The Titchfield Estates
On Saturday 30 July 2005 George Watts led this
field excursion as a planned follow-up to his lecture on the Titchfield
Estates delivered at the 2004 Landscape Section's Conference. Having been
introduced to the policies, activities and fortunes of several landowners
in the lecture, now was our opportunity to see their impact on the present
landscape.
The earliest of the landowners was the Abbey, founded in 1232, which
between then and its dissolution in 1537 acquired many estates. At the
dissolution the Abbey and all its estates were granted to Thomas Wriothesley
who in 1547 became the 1st Earl of Southampton. The early 19th century saw
the arrival in Titchfield parish of the 'nouveau riche' in the person of the wealthy
William Hornby, former Governor of Bombay, who bought a large block of land
overlooking the Solent. The last landlords to arrive on the Titchfield scene were
the strawberry growers, who in the 1860s, having been allocated plots of the
newly enclosed common, quickly and profitably discovered that their modest
plots of stony soil grew excellent strawberries. However, most are now flanked
by modern housing built on the former strawberry plots, which is an illustration
of the modern economic truth that a crop of bricks is more profitable than even
the most sought after soft fruits.
A full account of the visit, written by Landscape Section Committee member George
Campbell, was published in the Spring 2006 Newsletter, which is available to all HFC
members.
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