(^48) Hampshire Life: February 2019
I
’m not a great lover of the word
‘timeless’. It suggests that a
scene is static, unchanging,
when, in reality, this is rarely
true. As an historian, I love old
buildings, but I recognise that
they change with time, as the
communities they serve also
change. The structure may look
much the same from the outside,
but its use may have altered, and
not always that subtly.
I ventured to Alresford, a place
that illustrates my point perfectly,
as there is both Old and New
Alresford. There’s less than a
mile between them and filling
the gap is ‘Alresford Pond’, what’s
left of the rather impressive pond
of Bishop Godfrey de Lucy (d.
1204), which was constructed in
the 12th century, to act as both a
fish pond and water source for the
local mills on the River Itchen.
The pond was created by building
a causeway, and was, reputedly,
a grand place for eels (never my
favourite), around its margins,
in the 18th century. There’s still
an Eel House along a riverside
walk. There are also extensive
watercress beds here, but more
about those later.
‘New Alresford’ is the
market town end of this linear
settlement, which, prior to the
Norman Conquest, belonged to
the Bishops of Winchester (hence
de Lucy). Winchester is today
regarded as the onetime ‘premier
league’ city of the West Saxon
kingdom of Wessex, so had a lot
of clout in these parts. Alresford,
meanwhile, would make its
medieval fortune on the wool
trade.
Now, New Alresford lives
up to its name, to an extent. A
series of fires blazed their way
through here in the 17th and
18th centuries, which means
that there are few really ‘old’
houses, with new development
necessarily coming along in
the wake of the conflagrations.
Alresford had at least three
major fires between 1689 and
Then & Now
Achieving the best of both past and present, STEVE
ROBERTS is struck by Alresford’s not so timeless charm