Lasham is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

East Hampshire East Hampshire is a local government district in Hampshire, England. Its council is based in Petersfield. Other towns are Alton and Bordon. The district was originally to be known as the District Council of Petersfield. It comprised 42 seats ...

district of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, England. It is northwest of Alton and north of

Bentworth Bentworth is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. The nearest town is Alton, Hampshire, Alton, which lies about east of the village. The parish covers an area of and at its highest point is King's ...

, just off the A339 road. The parish covers an area of and has an average elevation of above sea level. The nearest railway station is Alton, southeast of the village. Lasham formerly had its own railway station, Bentworth and Lasham, on the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway until the line's closure in 1936. According to the 2011 census, the village had a population of 176.

History

The village name has been spelled in various ways, including Esseham (11th century), Lessham (12th century), and Lesseham or Lassham (14th century). Lasham was first mentioned in the

Domesday Survey Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manu ...

of 1086 by William I (the conqueror) as an

alod Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property (land, buildings, and fixtures) that is independent of any superior landlord. Allodial title is related to the concept of land held "in allodium", or land ownership by occupancy and defense ...

, and was then assessed at two and a half hides. The Royal Navy used the village name for a

Ham class minesweeper The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers (IMS), known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. All of the ships in the class are named for British place na ...

, HMS Lasham, which was operational from 1954 to 1981.

Lasham Airfield

Lasham Airfield Lasham Airfield is an aerodrome located north-west of Alton in Hampshire, England, in the village of Lasham. It was built in 1942 and was a Royal Air Force Station during the Second World War, many significant operations being flown from i ...

was constructed in 1942 on high ground north of the village. An avenue of beech trees that was originally planted by George Jervoise in 1809 was partially cut down to make way for the north side of the airfield, and the road running east–west just north of the airfield is still called "Avenue Road". The Basingstoke–Alton road used to pass through Lasham village but as the land to the north was needed for the west end of the main runway, the road between the Avenue and Lasham village was diverted to the west on lower ground and now by-passes the village, passing between Lasham and Bentworth just west of the old railway station. This road was made of large concrete "sets" and was built by Italian prisoners of war who were housed in a camp at Thedden Grange southwest of

. The airfield is now a major centre for the sport of

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is ...

and is owned by Lasham Gliding Society, which bought the land from the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

. The airfield is also used by a company called ATC Lasham Ltd, which services airliners, mainly made by Boeing, in hangars on the south side of the main runway.

Highfield Site

This is a small group of business units on the road running north east from the church to Avenue Road, just outside the houses of the village proper.

Lasham parish

The church of St Mary, Lasham (CofE), was constructed in 1866 on the site of an older church, some of which went back to Saxon times. The current Lasham parish boundar

is Avenue Road to the north, the A339 to the west and south (except for a small extension west to Spain Lane towards

Burkham Burkham is a hamlet in the large civil parish of Bentworth in Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East ...

, and a line to the east between Lasham and Shalden. Previously, for some 200 years, Lasham was part of the Herriard Park estat

(which still exists today to the north of the parish). The villages of Herriard and Lasham used to have the same rector, the rectory being in Lasham. Today Lasham is part of a larger CofE benefice which includes the villages of

, Lasham, Medstead and Shalden, the Rector living in Medstead. Avenue Road. An avenue of beech trees was planted in 1809 by George Purefoy Jervoise MP, to commemorate the golden jubilee of King George III in 1810. The original avenue was one mile long but in 1942 when Lasham Airfield was constructed, some of the avenue was cut down. When the plans became known, Sir George Jeffreys MP wrote a letter of objection which was published in the London Times newspaper on 7 October 1941. The Jervoise family continue to own the land to the north of the airfield today.

Transport links

The village was formerly served by the Bentworth and Lasham railway station on the

Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway was opened in 1901, by the London and South Western Railway. It was the first English railway authorised under Light Railway legislation. It ran through unpromising, lightly populated terrain, and was prob ...

, until its closure to passenger traffic in 1932. Today, the A339 Alton-Basingstoke road runs to the west of the village and the B3349 Alton-Odiham road to the east. Avenue Road, mentioned above and running on the north side of Lasham Airfield, connects the A339 to the B3349 at the Golden Pot public house at the top of the hill between Alton and Odiham

Geography

Lasham and surrounding villages

References

External links

Hampshire County Council site for Lasham

Lasham

Listed Buildings in Lasham, Hampshire, England

Stained Glass Windows at St. Mary, Lasham, Hampshire
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire