This is a single blog post which I will be editing for the foreseeable time. I have organised it over the 70 or so Civil Parishes that cover my grid (see below). It is centred around New Alresford, Hampshire.
See my projects page for more details.
You can search for grid references and also for place names.
Please don't assume my notes in this blog are necessarily 100% accurate - this is not my intention. Instead I plan to develop the material, editing and re-editing as I proceed, which will be greatly enhanced if I receive feedback and ideas from anyone discovering my project. So if you wish to contribute you can contact me via this website or the associated Instagram account @EveryOsSquare. (Apologies as I can't make this clickable - Instagram require me to have a business account).
I volunteer as a tower guide at Winchester Cathedral so there are likely to be several references in the historical links back to the cathedral. The Bishops of Winchester, from early medieval times, had significant control over much of southern England which means the local history, until Tudor times, frequently has links to Winchester.
Key:
HER: Historic Environment Record.
At Hantsweb (https://maps.hants.gov.uk/historicenvironment/) you can find a tool to search HCC's historical records.
A quick example to explain how my grid references work.
Winchester Cathedral is located, using a 4 digit OS reference, at SU4829. On my grid it will fall around 13M. I say "around" as I won't be trying to replicate the accuracy of the Ordnance Survey maps. If I need precision to locate something specific I will mention this in the notes.
West Meon
28I, 29J
Leaving the village, walking north, I tried to find evidence of the Roman excavation which began in the 1980s, sadly the path was gated. I've identified several locations nearby which I will return to over the next few weeks, one is the grave of the spy, Guy Burgess. I could have taken a snapshot of the family burial site, but as this is primarily a photo project, I shall return with a different idea as to how I might better record the monument. Why his remains were returned from Russia and permitted to be interred with his father does seem perverse, at least at a superficial level, seeing how he betrayed the country and likely compromised many field agents. Compassion? Legal?
Here are two photos from this trip:
