesday Survey there were two mills here and Henri Portal the son of a refugee Hugenot family built his paper making empire, and in 1727 he secured a contract for making the bank notes for the Bank of England, this was mainly due to the water of the River Test being suited to making crisp paper, Laverstoke House which the Portals had built for them in 1798 by Bonomi stands in a 275 acre park which runs down to the rivers edge. Henri de Portal is said to have escaped being killed by hiding in an oven when the soldiers of Louis XIV's ransacked his home in Toulouse when he was s child.
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