Chidden is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. It is in the parish of Hambledon north of Hambledon village, and is a former

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

of the parish. Its nearest town is

Waterlooville Waterlooville is a town in the Borough of Havant in Hampshire, England, approximately north northeast of Portsmouth. It is the largest town in the borough. The town had a population of 64,350 in the 2011 Census. It is surrounded by Purbrook, ...

, approximately 4.5 miles away. Its nearest railway station was formerly

Droxford Droxford ( Drokensford) is a village in Hampshire, England. Geography The village is clustered with slight ribbon development along its main, north–south, undulating road. It is entirely on the lower half of the western slopes of the Meon ...

, on the Meon Valley Railway.

Etymology

The origin of the name ''Chidden'' is not clear. The name is first attested in a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

of 956 (attested in a twelfth-century copy) in the form ''æt cittandene''. The last element of this name is the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word ("valley"), but the origin of the first is less obvious. It looks at first sight like a personal name, *''Citta'', in which case ''Cittandenu'' meant "Citta's valley". However, the same charter and others indicate that the inhabitants of the area were called ''cittanware'' and ''citware''. Again, the second element of this word is obviously an

word, this time ("inhabitants"), and the name suggests that ''cittan'' was an independent place-name in its own right. Thus ''Cittandenu'' meant "the valley at Cittan" and ''Cittanware'' meant "the inhabitants of Cittan". Although the name ''Cittan'' has not been satisfactorily explained, several scholars have taken it to begin with the

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic (; ; ), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, is a Celtic language historically spoken in Britain and Brittany from which evolved the later and modern Brittonic languages. It is a form of Insular Cel ...

word that survives in Modern Welsh as .

References

Hamlets in Hampshire {{Hampshire-geo-stub