Overview of Vernham Dean

[Location] [The Village]

There are many beautiful pictures on this page. The time for them to load is well worth waiting for.

Where, until recently, we were located

Kept for a while as a reminder of this beautiful location. Vernham Dean is a pretty village set amongst the North Wessex Downs in the north west part of the county of Hampshire in southern England. The North Wessex Downs are classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and are part of a range of rolling chalk hills stretching in an arc across Southern England. Wessex is the ancient kingdom ruled by King Alfred the Great in the period following the Roman occupation when the country was under attack from the Vikings. Hampshire is a county of history and many contrasts. About 70 km square in shape and size, the north west corner and middle areas are rural down land. In the centre is located the small county town of Winchester, the ancient capital of England. In the south west corner is the famous New Forest, the ancient hunting grounds of past kings and now a major leisure area. In the north east corner are many rapidly expanding towns benefiting from their proximity to Heathrow Airport and the hi-tech Thames Valley area. In the south and the south east corner are the major ports of Southampton (commercial) and Portsmouth (naval) with an expanding suburban linear city between them.

Hampshire shown in yellow, the North Wessex Downs in blue, Vernham Dean in red and London in black.

Vernham Dean is set within a steep valley and the photo left shows the view to the west of the village. We are looking from Conholt Hill towards Haydown Hill which is 254m above sea level. At the top of the hill is an ancient iron-age fort with its earth ramparts just visible (click on any image to see an enlarged view). So steep is the valley that even the Roman engineers were defeated. Their normal practice was constructing straight roads, some of them 100's km long, but here the road from Winchester to Cirencester makes a long curved detour.

Actually, this view looks west into Wiltshire the neighbouring county. The meagre and well draining soil in these parts has traditionally supported sheep rearing, but the European agricultural subsidies have encouraged farmers to grow cereals and oil seed rape crops. As you can see the area is sparsely populated, yet by train we just 90 minutes from central London. To the south west is the high plateau of Salisbury Plain and the famous Stonehenge.

To the north of the village the hills rise again and then descends by a steep escarpment to the flat plains of the Kennet and Avon rivers in the county of Berkshire. This area, to the west of London, is the UK home of many high-tech companies. They include Vodaphone, Microsoft, Nortel, Sybase and  Oracle. To the south is the Test Valley, named after the river that is famous for its trout and where a day's fishing can cost a £1,000 ($1,600).

A view further to the west of the village near to Upton.

Many pleasant walks can be had and they often take one through leafy lanes with hazel trees. These were traditionally grown as coppice to provide fencing material. The art of weaving the long branches into panelled fences has been revived in recent years, as too has the art of building both chalk and brick and flint walls and laying hedgerows.

The Village

The name Vernham Dean is a corruption of Fernham meaning a hamlet (or village) set amongst the ferns which still grow in abundance at the road side. Dean means a wooded valley.

Vernham Dean can trace its origins back over 1,000 years but most of the older houses date from the 1600s onwards. One thatched cottage, called Deers' Leap, is reputed to have been a field hospital in the Civil War during that period. On the outskirts of the village is the Burydene, a grass field full of undulations. Some think this is where the original village was situated and possibly abandoned during the Plague, whilst others believe the village was originally scattered farmsteads that gradually consolidated into the present location. The parish church was rebuilt in the 1800s. It still has an original Norman doorway (1100s) but it is uncertain if this is an original of the church or comes from St. Mary's in Andover that was also demolished in Victorian times  (blown up by dynamite! - these Victorians have a lot to answer for). There is also Vernham  Manor dating from Jacobean times (1600s). In the 1970s the Mid Hampshire Structural Plan designated Vernham Dean as an expansion village and about 60 modern house were built around the edges. More recently the village centre has been designated as a Conservation Area.

Above is a typical thatched cottage built of  brick and flint, the latter being abundant in the chalky soil. The white house was once one of the 3 village pubs.

The photo above shows the former village pond. On the left is another thatched cottage but this time built with chalk walls which was then a cheaper form of construction. Today these properties sell for £0.5m or more. On the right is another brick and flint cottage, this time with a with a slate roof.

The remaining village pub was once thatched and the shed to the right
once kept the village bus. There was even at one time a plan to build a railway through the village.
Other village facilities include a new sports pavillion, playing fields, a new village hall, a gospel hall, post office and a very
successful primary school. Need-less-to say, with all these amenities there are many thriving village activities
and many people, especially families, are eager to move to the village.

See the Hampshire County Council site for a list of historic buildings and features.

We are now based in Trowbridge.

Contact

Please click here for our contact page or here for our feedback page.

[Company Overview and Specialisation] [Business Background] [Business Philosophy and Approach] [Meeting Client Expectations]
[Business Support] [Alliances and Associates] [Professional Associations and Networks] [Selection of Current and Recent Activities] [Selected Assignment Highlights] [Approach to Pricing] [Legal and Formal Information] [Request Brochures, Profiles etc.]
[Contact] [Feedback]

[SIM Overview] [One to One Marketing] [Mass Customisation] [Interactive Mediums] [STEP Analysis]
 [SIM Executive Summary] [SIM Report] [SIM Project] [SIM Framework] [SIM Methodology] [SIM Illustrations] [SIM Links]

[Key Information & Resources] [Guest Contributions] [List of Support Topics] [What's On]

[Contact] [Company] [Disclaimer] [Privacy] [Legal] [Copyright Fair Use] [Feedback] [Publications]
[Publicity] [Why Ads?] [What's New] [What's Coming] [Technical Info]
 [Home]   [Site Search Form]   [For a Full list of Contents see the Site Map]