Millbrook, Hampshire
Millbrook is now a suburb of Southampton, which was for a time its own County Borough, but has returned to being part of Hampshire, England.
What is my interest in Millbrook? I was born in the General Hospital, which is in Shirley Warren, part of the old parish of Millbrook, and grew up in the reduced size Millbrook, as part of Southampton.
Below is a extract from A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3. Published online at British History Online.
The original parish of Millbrook, including Freemantle and Shirley, now suburbs of Southampton, contained an area of 3,223 acres of land, 10 acres of land covered by water, 140 by tidal water, and 140 of foreshore. However, by the Southampton Borough Extension Act of 1895, Shirley and Freemantle, already separate ecclesiastically, the one since 1836, the other since 1851, were included in the municipal borough, and together formed into a civil parish, containing altogether 2,651 acres, of which 2,047 acres are land, 8 acres land covered by water, and 100 by tidal water, and 496 acres of foreshore. Hence the modern parish of Millbrook contains only 986 acres of land, 2 of land covered by water, and 40 by tidal water, together with 191 of foreshore.
The nucleus of the original parish of Millbrook, marked by the old houses that survive among the many modern along the main road from Southampton which runs some yards from the foreshore towards Redbridge and forms the village street, is now the least important part of the district once composing the parish, so entirely have Shirley and Freemantle become the most populous and flourishing centres as suburbs of Southampton. The gradual increase in their importance, from a population point of view, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century, with the extraordinary growth of Southampton, owing to the opening of the docks in 1843. The break up of the greater number of Shirley estates, which were for the most part sold out in building allotments to the members of the Hants Freehold Land Society before 1852, was followed in that year by that of the Freemantle estate, which extended from Millbrook to Hill Hamlet near Fourposts. Sir George Hewett sold this estate to Mr. Sampson Payne, who pulled down the old hall, famous for its fine room entirely laid with slabs of marble, and, intersecting the park by nearly twenty good roads, resold to various land societies. From this time Shirley and Freemantle have been united to Southampton by a network of modern cottages and villas ever on the increase, and are being more closely linked by the service of electric trams extending now nearly the whole way up the Shirley Road as it runs northwest towards Old Shirley and Nursling. The extension of the building area continues west; Blighmont Park, the estate of 47 freehold acres that lies between Shirley and Millbrook, within the modern parish of Shirley, is now for sale, and possibly will be laid out for building. Moreover, Redbridge village, in the extreme west of the parish, with its station on both the Southampton and Andover branches of the London and South-Western Railway, with its important wharf and saw-mills belonging to the company, who have also large stores of railway plant here, is growing more especially towards the east, so that both from east and west it seems that Millbrook village, protected up to now by its number of good-sized houses, is about to be involved in modern growth.
The story continues on the British History Online website.
Another source of information about Millbrook is the website, A Vision of Britain Through Time.
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Millbrook like this.
MILLBROOK, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in South Stoneham district, Hants. The village stands at the mouth of the river Test or Anton, on the quon dam Andover canal, and on the Andover, Romsey, Red bridge, and Southampton railway, 2 miles WNW of Southampton; was known, at Domesday, as Melebroc; had formerly, by means of the Andover canal, a considerable trade in corn, malt, coal, and timber; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Southampton.
The parish contains also the hamlets of Hill and Sidford, and the chapelry of Shirley. Acres, 3,646; of which 630 are water. Real property, £17,319; of which £125 are on railways. Pop. in 1851,6,121; in 1861,10,107. Houses, 2,015. The increase of pop. arose mainly from the purchase of an estate by Building societies. A shipbuilding yard, iron-works, and an edge-tool manufactory are at Shirley: and brass and iron foundries, and works for the manufacture of marine and locomotive engines, are at Mill Place. Traces of an ancient five-archedbridge, and of a causeway, on the river Test, are at Redbridge. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £487. * Patron, the Bishop of Winchester. The church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt in 1827. The churchyard contains a small granite obelisk to the memory of Pollok, author of the "Course of Time, ''who was buried here in 1829. The rectory of Freemantle is a separate benefice. Ruins of a chapel are at Shirley. A national school, a neat building in the Tudor style, stands behind the parish church. Charities, £16.—The sub-district contains also two other parishes. Acres, 10,056. Pop., 11,246. Houses, 2,215.
From the last statistic, the poulation density was 1.1 person per Acre, 0.22 houses per Acre, and 5 people per house.
Some maps or links to maps of the area.
Diagram of Sanitary Districts in Hampshire showing also Civil Parishes
A County Council map of parishes
Click on the map for the full map and key, or look a the extract below for a zoom in on Millbrook. Surrounded by Eling, Nursling, Chilworth, North Stoneham, Southampton Common (extra parochial), and the Southampton Parishes (All Saints, Holy Rood, SS Lawrence, St Mary, S Mary Extra, St Michael). The datas indicate com
"This work is based on data provided through www.VisionofBritain.org.uk and uses historical material which is copyright of the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and the University of Portsmouth".
One John Hurst is mentioned regarding the history of Millbrook regarding the Manors and Monastery.
By the fourteenth century, if not earlier, the receipts from the 'farm' of Millbrook, together with that of the adjacent manor of Nursling, were appropriated to the office of warden of the works (custos operum). Thus in 1409 John Hurst, warden of the works, received £21 15s. 7d. from the serjeant (serviens) of Millbrook, and in 1532 Walter Frost, warden of the works, received £27 5s. from the reeve. On the suppression of the monastery in 1539 the manor passed into the king's hands, to be granted within the next year to the dean and chapter of Winchester, with a stipulation that its proceeds, together with those of four other manors, including Nursling, should be relegated to the support of twelve poor university students, six at Oxford and six at Cambridge.
more later