Michelmersh is a village and former

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Michelmersh and Timsbury, in the

Test Valley Test Valley is a local government district with borough status in Hampshire, England, named after the valley of the River Test. The council is based in the borough's largest town of Andover. The borough also contains the town of Romsey and nume ...

district, in the county of

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 3 miles () north of

Romsey Romsey ( ) is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is situated northwest of Southampton, southwest of Winchester and southeast of Salisbury. It sits on the outskirts of the New Forest, just over northeast of ...

. The

Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West S ...

long-distance footpath crosses the parish, passing through the churchyard of the 12th century St Mary's Church. The Georgian former rectory, Michelmersh Court, is Grade II* listed and was for many years the home of Sir David and Lady Carina Frost. The parish is located to the east of the

River Test The River Test is a chalk stream in Hampshire in the south of England. It rises at Ashe near Basingstoke and flows southwards for to Southampton Water. Settlements on the Test include the towns of Stockbridge and Romsey. The river's vall ...

on the northern edge of the

Hampshire Basin The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Palaeogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex. Like the London Basin to the northeast, it is filled with sands and clays of Paleocene and ...

, with

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. Ch ...

in the north.British Geological Survey, 2002, ''England & Wales Sheet 299: Winchester'', 1:50,000 Geology Series, Keyworth, Nottingham:British Geological Survey, To the south and east of the village this is overlain by

Palaeocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''palai ...

sands and clays of the

Lambeth Group The Lambeth Group is a stratigraphic group, a set of geological rock strata in the London and Hampshire basins of southern England. It comprises a complex of vertically and laterally varying gravels, sands, silts and clays deposited between 56 ...

. At the southern are younger deposits of

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

age, sloping from a ridge of the Nursling sands into a valley of

London Clay The London Clay Formation is a Sediment#Shores and shallow seas, marine formation (geology), geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 54-50 million years ago) age which outcrop, crops out in the southeast of England. The London C ...

. It has a brick and tile works, and extensive former sand pits on Casbrook Common, now used as a

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

site. The name Michelmersh is derived from 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 ...

''micel'' + ''mersc'', meaning ' large marsh'.

Civil parish

On 1 April 1932 the parish of Timsbury was merged with Michelmersh, on 19 November 2003 the merged parish was renamed "Michelmersh & Timsbury". In 1931 the parish of Michelmersh (prior to the merge) had a population of 1101.

Church

Parts of the church date to the 12th century with extensions added in the 13th century. It was twice restored in the 19th century once 1846-7 and the second time 1888–9. The font dates from around the 14th century although it appears to have been modified at some point after 1822. The Church’s chancel contains the effigy of a knight dating from the 14th century. There is no name upon the effigy but the coat of arms is consistent with that of Roger Woodlock, a nephew of

Henry Woodlock Henry Woodlock was a Bishop of Winchester. He is sometimes referred to as Henry de Merewell, from the place of his birth, a manor near Winchester belonging to the bishop. Before his election as bishop, he had been Prior of the Priory of St. ...

, who held land in the area during the relevant time period.

In popular culture

Michelmersh is known for being one of the main locations for the filming of the 1980s British TV series ''

Worzel Gummidge Worzel Gummidge is a scarecrow in British children's fiction, who originally appeared in a series of books by the English novelist Barbara Euphan Todd.

''. Other locations include nearby villages of Stockbridge,

King's Somborne King's Somborne is a village in Hampshire, England. The village lies on the edge of the valley of the River Test. Location King's Somborne is a large parish covers , of which are covered by water. Most of the ground is low-lying, with a high p ...

and Braishfield.

Notable people with a connection to Michelmersh

* Mary Watson, one of the first two women to study chemistry at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

External links

DetailsMichelmersh and Timsbury parish

Gallery

File:Church Road Michelmersh.jpg, Church Road, Michelmersh File:Michelmersh brickworks.jpg, Michelmersh

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a clay pit, quar ...

File:Casbrook Common1.jpg, Casbrook Common

References

{{authority control Villages in Hampshire Former civil parishes in Hampshire Test Valley