Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for RINGWOOD

RINGWOOD, a small town, a parish, a district, a hundred, and a division, in Hants. The town stands on the river Avon, and on the Southwestern railway, at thejunction of the railway to Christchurch, on the verge of the New Forest, 21 miles by road, but 24½ by railway, W by S of Southampton; claims, without any good evidence, to have been the Roman Regnum; was known to the Saxons as Renoved and Regnewood; appears to have acquired someconsequence before the Norman conquest; was long famous, in modern times, for good ale and for a particular sort of woollen gloves; has still two breweries, some hosierymanufacture, and steam and water biscuit manufactories; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place; consists chiefly of four streets, diverging from a market-place; and has a head post-office, ‡ a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a new town hall, a police station, three bridges over three branches of the Avon, a public library with reading-rooms, a church, three dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £33 a year, alms-houses, a workhouse, and charities £33. The church was early English; has beenalmost entirely rebuilt; and has several memorial windows. The Independent chapel was built in 1866, at a cost of more than £2,000; is in the early English style; and has two spired turrets in front 65 feet high. A weekly general market is held on Wednesday; a cattle market, on every alternate Wednesday; and fairs, on 10, July and 11 Dec. The parish comprises thetythings of Ringwood-Town, Ashley, Bistern and Crow Burley, Kingston, Avon, Wattenford, Moortown, Poulner, Hop-Garden, and part of Blashford; and includes570 acres in the Burley-walk, and 25 in the Holmesley-walk, of the New Forest. Total acres, 8,050. Real property, £10, 797; of which £45 are in fisheries, and £55 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 3, 928; in 1861, 3, 751. Houses, 784. The manor belongs to, J. Morant, Esq. The manor House, Bistune House, and St. Ive's are chief residences. The living is a vicarage, united with the p.curacy of Harbridge and the chapelry of Bistern, in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £960.* Patron, King's College, Cambridge. The p. curacy of Burley is a separate benefice. Lord Chief Justice Mansfield was a native. The district contains also the parishes of Harbridge, Ibsley, and Ellingham, the ville of Burley, 3, 255 acres of Holmesley-walk, 6, 450 of Broomy-walk, and 7, 170 of Burley-walk, including Burley ville, in New Forest. Total acres, 33, 300. Poor-rates in 1863, £2, 816. Pop.in 1851, 5, 675; in 1861, 5, 357. Houses, 1, 131. Marriages in 1863, 34; births, 166, of which 19 were illegitimate; deaths, 75, of which 20 were at ages under5 years, and 3 at ages above 85. Marriages in the tenyears 1851-60, 318; births, 1, 637; deaths, 1,011. The places of worship, in 1851, were 6 of the Church of England, with 2, 668 sittings; 5 of Independents, with 670s.; 1 of Baptists, with 130 s.; 3 of Wesleyans, with 305s.; and 1 of Unitarians, with 400 s. The schools were 12public day schools, with 619 scholars; 17 private day schools, with 301 s.; and 16 Sunday schools, with 807s. The hundred contains the parishes of Ringwood and Harbridge, the ville of Burley, and the extra-parochial tracts of Foulford and Shobley. Acres, 22, 557. Pop.in 1851, 4, 847. Houses, 972. The division contains also Fordingbridge hundred, Christchurch lower-half hundred, Christchurch town, and Breamore and Westover liberties. Acres, 90, 581. Pop. in 1851, 19, 619; in 1861, 29, 911. Houses, 4, 302.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a district, ahundred, and a division"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Ringwood CP/AP       Ringwood Hundred       Ringwood RegD/PLU       Hampshire AncC
Place names: REGNEWOOD     |     RENOVED     |     RINGWOOD
Place: Ringwood

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