MICHELDEVER

Here is the story of just one Hampshire village.

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c. 1200 BC The Iberians (Bronze Age Man) settle in the Dever Valley.

c. 600 BC Celts arrive in England. Norsebury Ring (near Wonston) is one of their forts.

c. 100-50 BC A Celtic tribe called the Belgae (from modern Belgium) invade and take over south Hampshire, Wiltshire and north Somerset. Their capital is Venta Belgarum (Winchester).

43 AD Romans invade southern England. Belgae tribe resist and are crushed, losing much land. Dever Valley becomes border between Belgae and rival Atrebates (capital: Silchester) tribe, who just gave in to the Romans. One of the main Roman roads from London goes west to Silchester, with a lesser road (now the A33) going south past Micheldever to Winchester and Bitterne (near Southampton).

c. 250 Roman villa built in Micheldever Wood (no remains).

286-296 Carausius’ Rebellion. Saxon Shore policy started by Rome; Germanic tribesmen (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) settle along Hampshire coast.

406 Romans leave England. Belgae and Atrebates carry on arguing.

514 Gewissan Jutes under Cerdic, a half-Saxon half-Celt leader, land at Totton. Their kingdom will grow to become Wessex and finally England.

c. 528 Gewisse occupy Dever Valley to cut off Winchester. Village probably owned by Gewissan royal family. Not much Jutish settlement in valley. The name ‘Dever‘ comes from a Saxon word meaning water; the river was much wider in these times. Gewissia takes over Belgic kingdom; they establish (or reestablish) a fort further up the old Roman road at Winklebury to protect the Dever Valley and Winchester.

643 First cathedral built at Winchester, capital of Gewissia (and later England).

880 Mycheldefer estate owned by King Alfred; he orders a new city church for Winchester. The estate includes Stoc (Stoke Charity), Northbroc (Northbrook), Westun (Weston Colley), Huntun (Hunton), Strattun (the Strattons) and all the land up to Orthie (King‘s Worthy).

904 Alfred’s son Edward the Elder gives Mycheldefer estate to his father’s new city church. It includes a mill at Weston Colley (no longer working but still there, over 1000 years old!) and a fishery at Mycheldefer.

927 Alfred’s grandson King Athelstan completes the union of England. Trade increases. Many farmers drive their sheep and oxen hundreds of miles to the big markets and ports. Mycheldefer grows because it is near the junction of two of these roads; from the midlands down the old Roman road to Southampton, and the Alresford Drive between Stockbridge and Alton (part of the Wales-London route, crosses the A33 at Lunway‘s Inn).

1066 Norman invasion doesn’t affect village much, as it’s a church property, but the name changes to Miceldevre. Halley’s Comet seen over England.

1086 The Domesday Book lists nearby villages as Wensistun (Wonston), Sudton (Sutton Scotney), Popeham (Popham) and Udemancote (Woodmancote).

1111 Winchester’s city church rebuilt at Hyde (to allow expansion of cathedral) and renamed Hyde Abbey.

1141 Hyde Abbey accidentally burnt down during the Rout of Winchester, when Empress Matilda’s forces are trapped besieging those of Henry Bishop of Winchester (King Stephen’s brother) at Wolvesey Castle in the city. Some idiot used flame arrows on a hot day in a city built mostly of wood. The abbey is later rebuilt.

1205 27-30 July King John stays in the village for hunting, probably at a building on the site of Manor Farm (on the Stoke road).

1285 20 Sept. King Edward I entertained in Micheldeura by Robert Burnell (a.k.a. Robers de Hamiltun), Bishop of Bath and Wells, his chancellor, rector of the church and one of the most powerful men in England.

1301 Henry de la Charité rents Stoke village, it later becomes Stoke Charity.

1349 Plague (Black Death) reaches Hampshire. Lasts on and off until the 1660’s.

1360 William Edington Bishop of Winchester takes over Hyde Abbey and Micheldeura estate. He died in 1366 and the village returns to the abbey. It later emerges that he stole large sums of money from the Church and the estate.

1381 Peasants’ Revolt. A local uprising is crushed in Winchester. Symes Cottage, near the Forge, built about this time.

c. 1490 Another name change for Mucheldever. Several names were in use at this time; only the advent of the printing press around now led to a standardization of usage.

1538 Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. Hyde Abbey destroyed. Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton and Lord Chancellor of England, gets village and rebuilds church, using stone from Hyde Abbey for the tower.

1596 Micheldevor. Thomas 3rd Earl of Southampton is a patron of some writer chap called William Shakespeare. Nearby villages are Wunfton (Wonston), Sutton (Sutton Scotney), Popham (Popham) and Woodmancott (Woodmancote).

1642-5 English Civil War. Winchester parliamentarian, Basing House royalist. Micheldevor back on the border!

1667 Death of Thomas 5th Earl of Southampton. The village passes to his daughter Rachel Wriothesley, who has married Lord William Russell, son of the Duke of Bedford.

1683 Rye House Plot, attempt to murder King Charles II whilst returning to London from Newmarket. Lord William Russell, village owner, executed (probably unjustly) over it. Halley’s Comet seen over England.

1703 27-29 Nov. Great Storm devastates Hampshire. Dever Arms pub (now the Half Moon and Spread Eagle) built about this time. Two of the current church bells (numbers 4 and 6) are cast.

1720 Henry Marquis de Ruvigny is buried in Micheldevor. A friend of the Russell family, he was a Huguenot (French Protestant), who fought for England in the Nine Years War (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-13).

1751 Benjamin Whitaker, former governor of the U.S. state of South Carolina (1739-49) is buried here. His ancestors went to America from Micheldevor.

1801 Micheldover. Sir Francis Baring, Lord Northbrook, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the British Navy and the founder of Baring’s Bank (which is largely paying for the Napoleonic Wars just about now), buys estate from Russell family.

1806 Church partly burnt down. Octagon-shaped nave built.

1831 Henry Cook (aged 19), a local farmworker, is hung at Winchester during the ‘Captain Swing’ riots against new farm machinery. He had knocked Judge Bingham Baring’s hat off (with a sledgehammer!) Two other valley men were also hung; Cook’s body was returned to the village. Ten valley men, including David Champ from Micheldover, were all transported to Australia for rioting. Judge Baring later beat a handcuffed and innocent prisoner to death with a stick. The judge was fined £50 (about £3,500 in today's money)!

1840 11th May Mitcheldover Station opens as Andover Road (Andover 10 miles away; station renamed 1856), last part of London-Southampton line. Although the village is not on a direct line between London and Southampton, the railways owners chose the route because they hoped the Basingstoke-Andover line (opened 1854) could be extended to the rich port of Bristol (it wasn't). The Hurstbourne Brass Band plays on the flat station roof and artillery gun salvoes greet each train.

1880’s Church rebuilt; it‘s other four current bells (numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5) added 1892.

1920 New death duty taxes lead the Baring family to largely sell up; many local people buy their houses at this time.

1939 World War 2. RAF fuel depot built at Micheldever station. Now disused.

1983-4 Micheldever village (1,000 people) raises £70,000 to stop church tower falling down.

1986 16 Oct. Great Storm (not a hurricane!) devastates Hampshire. Halley’s Comet again.

1996 Brand new town of 10,000+ people proposed for Micheldever Station.

Odd facts

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