HAMPSHIRE

7 miles north-west of Havant

An air of discreet Georgian prosperity pervades Hambledon, recalling the era when it was dubbed, erroneously, ‘the birthplace of cricket’ Cricket was already long established by the 1760s when the Hambledon Club was formed by a group of wealthy landed gentry. The club’s period of cricketing glory was brief, ending in the 1790s, but in 1777 Hambledon defeated an All-England side at Sevenoaks in Kent by an innings and 168 runs.

Memories of this golden age are preserved in the Bat and Ball Inn - 17th century but much altered - which stands opposite Broadhalfpenny Down, the original cricket ground. The Hambledon Club once used the inn as a clubhouse.

The village, contained by low, wooded hills, trails along the floor of a shallow valley.

East and West Street form a single thoroughfare running as a backbone through the village, flanked by neat, painted cottages of predominantly 18th-century brick. The George Hotel in East Street, a coaching inn in the l8th4entury, has stable yards scarcely altered since that time.

Bronze and Iron Age remains around the village, and traces of a Romap villa in the grounds of Bury Lodge, south of the village, indicate early beginnings, but the 13th century saw the first flowering of prosperity for Hambledon. In 1256, the Bishop of Winchester - to whom the village belonged - was given the right to hold a weekly market there. High Street, where the market was held, is the original heart of the village. It runs northwards from the point at which East and West Street meet to the 13th-century flint-and-rubble Church of St Peter and St Paul. Some stonework shows signs of the church’s Saxon origins, and there is a 15th-century porch and an 18th-century west tower.

In 1612, a royal concession to hold two fairs a year gave a further boost to an already thriving community. At least 50 houses in Hambledon, though apparently Georgian, date from this period. A notable example is Tower House, in High Street, a timber-framed house disguised by an 18th-century ‘face-lift’ in brick. The village butcher is housed in a typical Tudor shop. Its shutters fold outwards, to form a counter protected by a small, tiled roof.

Manor Farm, in West Street, is a rare example of an early-l3th-century manor house, shaped like a church with nave and chancel, in flint and stone. A large north wing dates from the 16th century, with a Victorian west front.

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