place

Abbotts Ann Down

Hampshire geography stubsTest ValleyVillages in Hampshire
Abbotts Ann Down geograph.org.uk 471433
Abbotts Ann Down geograph.org.uk 471433

Abbotts Ann Down is a hamlet in Hampshire, England, within the civil parish of Abbotts Ann. The settlement lies on the A343 road and is approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of Andover.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Abbotts Ann Down (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Abbotts Ann Down
Salisbury Road, Test Valley

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Abbotts Ann DownContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.181602 ° E -1.527033 °
placeShow on map

Address

Salisbury Road

Salisbury Road
SP11 7BS Test Valley
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Abbotts Ann Down geograph.org.uk 471433
Abbotts Ann Down geograph.org.uk 471433
Share experience

Nearby Places

RAF Andover
RAF Andover

RAF Andover (IATA: ADV, ICAO: EGWA) is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station in England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Andover, Hampshire. As well as RFC and RAF units, units of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Army Air Forces, and the Air Transport Auxiliary were also stationed at the airfield. The airfield has a notable place in history as the site of the first attempt to develop a viable long-range electronic navigation system, during the First World War, and also of the first British military helicopter unit and first European helicopter flying training school, during the Second World War. RAF Andover was also used before and after the Second World War for a variety of other aeronautical research and flight testing. The RAF Staff College, Andover was founded here in 1922, the first college to train officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of running an air force. RAF Andover saw action during the Second World War. Corporal Josephine Robins, one of only six members of the WAAF to win the Military Medal during the War, won her award for courage while rescuing people during an air-raid on the airfield in the Battle of Britain. Three squadrons of the Royal Canadian Air Force were formed at RAF Andover. Before and during the Battle of Normandy, it was used by the United States Army Air Forces Ninth Air Force as an operational tactical fighter airfield. The RAF station closed in 1977 and the site was later redeveloped. In 2009 part of it became Marlborough Lines, home to the Headquarters of the British Army.

Anna Valley
Anna Valley

Anna Valley is part of the village and parish of Upper Clatford, Hampshire, United Kingdom. The settlement is effectively an outer suburb of Andover, and is located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west of the town centre. The name 'Anna' derives from the Celtic river 'Anne' meaning 'Ash tree stream' now known as Pillhill Brook on the Ordnance Survey Landranger map, though it is still known as the River Ann to older local people. Tasker Waterloo Ironworks (Taskers of Andover) opened here in 1815 and survived as a manufacturing industry until final closure in 1984. The site is now a modern housing development though there are still signs of Tasker's influence in the village in the form of workmen's houses, a line of terraced houses built for the workers and the former Tasker's hall which is now private housing. Originally much of the land occupied by the later foundry at the far end of the village was marsh land, known as Clatford Marsh. Robert Tasker noted the fact that the village had quarrying rights to chalk in the nearby hillside. By exploiting this right and quarrying an acre of chalk from the hillside it enabled the marshland to be filled with the quarried materials to act as foundations for the new Iron Foundry situated alongside the PillHill brook which would serve as a source of water power for the foundry. This chalk quarry is still very much in evidence (it is owned by the Parish Council) and can be seen from the road and a footpath that passes along the hillside behind the village leading to the Iron Age hillfort of Bury Hill. On 20 November 1830 a mob of rioters came from Andover town, they smashed a bridge in Upper Clatford that carried the road over the river Anton and proceeded to vandalise and damage fixtures and equipment at the foundry. A number of arrests were made by a detachment of local Yeomanry and the Duke of Wellington Sir Arthur Wellesley sat on the board of assizes held at Winchester jail when the ringleaders were sentenced to be hanged and a number to be transported to Australia for their crimes. In 1843 Tasker Ironworks installed a new cast iron bridge in Upper Clatford that exists today, carrying the road over the river Anton towards Church Lane. A later iron foot bridge was installed in Andover in 1851 to carry Ladies Walk over the new Micheldever Road that was cut through the chalk hillside. The village once had 2 public houses, one situated at the bottom of Sam Whites hill, on the road to Upper Clatford, the hill so being named for a former landlord of the pub. A second public house stood almost opposite Tasker Ironworks. On Wednesday July 13, 1910 the British Army airship Beta was flying over Andover when the crankshaft broke. The airship landed at Little Park Farm and was later towed by Royal Engineers to the chalk pit opposite the Taskers of Andover Waterloo Ironworks. A new engine was brought from Farnborough, Hampshire and repairs assisted by the Ironworks factory. Beta remained in the chalk pit all night and most of the following day. Crowds gathered to witness this novel sight. The village and post office shop was demolished in December 2013, having closed a few years earlier.