Godshill is a village and civil parish and in New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England. It is about east of the town of Fordingbridge and south of the city of Salisbury.
Description Godshill is a small village, scattered on either side of the B3078 road east of Fordingbridge.Norman Henderson, (2007), A Walk Around the New Forest: In Thirty-Five Circular Walks, page 111. Frances Lincoln The village is generally 18th and 19th century in date, with a number of cob-and-thatched cottages intermixed with brick-with-slate-roof buildings.Godshill and surrounding agricultural encroachment into the forest , New Forest National Park The village pub is known as "The Fighting Cocks" because there was once a cockpit here. The village cricket pitch of Godshill Cricket Club is half a mile east of Godshill village, surrounded by the gorse and heather of the New Forest.Godshill Cricket Club Godshill is also the location of the Sandy Balls holiday park.
History People have lived in the Godshill area since prehistoric times. On Cockley Hill, east of Godshill, an earth pit, used for boiling water, has been discovered dating from the Bronze Age, around 3000 years ago.Beata Moore, (2007), Year in the Life of the New Forest, page 20 Half a mile west of the village is the Iron Age fort of Frankenbury Camp.Hampshire Treasures Volume 5 (New Forest) Page 133 , retrieved 4 July 2011 The east bank of the River Avon at Armsley, in the north-west of the parish, has yielded evidence of Iron Age and Roman era occupation. Four coins of the Durotriges tribe were found in 1959 together with a bronze fibula.H. De S. Shortt, A New Durotrigic Hoard from Godshill Hampshire, The British Numismatic Journal 1960-1961, Volume 30. Excavations have also found glazed pottery from the 1st or 2nd century AD, as well as evidence of metal-working.J. Musty, Roman glazed pottery from Armsley, Godshill, Hampshire, Antiq. Journal, 49 (1969), 128-30.
Godshill is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. One New Forest location listed as Godesmanescamp was erroneously identified by antiquarians as Godshill, and as a consequence, the name Godesmanescamp mistakenly appeared on some Ordnance Survey maps as an alternative name for Frankenbury Camp.John Morris, Julian Munby, (editors), (1982), Domesday Book, 4, Hampshire. Phillimore About one mile northwest of Godshill, (although within the parish of Woodgreen) is Castle Hill, which is said to be the only likely relic of a Norman fortification in the New Forest.Donn Small, Great Britain. Forestry Commission, John Chapman, (1987), Explore the New Forest: an official guide, page 50. H.M.S.O
In 1571 the so-called manor of Godshill was sold by Henry Earl of Arundel, John Lord Lumley and Joan his wife, eldest daughter of the earl, to a certain Reginald Howse.Victoria County History of Hampshire: Fordingbridge Some years later Robert Howse, who seems to have been a son of Reginald, sold it to William Dodington, from which date it descended with Breamore.
Historically, Godshill village was a tithing of Fordingbridge parish. The population of the village in the mid-19th century was around 100 people,James A. Sharp, (1852), A new gazetteer; or topographical dictionary of the British Islands and narrow seas, page 780William White, (1859), History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight although census counts in the 19th century are somewhat variable because Godshill Wood was often used as a Gypsy camp.David Mayall, 1988, Gypsy-travellers in nineteenth-century society page 29. Cambridge University Press It is related that Gypsy women used to go alone to a particular holly tree in a sheltered spot along Godshill Ridge to give birth.Wendy Boase, (1976), The folklore of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, page 123
In 1868 a new civil parish called Ashley Walk was created, which incorporated much of what is now the eastern half of the current parishes of Godshill and Hyde;Relationships / unit history of ASHLEY WALK , A Vision of Britain through Time, retrieved, 8 July 2011 the new parish did not include Godshill village, which remained part of Fordingbridge. The civil parish of Ashley Walk lasted until 1932.
To the west of the village is the estate known as Sandy Balls, which is now a holiday park owned by the Westlake family. Before World War II, Sandy Balls was the headquarters of the Scouting-like movement known as the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry.John Springhall, (1977), Youth, Empire, and Society: British Youth Movements, 1883-1940, page 112. Taylor & Francis
Notes
External links
Godshill Village and Parish Council Website