Bramshott
The entrance to Bramshott
Bramshott is the meeting place of Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire. It was originally the main settlement surrounding the Parish Church of St. Mary’s but has been outgrown by nearby Liphook which, due to the coaching trade and the advent of the railway, became the parish centre.
The origins of the parish go back many years, including evidence that the Romans worked iron here. Records show the first recorded Rector in 1225. The church is early 13th century. The Parish evolved from the medieval manors of Brembreste (Bramshott today), Lidessete (Ludshott), Ciltelelei (Chiltlee), the Royal Forest of Woolmer, and fragments of two other manors.
The manor house has remained largely unaltered since the fifteenth century and parts may be even earlier. It is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited house in Hampshire and was taken over by the War Office in 1917.
St. Mary’s Church holds the graves of 318 Canadian soldiers stationed at nearby Bramshott Camp during the First World War, including many victims of the influenza outbreak of 1918.
Bramshott is also rumoured to be haunted, with 16 regular ghosts including a long-dead cat and a pig. Boris Karloff lived in Bramshott until his death, and it is said that his ghost also walks the lanes.
The parish has associations with Sydney and Beatrice Webb, founders of the British intellectual socialist movement the Fabian Society – whose members included Virginia Woolf, HG Wells, and Tony Blair. The Webbs built Passfield Corners, which was left on their deaths to the London School of Economics – which they also founded with Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw.
Bramshott and Liphook Parish Council website (opens in a new window)
