All that remains of Hartley Mauditt near Alton, is the church of St Leonard's, which now stands isolated beside the old village pond. The church was built in the early 12th century by William de Mauditt, who also built the manor house. After the de Mauditts, the manor passed through several families and by the end of the 18th century its owner preferred to live elsewhere and demolished the manor house. With the loss of employment the village was eventually abandoned and has now completely disappeared.

Situated a few miles east of Southampton, Botley in its heyday was the centre of Hampshire's strawberry industry. Strawberry growing started in the Botley area in the mid nineteenth century, and was to became the largest strawberry growing area in Europe. Nowadays with competition from abroad there is little left of the industry. Probably the most famous resident was the writer-farmer William Cobbett who farmed at Botley from 1805 to 1817 and described the village in his book Rural Rides as "Botley is the most delightful village in the world, it has everything in a village that I love, and none of the things I hate".

Up up and away. A peaceful way to view the countryside, high above the middle balloon a buzzard circles.

Probably our best known orchid the beautiful Bee-Orchid.

A pair of Green-veined White butterflies mating.

The Market Place in the centre of Whitchurch - The first mention of Whitchurch was in a charter in the 1st century, and again in the Domesday Survey of 1086 which stated the Bishop of Winchester as holding Whitchurch. Borough status was confirmed in 1285 and Whitchurch was governed by a Court Leet which met every October. In the early 18th century refugee Henri de Portal arrived in Whitchurch bringing with him the skills of paper-making. de Portal opened his first mill at Bere Mill on the River Test east of the town, the fast flowing chalk water was perfect for the manufacture of quality paper, and so started 300 years of paper making. Today at nearby Laverstoke they still produce the famous paper for the world's banknotes.

Whitchurch Silk Mill was built on the River Test in about 1800 and was originally a fulling mill. Fulling is a process which beats and cleans the cloth in water, the process shrank the loose fibres of the cloth making it a denser fabric. Better quality cloth was usually fulled, dyed, brushed to raise the pile, and then trimmed of loose threads to produce a surface of high quality. In the 1830s due to a change of ownership they started weaving silk which has continued to the present day. The River Test runs either side of the back lawn - The undershot waterwheel was installed in 1890 and restored in the late 1980's, and still continues to operate today. After passing through the hands of several owners by 1985 the business was losing money and the mill faced with closure. Thanks to the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust the building and its contents was saved. After carrying out extensive repairs in 1990 the mill was leased to the Whitchurch Silk Mill Trust, a charity dedicated to preserving the mill, its contents and the art of making silk.

Silk Looms.

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        All Photographs copyright David Packman © 2002 - 2009 (All Rights Reserved)