Kings Worthy, near Winchester, grew and grew because one man was short of money, writes Barry Shurlock

 

DEVELOPMENT in the present age is directed by government policies, planning decisions, corporate developers and local activists. It was not always like that, and a good example is the Springvale quarter of the village of Kings Worthy that, like a cuckoo in the nest, took off in the early years of the last century.

The trigger to all this was a bid by a 30-year-old Winchester auctioneer Frank Cundell Blake, who in 1903 put down £350 to buy Woodhams Farm. Most of this had once been Nashes Field, one of the common fields of Kings Worthy.  It had long been farmed by the Bailey family, but they were willing to dispose of it for £2,250, a sum of money that young Blake set out to acquire by selling building plots.

In reality, Woodhams Farm, which now hosts a day nursery and a livery and stud, was not a ‘des res’, being snapped up by an upwardly-mobile individual. The farmhouse lay alongside the Winchester Junction, where no less than three railway lines met. Ideal for a train-spotter, but hardly the place for a restful life in the countryside.

First came the Southwestern Railway between London and Southampton in 1840. Then in 1861 it was the turn of the Mid-Hants Railway– its route now hijacked by the Watercress Way. Finally in 1882 it was the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton (DNS) line that ran under St Giles’ Hill into Winchester Chesil Station, before continuing along what is now the Junction Way.

All this must have been a turn-off for those from the cities who often looked for a country estate to while away their last days with the local hunt, or casting a dry fly on the Itchen, or perhaps joining a shoot when woods and coverts were still alive with game.

But Blake wanted none of these. He was a hard-headed businessman who carved up his new-bought lands into large plots that were attractive to those from Winchester and elsewhere who craved the Good Life in the country, with a few chickens and a vegetable patch.

He had no need of ‘outline plans’, or ‘consultation’, or any of the apparatus of the modern planning world. Instead, he just drew lines on a map and called out for purchasers. He started with a field that old maps show as Little Docklands. It was north of the DNS railway arch, which now carries the A34. The plots fronted The Dean, named after the valley in which the development lies.

In 1933, the local parish clerk Basil Richardson decided to rename it Springvale Road, and so the name of the area was coined. It was an appropriate name, as one of its enduring problems were floods that came every winter. On some maps it was even called Water Lane!

Blake also laid down Avenue Road off Springvale Road, later renamed Springvale Avenue. Like most of his plans, it took no account of the norms for new byways – and even today it is more a cart-track than a road.

One of Blake’s large plots in the side road was bought by a local builder who was one-step ahead of the developer. He had the bright idea of splitting his plot into smaller ones fronting on Avenue Road. At this point, Blake eased off his development. After all, he had a farm to run and a family to care for, albeit with a live-in nanny, Miss Annie Brewer.

Methods of farming were still fairly primitive, with horse-drawn wagons and potatoes planted and harvested by hand. However, in 1919, when there was a huge demand for housing, backed by government grants, Blake restarted the development of Springvale.

Once again, he chanced on the sale of farmlands. In 1919 Hookpit Farm was put up for auction by Captain Charles Fryer, seated at Worthy Park House on the western edge of Martyr Worthy, now used by the prep school, Prince’s Mead. By chance, the sale took place on the very day that Fryer died, so he never saw the results of his decision.

By 1921 Blake had sold more than 40 plots at the north end of what was still called The Dean. The first resident was an Army officer, who soon moved on. Others took to a life in the country with enthusiasm, keeping a few chickens, and running a smallholding. It was, however, not for the faint-hearted. Itinerant sellers of paraffin and candles were greeted with enthusiasm and for many years all water came from a pump in the garden, where sewage also ended up.

Rubbish collection came in 1934, electricity a year later and in 1936 the Springvale Hotel, now the King Charles pub, was built on Lovedon Lane by Strong & Co of Romsey. The new development that Blake had started was really beginning to look like a new village – and today it has become the main part of Kings Worthy. The old part of the village no longer has any shops, though it is still animated by the Cart & Horses pub and a small industrial site.

The story of the development of Kings Worthy, which is mirrored in places like Ropley and Four Marks, comes from more than 40 years of research by members of the Worthys Local History Group. As well as featuring Kings Worthy, their collections of thousands of photographs and documents cover Headbourne Worthy, Abbots Worthy and Martyr Worthy.

A new book, The Four Worthys, contains nearly 400 pictures of the villages, with account of their histories. (I must declare an interest as co-author with book designer Tim Underwood). Blake himself unwittingly discovered an important part of the past when he stumbled upon the site of Roman villa on his land. And his two sons left a mark, when they put together a homebuilt plane and flew it over the Worthys (it still exists).

Billy Blake went on to serve as a Lt Cmdr at Worthy Down, where he piloted many aircraft and also trained new pilots, including the young actor Laurence Olivier, who lived with Vivien Leigh in School Lane, Headbourne Worthy.

The Four Worthys is a celebration of the four villages, which still rely on farming, but have hosted many other pursuits. These include in Kings Worthy the manufacture of the hydraulic ram by Vulcan Iron Works, the pioneering of steel-framed buildings by Conder International, and at Martyr Worthy, the work of Hillier Nurseries, Bridgets Experimental Farm and Edgar Corrie’s famous trout-breeding establishment.

Many extraordinary people have chosen to live in the Worthys – the artist-cleric Thomas Bacon, Jessie Carter founder of Poole Pottery, Lewis Palmer breeder of the ‘Headbourne Hybrid’ Agapanthus, politician Lord Eversley, terrorist-buster Cyril Holdaway, Tommy Rayson trainer of the 1946 Grand National winner Lovely Cottage, pioneer aviator Tommy Sopwith, tank inventor Walter Wilson, and many, many others, including BBC Chairman and much else, Sir Christopher Bland.

The Four Worthys is available from P & G Wells, Winchester, Springvale Pharmacy Kings Worthy, and wlhg.chair@gmail.com.