Landford Community Plan CONTENTS A brief history of Landford 3 After two years consultation and preparation, here is your Landford today 5 copy of The Landford Community Plan. This is the name we have given to our parish plan. This national initiative A summary of residents’ provides a way for local people to make known how they views and ideas 6 would like their community to develop. We hope you find the information interesting as well as The action plans informative. In addition to distributing a copy to every household and local business, we have also lodged a Encouraging a copy with the local authorities and other organisations cross-section of people to responsible for making decisions that affect our live in Landford community. If you prefer, you can also find a full copy Housing 7 plus link to the questionnaire results on the Landford Public Transport 9 community website - the address is at the bottom of most pages in this document. Local business 10 In the action plans you will see we have indicated where Keeping the village character as individuals we can take an active part in improving life and sense of community in Landford for ourselves and our neighbours. We Village character 12 recognise that everyone can make a difference and we Sense of community 14 do not want to be totally reliant on others as that way Footpath & Cycle networks 18 surely leads to disappointment. Communication 19 Where we mention ‘we’, unless we have said otherwise, Support 21 we mean all residents: those of us who have had a close involvement in developing the Landford Community Plan, Making sure people are safe alongside those who have responded to consultation and Public Services 22 those who have just observed on the sidelines. Roads 24 Landford Community Plan Steering Group Helping to safeguard our environment What happens next? Environment 26 Waste Management 28 Once the local authorities endorse this plan in late 2008, the Landford Community Plan Steering Group will be How we developed this plan 29 disbanded. In its place, a Landford Community Partnership will act as an umbrella group to co-ordinate Acknowledgements 30 activities and facilitate implementation of the Landford Community Plan. This group will comprise a small Village Design Statement 30 number of residents plus representatives of the interest groups and other organisations mentioned in the action A-Z local services 31 plan. The partnership will be well supported by around 100 volunteers who indicated in the questionnaire that they would like to be involved in different activities. Useful contact numbers 32 Landford Community Plan www.landfordcommunity.org.uk 2 A Brief History of Landford Landford National School, built 1842 With grateful thanks to residents Edna Penny and Dorothy Simpson and to Wiltshire County Council - Libraries & Heritage A prehistoric track, the Cloven Way, runs from Totton on Southampton Water to Grim’s Ditch, west of Downton, and crosses the southwest corner of Landford parish. Archaeological finds indicate activity but it is not known if people lived in Landford before the Iron Age. Late Bronze Age artefacts have been found opposite the Shoe Inn and on Landford Common, now part of Plaitford. At Earldoms, an Iron Age camp was excavated in 1929 and 18 burial urns were found of the late Iron Age in a small circular Nearly everyone was employed in agriculture. By the mound. With Roman Villas at East Grimstead and 1841 census, the population had risen to 255 and West Dean, substantial Roman settlement in Downton employment was more diverse, including servants, and probably late 4th century settlement in broom makers, shopkeepers, a plumber, a Whiteparish, it is most likely that Romans and needlewoman, a cheese dealer and a hostler. There Romano-Britons were working and using Landford. was the vicar and surgeon and one sailor, while two The Saxons conquered this part of Wiltshire in the men were in the army. early 6th century. By the 10th and 11th centuries there was a small community here and a mill on the river Much cider was made in Landford, perhaps because Blackwater. there was no public house, and the horse drawn cider press visited farms and cottages to press the apples, According to the Domesday Book (1086), there until about 1925 when a lorry was used. was enough arable land to maintain a population of between 20 and 30. A church is believed to have been A school was built in 1842 replacing the dame here in the 11th century and it seems likely that the school that had existed from at least 1818. Lady main house would have been nearby, as Landford Nelson, whose family was influential in the parish Manor is today. Clearing woodland for arable holdings during the 19th century, gave the site for the school. did take place from 1270. From the early 14th century Some new buildings were erected in the first half of William de Lye held Landford Manor and the Lye, or the 19th century including the house now known as Legh, family remained there until the early 16th ‘Northlands’, but built as ‘Holly Hill’, on Wickets Green, century. During this period the population remained so called as it was once the area where villagers small. In 1377 there were 48 people aged over 14 played cricket. years, compared with 36 in Hamptworth. By 1856 the dilapidated state of the church was With rights of common in the forest for the locals, there causing concern. As a result, the church was virtually would have been a problem with straying animals and rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1858. The architect, a pound for these was established. The name Pound William Butterfield and builder, William Crook of Hill shows where this was in later centuries and it Whiteparish, later built a new rectory for £1,250 in 1871. could well have been here from medieval times. In 1540 the manor passed to the Dauntsey family. Sir Landford Common was enclosed in 1861, with most John Dauntsey rebuilt Landford Manor House c.1600. of the land allocated to Lady Nelson (640 out of 740 From 1577 the tenants had lost rights of common acres) but with one acre allowed for a stone and pasture in the forest in one of the early steps by the gravel pit and four acres for exercise and recreation landowner to begin enclosure of the forest. This for the villagers. Land to the south of the track, now started in 1610 when the parish can be considered to New Road, was sold at £15 an acre for people to build be no longer part of the royal forest. In 1627/8 the on from the 1870s. From then on, houses were built manor was conveyed to Giles Eyre and from then the around the two roads across the common giving a V Eyre family resided at the manor. shape of ribbon development on Broomhill (Lyndhurst Road) and New Road. There never seems to have been an inn at Landford although there was probably an alehouse. During the By 1880 there was a post office at the 18th century the cottage industry of lace making schoolhouse and Mr Newey, the headmaster, was spread into the parish from Downton and continued also the sub postmaster. By 1889, there were two through the 19th and early 20th centuries. The two deliveries of post from Salisbury. The Post Office also main roads that meet in the parish were turnpiked in dealt with money orders and operated a savings bank. the 18th century and this must have increased the In 1890 it was transferred to Reuben Moody’s bakery traffic between Salisbury and Southampton through and grocer’s shop and by 1899 there was also a this quiet corner of Wiltshire. telegraph office here. Transport for villagers was provided by a horse-drawn covered wagon, which The first national census, in 1801, records 186 travelled to Romsey taking two to three hours each people, with 37 families living in 32 households. way. Passengers paid 3d (1.25p). Landford Community Plan www.landfordcommunity.org.uk 3 In the 1930s the school catered for 60–70 children, between 5 and 14 years of age, in 3 classes. There were no school dinners but the children brought sandwiches and had Camp coffee or cold tea. Water was available from a cup dipped into a bucket. During the Second World War the house and grounds of Landford Lodge were occupied successively by the Royal Tank Regiment, the Corps of Military Police and American troops. School children and mothers were evacuated from Portsmouth. The children used the village school and were thought somewhat ill mannered compared with country children. A unit of the Home Guard with 80 men was formed and there was an anti-aircraft Landford Bridge searchlight post at Hamptworth. A local prisoner of war camp supplied Italian prisoners to work on local farms. During the bombing of Southampton some of The Moody family and the King family were involved in its inhabitants took refuge in the village and running the post office at various times. In 1945, the commuted to work. Several remained after the war. Post Office was moved to combine it with the existing Landford Bog was much larger in those days, but grocery shop. In 1947, Herbert Penny sold off the attempts were made to drain the land during World shop business, but kept the Post Office as his deep War II, for agriculture. Troops were stationed around litter houses for raising chickens did not provide the pine trees in the area between what is now Beech sufficient income.