The Watership

Watership Down is a hill, or down, at Ecchinswell in the civil parish of Ecchinswell, Sydmonton and Bishops Green in the English county of Hampshire. It rises fairly steeply on its northern flank (the scarp side), but to the south the slope is much gentler (the dip side).

 

The Down is best known as the setting for Richard Adams' 1972 novel about rabbits, also called Watership Down. The area is popular with cyclists, walkers and rabbits. A bridleway runs along the ridge of the Down which lies at the south-eastern edge of the North Wessex Downs Area of Natural Beauty. Other nearby features include ancient tumuli and earthworks, including Beacon Hill.

 

Watership Down is accessible via the village of Kingsclere. There are no signposts nor guide boards on the Down itself, and there is no official guide or visitor information.

 

 

The River Test is a river in Hampshire, England. The river has a total length of 40 miles (64 km) and it flows through downland from its source near Ashe 10km to the west of Basingstoke (at grid reference SU532498) +51° 14' 35.26", -1° 13' 40.57" to the sea at the head of Southampton Water. In its upper reaches it is a chalk stream, known throughout the world for the excellent quality of its fly fishing for trout.

 

The river rises near the village of Ashe, and flows west through the villages of Overton, Laverstoke, and the town of Whitchurch, before joining with the Bourne Rivulet at Testbourne and turning into a more southerly direction. It then flows through the villages of Longparish and Middleton to Wherwell and Chilbolton, where the Rivers Dever and Anton contribute to the flow.

From Chilbolton the river flows through the villages of Leckford, Longstock, Stockbridge and Houghton to Mottisfont and Kimbridge, where the River Dun joins the flow. From here the village of Timsbury is passed, then through the grounds of Roke Manor before reaching the town of Romsey. On the western edge of Romsey, Sadler's Mill, an 18th Century watermill, sits astride the River Test.

 

South of Romsey, the river flows past the country house of Broadlands, past Nursling that was once the site of a Roman bridge, and between Totton and Redbridge. Here the river is joined by the River Blackwater and soon becomes tidal, widening out into a considerable estuary that is lined on its northern bank by the container terminals and quays of the Port of Southampton. Finally the Test estuary meets that of the River Itchen and the two continue to the sea as Southampton Water.

 

Between Chilbolton and Redbridge, the river was once paralleled by the abandoned Andover Canal. Much of the length of this canal was converted to a railway in 1865, and much of this railway has since also been abandoned. As a result, most traces of the canal have completely disappeared, although the remains of a stretch of the canal can still be seen between Timsbury and Romsey.

 

The river is managed by the Environment Agency, whilst the Port of Southampton is the navigation authority for the tidal section below Redbridge.

 

The River Test has given its name to the Test Valley District, a local government district in the area, and to Southampton Test, a UK Parliament constituency

The river plays a significant part in Richard Adams' novel Watership Down.

 

After Bigwig leads the breakout from Efrafa, the Watership rabbits are pursued by an Efrafan force led by their Chief, General Woundwort. Hazel carries out a plan devised by Blackberry which leads to their successful escape down the Test on a punt. In the text we are told that this plan would not have been possible on most rivers, but the Test's smooth-flowing, weed-free nature makes it an exception. Shortly afterwards, the punt becomes lodged on a low bridge, and the surviving rabbits are forced to swim under it to get out.

 

The Bourne Rivulet is a river in the English county of Hampshire. It is a tributary of the River Test.

 

The Bourne Rivulet (known simply as 'The Bourne' locally) is a seasonal chalk stream that rises and falls with the natural water table in the area. It usually rises in January and flows until around August each year. It normally runs from the village of Upton and flows through the villages of Hurstbourne Tarrant, St Mary Bourne and Hurstbourne Priors before joining with the River Test near Tufton.

 

Due to public water extraction above the headwater, the river flows increasingly intermittently above it. However Vitacress Salads Ltd's watercress plant, which is situated at the perennial headwaters, augments the flow and allows the Bourne to remain perennial downstream, the flow being maintained by its pumping of water back into the stream.

 

The Bourne was celebrated in a much loved book by Harry Plunket Greene, "Where the Bright Waters Meet", in which he described it as "unquestionably the finest trout stream in the south of England."

 

Fans of this book, which chronicles the author's fishing experiences on the Bourne between 1902 and 1912, still come from all over the world to fish here.

 

The river still produces some large wild brown trout. In the past there has been an unexplained subtle invertebrate imbalance . Since 2007, Vitacress Salads Ltd has taken measures which have reversed the imbalance , to the extent that restoration works downstream were recently winners in the Wild Trust Trust 2008 Awards.

 

 

 

 

Sandham Memorial Chapel is in the village of Burghclere, Hampshire, England. It is a Grade I listed 1920s decorated chapel, designed by Lionel Pearson as a memorial to the memory of Lieutenant Henry Willoughby Sandham, who had died at the end of World War I. It was commissioned by his sister and her husband, Mary and Louis Behrend. The chapel is surrounded by lawns and orchards, with views of Watership Down. It is now run by the National Trust and is open to the public.

 

The chapel is famous for its series of paintings by the English artist Stanley Spencer which were inspired by his experiences during World War I, during which he served as an orderly with the Royal Army Medical Corps, first at Beaufort Hospital in Bristol, and then in Macedonia, where he subsequently transferred to the infantry. He was influenced by Giotto’s Arena Chapel murals in Padua, Italy. Spencer had also wanted to paint murals, but the environmental conditions were not appropriate. The subsequent paintings were commissioned in 1923, with Spencer moving to Burghclere in 1926; they were completed in 1932, and are dominated by the Resurrection scene behind the altar, in which dozens of British soldiers lay the white wooden crosses that had marked their graves at the feet of a distant Christ. The series, which chronicles Spencer's everyday experiences of the war, rather than any scenes of action, is considered to be amongst his finest work. When the art historian R. H. Wilenski saw the recently completed sequence, he wrote of his sense "that every one of the thousand memories recorded had been driven into the artist's consciousness like a sharp-pointed nail

Whitchurch is a town in Hampshire, England. It is on the River Test, 13 miles (21 km) from Newbury, Berkshire, 12 miles (19 km) from Winchester, 7 miles (11 km) miles from Andover and 12 miles (19 km) miles from Basingstoke. Much of the town is a Conservation Area. Because of the amount of wildlife in and near the river, parts of the town are designated as Site of Special Scientific Interest.

 

The West of England Main Line links the town's railway station to London, and two main roads that by-pass the town (A34 – a major north-south route, and A303 – a major east west route).

 

The name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'white church', although there is evidence of occupation from the Iron Age[citation needed] archaeological excavations having uncovered Roman and Iron Age pottery, tools and skeletal remains. The earliest written record of Whitchurch dates from 909 AD in a charter by which King Edward the Elder confirmed the manor of Whitchurch to the monks of Winchester as England recovered from the Viking onslaught of the previous fifty years. It next appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. This records the name as 'Witcerce', occupying 6,100 acres (25 km2) in the 'Hundred of Evingar' and also records that Witcerce was 'owned' by the monks at WinchesterBy 1241, it was known as Witcherche and was becoming prosperous, holding a market on Mondays in the market place. This was a vital feature of medieval society, and produce such as butter, eggs, fruit and livestock were brought in for sale from the outlying farms and villages.

 

Witcherche received a royal charter in 1285, having become a borough in 1284. The land ownership had by now passed to a form of tenure known as a burgage. As a borough, it was governed by a Court Leet. Meetings were held in the village hall each year, in October, to elect a mayor and burgesses. Witcherche's prosperity was again on the rise due to its widespread sheep farming, the wool being a valuable commodity at the time.

 

The River Test provided the power for at least four watermills, located every half mile along the river through the town. The Town Mill was the source of power for milling corn, and other mills were used for finishing wool, weaving silk and dressing cloth. Only Whitchurch Silk Mill survives, the others having been converted into residential dwellings. The Silk Mill is still operating as a working mill and popular visitor attraction.

 

When Henry VIII died in 1547 his nine year old son, Edward VI, inherited the throne. Under Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Edward Seymour the Lord Protector, England became more Protestant, and the people of Whitchurch were persecuted for their religious beliefs for six years until the death of Edward and the succession of Mary.

 

Also during the 16th century, under the reign of Elizabeth the town had become large and prosperous enough to send its first two members to Parliament in 1586. Until 1832, it was known as a Rotten Borough, as the members were nominated by an absent landlord.

 

The town hall was built during the reign of Queen Anne. In 1712, Henri de Portal, a Huguenot refugee from France, established a paper mill at Bere Mill in Whitchurch, producing exceptionally hard and close-textured paper. The quality of the paper was considered so high that within twelve years, Portal was supplying the Bank of England, a tradition that still continues. de Portal eventually naturalised to English nationality, and established a second mill at Laverstoke; in more recent times the business moved to neighbouring Overton, where it is still based today. He died in 1747, and is buried at All Hallows, Whitchurch

Also in 1888, Charles Denning and Clara Thomas married in Lincoln. They set up home in Whitchurch, where Clara's father had purchased two houses for them in Newbury Street. Here Charles established a drapery business. It was also here that one of their children, Alfred Thompson or "Tom", grew up. He later became one of the most renowned judges in English legal history - Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls. The house in Newbury Street is today marked with a commemorative plaque. Before returning to the Court of Appeal as Master of the Rolls, Denning, for a time, was a member of the judicial committee of the House of Lords, taking the title Baron Denning of Whitchurch.

 

Towards the end of the 19th century, the Salvation Army and its open-air services were the dominant talking point. They maintained that they had a right to hold these services but were prosecuted for obstructing the highways and causing a disturbance. The conviction in 1889 of one group, and their subsequent treatment by the authorities, led to demonstrations. In October 1889, 5000 Salvationists and 12 Salvation Army bands demonstrated in the Town Square at Whitchurch. They were charged with riot, unlawful assembly and rout, and the Salvationists applied for the case to be heard in the High Court of Justice. In July 1890 the court found in their favor and set down laws granting the public the right to hold orderly public demonstrations, which were the rules followed until the beginning of the 21st century, when the government overturned them