Plaitford () is a small 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 Melchet Park and Plaitford, 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 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. Its nearest town is

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 ...

, which lies approximately 4.9 miles (7.8 km) east from the village; the large village of West Wellow is immediately west of Plaitford. In 1931 the parish had a population of 195.

Etymology

The name ''Plaitford'' is first attested in the

Domesday Book 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, as ''Pleiteford''. It takes its name 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 ...

words * ("playing field") and ("ford"). Thus it once meant "ford beside the playing field". Nearby Melchet is one of the relatively few English place-names whose origin can be traced to

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 ...

. The name is first attested, partly in Latin, as the name of a forest, rather than a settlement, in the

of 1086, as ''Milchete silva'' and ''Milchet silva''; it is first attested in fully English form as ''Melchetwode'' in 1255. The name is first attested, transferred from the forest as a settlement-name, in 1231, as ''Milchet''; the modern spelling is first attested in 1275. The name contains that words that survive in modern Welsh as ("bare") and ("woodland"); thus it once meant "woodland on a bare

ill ILL, or Ill, or ill may refer to: Places * Ill (France), a river in Alsace, France, tributary of the Rhine * Ill (Vorarlberg), a river in Vorarlberg, Austria, tributary of the Rhine * Ill (Saarland), a river of Saarland, Germany, tributary o ...

History and geography

Plaitford manor was anciently within the county of

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

. By 1885 it had become a civil parish, which was transferred to Hampshire in 1895. On 1 April 1932, the parishes of Plaitford and Melchet Park (north of Plaitford and also formerly in Wiltshire) were amalgamated to form the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford. The original village of Plaitford lies to the north of the River Blackwater, a tributary 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 ...

, but the chief part of the population is now found further south near the

A36 road The A36 is a trunk road and primary route in southwest England that links the port city of Southampton to the city of Bath. At Bath, the A36 connects with the A4 to Bristol, thus providing a road link between the major ports of Southampton an ...

, which crosses the parish from east to west. Plaitford Green is a small district in the north of the parish. Plaitford Common, which occupies the southern portion of the parish, consists chiefly of rough grassland and is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

St Peter's Church

Part of the church material dates from the 13th century as do parts of the font. Most of the church dates from a restoration in 1856.

References

External links

Plaitford history
at plaitford.org Villages in Hampshire Former civil parishes in Hampshire Former civil parishes in Wiltshire Test Valley {{Hampshire-geo-stub