Odiham

Odiham is a large historic village and civil parish in the Hart district of Hampshire, England. It is twinned with Sourdeval in the Manche Department of France. The 2011 population was 4,406. The parish in 1851 had an area of 7,354 acres with 50 acres covered by water. The nearest railway station is at Hook, on the South West main line. The village had its own hundred, named The Hundred of Odiham. The village is situated slightly south of the M3 motorway and approximately midway between the north Hampshire towns of Fleet and Basingstoke, some 37 miles (59.5 km) north-northeast of Southampton and 43 miles (69 km) southwest of London.

RAF Odiham, home of the Royal Air Force's Chinook heavy lift helicopter fleet, lies to the south of the village.

History
The first written record of Odiham's existence is in the Domesday Book (1086), where it appears with its current spelling, although the spellings Odiam and Wudiham have sometimes been used since.

Odiham Castle
King John decided in 1204 to build Odiham Castle and it was built during the years 1207 to 1214 at a cost of over £1000. He already had some ninety strongholds all over the country, and he may have chosen Odiham because it is halfway between Windsor and Winchester. In 1216 the French Dauphin Louis VIII besieged King John in the castle for two weeks.

King Henry III, son of King John, gave the castle to his sister Eleanor in 1236, so when she married Simon de Montfort in 1238 the castle became the de Montfort family home. However, Simon was killed in the Battle of Evesham in 1265 when he led the rebellious barons to fight against the king; Eleanor was sent into exile.

During the fourteenth century the castle played a role in several significant events, including a sitting of Parliament, and the imprisonment of King David II of Scotland in the castle for eleven years. during the reign of Edward III of England. However, by the fifteenth century its only use was as a hunting lodge. Odiham Park was a park which contained a hunting lodge owned by Henry VIII of England. On 4 August 1531, he stayed there with Anne Boleyn, who would later become his second wife.

The castle was described in 1605 as a ruin, which it remains to this day.

Odiham Pest House
The Pest house was built c. 1622 and subsequently housed local people and travellers suffering from the plague, smallpox and other infectious diseases. Many such "isolation hospitals" were built in that period but the Odiham Pest House is one of only five examples surviving. It was restored by the Odiham Society in 1981 to form a mini Heritage Centre.

William Lily
Thomas Cox wrote in 1738:


 * This Place is famous for giving Birth to Mr. William Lily, who wrote the Grammar; which, with some Alterations, is commanded by Act of Parliament in King Henry VIII's Reign, to be taught in all Schools. He died master of St. Paul's School, London, Anno 1522.

Victoria Cross
Two people with links to Odiham won the Victoria Cross in the First World War, and have streets in the village named after them:

Reverend William Addison (VC) was educated at Robert May's School;

Brigadier Manley James (VC) was born and spent his childhood in the village.

Odiham Agricultural Society
On 16 May 1783, a group drawn from 'Gentlemen of Rank, fortune and Ingenuity' plus some 'intelligent farmers' met in The George Inn, Odiham to inaugurate the Odiham Agricultural Society as a 'society for the encouraging of Agricultural and Industry in their village and neighbourhood'. Influenced by key members like Thomas Burgess and Granville Penn, the Society also resolved to reform farriery and animal care by establishing a school to teach veterinary science in England. This was to result in a far-reaching outcome: the foundation of the Royal Veterinary Society and the birth of the veterinary profession in Britain.

Education

 * Robert May's School was founded in 1694.

In 2020, Hampshire County Council announced plans to close Odiham library.