Chilcomb is a small village 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 English county 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 ...

east of Winchester and includes 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 ...

long-distance footpath.

History

The nearby bowl barrow on Telegraph Hill along the South Downs Way just east of the village centre shows prehistoric settlement. The village has a small Norman 1120-40 church which has a

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bur ...

with views over Winchester. Church services take place at 0930 on the second Sunday of each Month and there is an annual church féte. The

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

s are few but include The

Manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

House and the

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

cottage. The church has three wall monuments to Edward Hooker, Henry Crosswell and Dorethea Goodman.At nearby Chilcomb Down a prehistoric field system is visible from the air

Geography and economy

The village itself is nestled in a bowl south of the River Itchen surrounded by

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Cha ...

downs. The north of the parish is crossed by the A31 between Winchester and Alresford. The M3 motorway runs close to the west of the parish.

Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...

is approximately 12 miles away. The village is based around a

no through road No (and variant writings) may refer to one of these articles: English language * ''Yes'' and ''no'' (responses) * A determiner in noun phrases Alphanumeric symbols * No (kana), a letter/syllable in Japanese script * No symbol, displayed � ...

which ends at the top of the hill. The INTECH science centre is located on the northern edge of the parish.

Geology

Chilcomb lies within the heart of the Winchester anticline, an up-fold in the rocks with older beds exposed in the centre. This is surrounded by outcrops of successively younger beds forming an enclosing ring of steep hills broken only by the Itchen Valley. In the centre a valley running east–west from Chilcomb to

Bar End Bar End is an area of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It lies on the east bank of the River Itchen to the north of St. Catherine's Hill and is the location of a park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, ...

lies on the Zig Zag Chalk formation, grey chalk of Cenomanian age. This is surrounded successively by narrow, elliptical belts of the much harder Holywell Nodular Chalk, the New Pit Chalk (forming St. Catherine's Hill) and the Lewes Nodular Chalk, forming the peaks of Twyford Down and Deacon hill to the south, Winchester's West Hill and Sleepers Hill to the west,

Magdalen Hill Down Magdalen Hill Down is a chalk downland hill, situated to the east of the centre of the city of Winchester in the English county of Hampshire. It is crossed by the B3404 road, the old main road from Winchester to London via New Alresford and Guild ...

to the north and Telegraph Hill to the east. Beyond lies a further ring of the Seaford Chalk.British Geological Survey (2002), ''Winchester. England and Wales Sheet 299. Solid and Drift Geology'', 1:50,000 Series geological map, Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey,

Chilcomb range

Chilcomb range is a

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 ...

range to the south of the village. The range has 12 lanes and firing points from 50m to 500m. Targets are both manual and automatic with the ETR coffins in front of the mantlet. The range is used by

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

and

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

units for personal weapon training in daylight and at night.

References

External links