A Study of the Parish of Millbrook, Hampshire

My Millbrook Parish one place study The beginning was actually just a restart triggered by a post in the Facebook group of Guild of One-Name Studies by Karen Heenan-Davies on 7 August 2018. 

'I want to do analysis and maps of the BMD and census records to show how my surname Heenan changed geographically over time'

Well that got me thinking about how I had started plotting the Enumerators route of the 1841 Census of Millbrook. It was very rural then.

Link that to thoughts of GIS and BIM, and I join the conversation.

Later that day I start a new Google Map of Millbrook and using the Census images on Ancestry I start plotting the routes and key named places. I also start a spreadsheet which will expand the data extracted from the Census and also provide the upload to ESRI for the interactive ARCGIS Mapping.

Tithe Apportionment - Parish of Millbrook, Hampshire

Note the reference to Depopulation and read more about it here. By 1530 the population of England and Wales had risen to around 3 million. At the end of the 17th century it was estimated the population of England and Wales was about 5 1/2 million. The population of Scotland was about 1 million. The population of London was about 600,000. London went on to become the biggest city in the world for a while. In the 19th century Britain became the world's first industrial society. It also became the first urban society. By 1851 more than half the population lived in towns. As our population approaches 70m it is interesting to think of depopulation efforts at 3 million! The maps of Millbrook clearly show the urbanisation of the countryside.

Following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 Tithe Maps were produced which recorded both the Landowner and Occupier for most lands. From the Tithe Apportionments records it is apparent that on 4th March 1843 Lady Hewitt 
was both the Landowner and Occupier of Plot 875, Freemantle Estate, described as House Offices and Pleasure Grounds, with an area in statute measure 6,0,2, about 2.4 Hectares. 

Nathaniel Newman Jefferys was both Landowner and Occupier of Plot 825 described as House Offices and Garden, an area of 2,2,24 imperial, on 4th March 1843. However, one plot does not show the full picture.

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.

Broadwindsor, Devon

Broadwindsor and various similar spellings is a small village in West Dorset about 2.5 miles from Beaminster, the nearest town.

So far, it is the origin of the Pomeroy branch of my Family Tree. It is thought that there are two separate DNA groups of Pomeroys in the area which obviously causes ssome confusion and complications whist researching Family Trees.

The village has a website with a tab regarding history and a page in he Dorset Guide. It also has a record in British History Online listing some notable buildings. There were signs of settlements in this area prior to the arrival of the Romans in AD 43 and the village is recorded in the Domesday book as the manor of Windesore held by Hunger, the son of Odin. Many of the names of people still living in the village and surrounding farms are recorded in documents dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, when many of the inhabitants were freemen. These names include Hallett, Paul and Studley.