Broughton: A Hampshire Village on the Wallop Brook
Broughton is a village and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, positioned midway between the medieval cities of Salisbury and Winchester, and between the market towns of Andover and Romsey. The Wallop Brook flows through the village, joining the River Test to the east.
There is evidence of settlement in the area since Anglo-Saxon times, when the population lived in scattered homesteads and sought refuge at the nearby prehistoric hill fort of Danebury Hill. The Manor of Broughton is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, at which time it was owned by the Crown. The village also stands on the line of the Roman road from Winchester to Salisbury, near the site believed by some historians to correspond to the Roman station "Brigis". The Church of St Mary the Virgin, whose architectural features date to the 11th century, has served the parish for nearly a millennium; a dovecote in the churchyard was built in 1684, on the site of an earlier one from 1340. In 1635 the village's Baptist Chapel was founded — an unusually early date for a nonconformist congregation in England.
The population of Broughton has remained remarkably stable at around 1,000 for the past 900 years, despite the upheavals of the World Wars and changing patterns of employment. In 1990 the village was twinned with Sauve, a medieval village near Nîmes in southern France. The Broughton Community Archive, housed in the village hall, holds a remarkable collection of photographs and documents assembled over 65 years by local doctor Robert Parr.
Points of interest: - Population: Approx. 1,000 inhabitants (2011 census). - Distance: Approx. 10 miles north of Romsey; midway between Salisbury and Winchester. - Attractions: Church of St Mary the Virgin (11th century), Danebury Iron Age hill fort (nearby), Test Valley walking routes.