Ashurst, Hampshire: Gateway to the New Forest
Ashurst is a village in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England, situated on the A35 road at the eastern edge of the New Forest National Park, approximately 6 miles southwest of the city of Southampton. Together with the neighbouring hamlet of Colbury, it forms the civil parish of Ashurst and Colbury. The village is often regarded as an exurb of Southampton, as a large proportion of its residents commute to the city.
The parish is bounded to the west by the Bartley Water, to the north by the A326 and the town of Totton and Eling, and to the south by Denny Lodge parish within the New Forest proper. The village lies on the boundary of the designated New Forest National Park, giving it direct access to ancient woodland, heathland, and the open forest where native ponies roam freely.
Among Ashurst's most historically significant features are the earthwork remains of a 16th-century saltpetre house — a building used in the production of gunpowder — visible in the nearby Ashurst Wood area. Churchplace Inclosure, established in 1810, is a predominantly oak and beech plantation managed sustainably by the Forestry England.
Ashurst is perhaps best known for its remarkable connection to the RMS Titanic: Millvina Dean (1912–2009), the last surviving passenger of the Titanic disaster and its youngest passenger at the time of the sinking, was living in Ashurst at the time of her death on 31 May 2009, aged 97. Ashurst has its own railway station — Ashurst New Forest — on the South West Main Line between London Waterloo and Weymouth, operated by South Western Railway.
Points of interest: - Population: 2,093 inhabitants (2011 census, parish of Ashurst and Colbury). - Distance: 6 miles southwest of Southampton; 4 miles northeast of Lyndhurst (the "capital of the New Forest"). - Attractions: New Forest National Park (direct access), New Forest Wildlife Park (Longdown), Longdown Activity Farm, 16th-century saltpetre house earthworks, Ashurst New Forest railway station.