Buriton () is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

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 seat ...

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 England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is located 2 miles (3.3 km) south of Petersfield.

History

About a mile north-west of Buriton was the extensive manor of West Mapledurham, formerly the property of the Bilson and Legge families, and later the Gibbons and Bonham-Carters.

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is ...

, author of the classic ''

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to th ...

'', among other works, lived at Buriton Manor for much of the second half of the eighteenth century. John Goodyer, the seventeenth-century botanist, was buried at St Mary's and is commemorated with a

stained glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

there. The local landowners until recent times, the Bonham-Carters, owned land surrounding Buriton and neighbouring villages where they often reared game for local shoots. The Legge family were gamekeepers for the Bonham-Carters for many years. Other forms of employment in the past have been in the local

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime ( calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can ta ...

s which closed in 1920. Hop-picking was another form of employment in the past. Today, Buriton remains a pleasant and quiet village with a very strong sense of its own identity. Employment needs are met outside the village. Notable in St Mary's church are the medieval

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the d ...

, the Norman arches, and

pillars A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

bearing carvings of water lilies, foliage and

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related familie ...

s. There is a Norman

font In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "Sort (typesetting), sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of ...

in the church. On the low side of the window in the south wall of the chancel is a medieval mural painting of the

Virgin and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent ...

(13th century).

Geography

Buriton lies at the foot of the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the ea ...

escarpment, just east of the

A3 road The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classi ...

. One kilometre to the south rises the tree-covered hill of Head Down (205 m), one of the highest points of the

and flanked on either side by two other high points, War Down (244 m) and Oakham Hill (202 m). The nearest railway station is 2 miles (3.3 km) north of the village, at Petersfield. The village has two tennis courts, two pubs - ''The Five Bells'' and ''The Nest Hotel & Restaurant'', a village hall, a large village

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or Artificiality, artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% Aquatic plant, emergent vegetation helps in disting ...

with ducks and fish, a car park and the Church of St. Mary. There is no shop in the village. The village has its own school, "Buriton Primary School", with about 80 pupils from the village and nearby. The main roads of Buriton are called High Street and Petersfield Road. It is a rural, peaceful place, with the possible exception of the main railway line, the

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

line ( Portsmouth Direct Line). The railway tunnel which carries the line under the

is visible from the recreation ground. There was a pedestrian crossing over the railway at this point which the trains used to 'hoot' for as a warning to those crossing the line, the crossing is now closed after a public enquiry (Dec 2016). There remains the path under the railway bridge from South Lane, which is one of two crossings from the centre of the village. The path leads to the walks around the disused chalk pits and is part of the Shipwrights Way long distance path. Although for centuries the village was deemed of more importance than neighbouring Petersfield, Buriton never obtained its own railway station (aside from

Woodcroft Halt Woodcroft Halt railway station was a former railway halt located in the parish of Buriton between Rowlands Castle and Petersfield on the Portsmouth Direct Line. History During World War II, in 1940, the Admiralty requisitioned Ditcham Park, ...

, built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

for naval personnel), because the gradient in the area was deemed too steep to allow a station to be constructed.Buriton Heritage Bank, ''Buriton In Living Memory''; Godfrey Croughton, et al., ''Private and Untimetabled Railway Stations'' (Salisbury: Oakwood Press, 1982), p. 142. It formerly marked the Western end of the

South Downs Way The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern England. It is one of 16 National Trails in England and Wales. The trail runs for from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Su ...

, which has now been extended to Winchester but several paths still join the village to the Way, and it retains its popularity with walkers. The Sussex Border Path also passes through South Harting which is close by. Buriton also lies adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park and since 2011 it has been within the

South Downs National Park The South Downs National Park is England's newest national park, designated on 31 March 2010. The park, covering an area of in southern England, stretches for from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Ham ...

Notable people

* William Lowth

References

External links

W. H. Hudson literary walk'Parishes: Buriton', A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3 (1908), pp. 85–93.Buriton Heritage Bank
community local history project {{authority control Villages in Hampshire