Preserving the past and heritage of this wonderful village at the heart of the New Forest
Village Tales
By-Gone Brockenhurst is a series of books about village history and tales, published to raise funds for the village churches. The author is John Purkess, who has lived his life in the village, and David Bennett contributes material and edits the publications. These stories are taken from those books. If they interest you, you can find out how to obtain the books below.
The name of Brockenhurst
The history of Brockenhurst can be traced back to before Norman times, when there were four manors in the village. The name of the village has caused much discussion over the years. In the Domesday Book, 1086, it is referred to as ‘Broceste’. That was the name of the largest of the four manors which covered the area now occupied by the modern village, and included St Nicholas church.
In the Hampshire Advertiser, 7 December 1929, Mr A. Oscroft wrote about some Hampshire village names. “In Anglo Saxon ‘Broca’ or ‘Brocan’ was a brook, ‘hurst’ was a wood. ‘Brocanhyrst’ would be Brook Wood. The ‘k’ in the modern and some early forms is redundant, the ‘c’ answers to the sound in Anglo Saxon, we could therefore write ‘Brocenhurst’ with the assurance that the ‘k’ would never be missed etymologically”. In 1666 the name of the village was spelt as ‘Brokenhurste’ in records of the time.
There is an alternative and popular theory. The name "Brockenhurst" is thought by some to come from the old English words "broc" (badger) and "hurst" (wooded hill). However there is no formal historical evidence for this.
Railway tickets issued in 1847 were from Brokenhurst because the land had been purchased from the Brokenhurst estate. The Morant Estate office (which owned most of the village in the 19th century) always used this spelling resulting in the Brokenhurst Golf Club (retained today); the Brokenhurst Gas Co; Brokenhurst Market Co; and Brokenhurst Concrete Block Co. Until the mid 1930's, a sign post at Wilverley, at the cross of the Lymington-Ringwood road, directed people to ‘Brokenhurst’.
A search made by Mr. F.J. Baigely, a Winchester antiquarian, in 1909, revealed that the village name was also spelled with a ‘c’ until 1771. Indeed some maps later, spelt the name as ’Brockenhurst’.
The name at the station was originally Brokenhurst in 1846 but was changed to Brockenhurst later. A railway employee was blamed for putting the ‘c’ into the name when ordering new signs for the station. The date of this is uncertain, but it likely to have been in 1888 when the new line to Bournemouth was open and the station was 'spruced up'.
In November 1907 and again in July 1908 the spelling of the village name was discussed by the Parish Council. It considered whether it should be officially named Brokenhurste as it was in 1666. The chairman suggested that a public meeting be called to settle the question whilst (the then) Mr. Purkess was in favour of a petition to request the council to revert to BROKENHURST. It still ended up as Brockenhurst with noted exceptions such as the Golf Club.
The Annual Flower Show
Until 1939 the annual Brockenhurst Horticultural Society’s show was one of the main events in the village summer calendar, held on a Wednesday in July in a field by the North Lodge, Mill Lane.
Along with the marquees displaying the entries of vegetables, flowers and fruits and other competitions there was always a fun-fair with roundabouts, swinging boats, bumper cars and all the other side shows forming a great attraction.
Local school children gave displays of Maypole and Morris Dancing and took part in sports. Dancing followed in the evening to music by Brockenhurst and other local bands.
At the 1929 show there were two large displays of flowers outside the competitive sections. A fine group of hot-house plants from Mr. Morant’s greenhouses produced by Mr. Walker and another display was from Miss Lovell’s Hincheslea estate produced by Mr. Hancock. Mr. W. Porter, gardener to Mr. Montague-Ellis at Culverley House, produced a novelty entitled the ‘Worcester Berry’ a cross between a gooseberry and a blackberry. While it sounds delicious, unfortunately the Worcester Berry didn't survive into general use or cultivation.
Produce competitions were organised for growers in the community with Division A open to all, except nurserymen and florists, and was well supported by owners of large houses encouraging their gardeners to out shine their neighbours.
Division B was open to amateurs and single-handed gardeners within 5 miles of Brockenhurst and Division C was for Cottagers.
To encourage their employees, the Southern Railway gave a cup to the staff member with the finest range of vegetables, who lived within seven miles of Brockenhurst.
Children were encouraged with classes for collections of wild flowers, grasses, paintings and needlework. Cottagers’ wives entered classes for fruit & plain cakes, sponges, jams, bottled fruit and boiled potatoes.
The 1933 show was the first to record 1,000 entries.
As wasps caused havoc in bee-hives their eradication was of benefit of the apiculturist. To encourage this Richard Purkess gave prizes to children for the largest number of queen wasps collected in the previous three months. In 1914 three winners produced 888, 733 and 255 queen wasps respectively. 1934 was a record 2,437 collected but winning collections did not exceed the total of 1914. Prizes for this competition continued until 1970s.
‘The Weirs’ or ‘Wires’ or ‘Wyres’?
On the Isle of Wight there are ‘Cowes’ that cannot be milked and ‘Needles’ that cannot be threaded and in Brockenhurst we have ‘the Weirs’, residential tracks and roads where the river water flows anything but smoothly, if at all.
The name has always caused much speculation as to where it came from.
In Comyn’s 1817 notes he refers to the area as ‘The Wires’. Was it an area where a fence divided the forest from the land of the Manor of Mapleham, an area near Latchmoor with an unknown site of a manor house?
The late Margaret Plumbly, noted that; ‘in her younger days it was referred to as ‘Wyres’’. Historians say it comes from the ‘Wer’ (German; Wehr) being a shelter or defence or a refuge for outlaw squatters.
The New Century dictionary mentions its meaning as ‘dikes’ and ‘ditches abound’. This seems possible. Some inhabitants say that ‘weird’ was pronounced ‘Wires’ and became corrupted to Weirs.
A 1789 map of Brockenhurst surveyed by Thomas Richardson, William King and Abraham and William Driver for the King, notes the stream flowing through the centre of the village as ‘The Ware’. This name also appears on ‘Drivers’ 1810 map of the village.
The name ‘Weirs’ referring to a road or property first appears on the 6” scale O.S. map of 1870, but only notes what is now known as South Weirs, with no name given to North Weirs. However, ‘The Weir’ is a name given to the stream through the village on the same map.
By-Gone Brockenhurst in several volumes is available to buy in the village from Pot Pouri, and Cards and Candy. Each book is 24 pages, well illustrated, and costs £5.00. If you wouild like to obtain the book (or books) by post please email the Church office, by clicking the button below.
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