| Sherfield on Loddon | |
The village duck pond |
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Sherfield on Loddon
Sherfield on Loddon shown within Hampshire |
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| Population | 1,636 (Census, 2001) |
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| OS grid reference | SU582600 |
| District | Basingstoke and Deane |
| Shire county | Hampshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HOOK |
| Postcode district | RG27 |
| Dialling code | 01256 |
| Police | Hampshire |
| Fire | Hampshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Basingstoke |
| List of places: UK • England • Hampshire | |
Sherfield on Loddon is a village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. It is located at grid reference SU681581, approximately 12 miles (19 km) south of Reading and 6 miles (10 km) north of Basingstoke. At the 2001 census it had a population of 1,636.
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Sherfield on Loddon originally formed part of the Manor of Odiham.
In the 12th century the manor was granted by Henry II to William Fitz Aldelin, who is reputed to have built the original Manor House.
Sherfield was held in the reign of Edward I(1272-1307) by Thomas de Warblington, sheriff of Hampshire, in-chief from the king, by pimp tenure, that is to say by the service of being marshal of the king's meretrices (Latin for whores, sing. meretrix) and of dismembering malefactors and measuring the gallons and bushels in the royal household.[1]
The manor passed by marriage from the Warblingtons to the Puttenham family. The reputed 1589 author of The Arte of English Poesie, George Puttenham, grew up at Sherfield Court but, as an adult, disputed its ownership with his niece.
The Manor was eventually purchased by the Duke of Wellington in 1838.
The present village developed about one mile north of the Manor house and church from around the 14th century. By the start of the 20th century there were about 40 homes surround the main Green with more homes around the Manor and Church.
In 1917 Bramley Camp (Army Training Camp) opened to the South West of the Village creating employment opportunities for both Sherfield on Loddon and Bramley.
A bypass was built around the village in 1974, moving the main Reading to Basingstoke road to the east.
Property developers have argued that Sherfield on Loddon now includes the new housing development on the former Taylor's Farm located about 1.5 miles (2 km) south of the main village. One view is that the use of the Sherfield name is only for marketing reasons and in reality should be properly classified as part of the Chineham region of Basingstoke, being only 0.4 miles (0.6 km) north of Chineham, not part of Sherfield on Loddon. The area is being developed by Croudace Homes with the aim of creating housing for another 7,000 residents.
This issue is open to interpretation but a look at recent Google Earth maps will show that the site of the development above lies north of the other significant listed building, Sherfield Hall (formerly High Hall) and south of the sites of the church and the manor house. Churches were the centres of villages until the Black Death and other plagues, when people sought homes away from burial sites. In the 18th and 19th century then the areas in question would have formed the bulk of the 'village' as such and the marked boundary to Sherfield-on-Loddon actually lies further south still. Finally, whilst size is not necessarily important the addition of 7,000 residents to a village of less than 2,000 would suggest that the 'village' would be where the greater population concentration would.
As part of the development, subsidies are paid to the local bus company by the Local Authority to ensure a regular service to the development which has resulted in the service to the much more remote and rural villages such as Bramley being cut dramatically. They are effectively cut off from the bus service after 18:00 on weekdays meaning that some residents of Sherfield on Loddon cannot use public transport if working normal office hours anywhere other than Basingstoke itself (i.e. of no use to any commuters).
Sherfield on Loddon is home to audio manufacturer Sherfield Audio.
Sherfield is located ten miles south of the large town of Reading, and five miles north of Basingstoke. The village is on the A33 road, between Reading and Basingstoke.
| Stratfield Mortimer | Stratfield Saye | Turgis Green | ||
| Bramley Green | Hartley Wespall | |||
| Sherfield on Loddon | ||||
| Chineham | Old Basing | Newnham |
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sherfield_on_Loddon Sherfield on Loddon] at Wikimedia Commons