Plaitford Explained

Plaitford is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford, in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Romsey, 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.^[1]

Etymology

The name Plaitford is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Pleiteford. It takes its name from the Old English words *English, Old (ca.450-1100);: pleget ("playing field") and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: ford ("ford"). Thus it once meant "ford beside the playing field".^[2]

Nearby Melchet is one of the relatively few English place-names whose origin can be traced to Common Brittonic. The name is first attested, partly in Latin, as the name of a forest, rather than a settlement, in the Domesday Book 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 Welsh: moel ("bare") and Welsh: coed ("woodland"); thus it once meant "woodland on a bare [hill]".^{[3] [4]}

History and geography

Plaitford manor was anciently within the county of Wiltshire. By 1885 it had become a civil parish,^[5] 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.^[6]

The original village of Plaitford lies to the north of the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Test, but the chief part of the population is now found further south near the A36 road, which crosses the parish from east to west. Plaitford Green is a small district in the north of the parish.^[7] Plaitford Common, which occupies the southern portion of the parish, consists chiefly of rough grassland and is owned by the National Trust.^[8]

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.^[9]

External links

• Plaitford history at plaitford.org

Notes and References

1. Web site: Population statistics Plaitford Ch/CP through time. A Vision of Britain through Time. 20 May 2023.
2. Book: The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society . Cambridge University Press . 2004 . 9780521168557 . Watts . Victor . Cambridge., s.v. Plaitford.
3. Book: The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society . Cambridge University Press . 2004 . 9780521168557 . Watts . Victor . Cambridge., s.v. Melchet Court.
4. Book: Coates, Richard . Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in Britain . Breeze . Andrew . Tyas . 2000 . 1900289415 . Stamford. .
5. Web site: Plaitford Ch/CP through time. 2020-11-22. A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth.
6. Web site: Melchet Park and Plaitford CP through time. 2020-11-22. A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth.
7. Web site: 1911. Page. William. A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4 pp542-543 – Parishes: Plaitford. 2020-11-22. British History Online. University of London.
8. Web site: Plaitford Common. 2020-11-22. Woodland Trust. en-GB.
9. Book: O’Brien . Charles. Bailey . Bruce. Pevsner . Nikolaus . Lloyd . David W. . 2018 . The Buildings of England Hampshire: South . Yale University Press . 423–424. 9780300225037.