Chilbolton Places

Testcombe, Coley Lane, Chilbolton

Testcombe stands on land granted by Athelstan (895-940) King of the Mercians, to the Abbey of Winchester. The first recorded event is 1776, when John Baverstock acquired the copyhold. Edward Silva, a Portugese wine merchant, bought the house in 1884. The present house, an Arts and Crafts building of Early Tudor style with brick and ½-timber, was built in 1893 after a devastating fire. The architect was William Caroe (1857-1938) who at the same time designed Room Cottages for estate workers. When Edward Silva died in 1899, ownership passed to wife Marion (1845-1925) and then daughter Marion Grace (1876-1963) who in 1897 had married MP Coningsby Ralph Disraeli (1867-1936) the nephew of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Down End, Chilbolton

Down End is an imposing Edwardian house in an elevated position on the corner of Drove Road and Coley Lane. The lawns are terraced, a relic of the days when hop fields extended from Down End up the Drove. Each summer, gypsies came as hop pickers, making their encampment at Captain’s Close, at the top of Joys Lane. Down End was built in 1907 for C. W. Sabine, on a plot of land sold by Mr C J Brake of Poplar House for £373, part of a Grand Sale in 1905 of 272 plots in total. Charles Wheatstone Sabine (1876 – 1943) was born in London, schooled in Hastings and married Amy Dove Johnson. They had two sons, Charles Wheatstone Sabine (1901 – 1985) RN Commander, OBE and John Sydenham Sabine RAF Wing Commander, DFC, killed in action in 1943.

Stocks Green, Chilbolton

Chilbolton has four village greens; Stocks, Grindstone (adjacent the telephone box), Old Pond (midway between Cart Lane and the Abbots Mitre) and Coronation Tree (Coley Lane). Stocks (or 3 Ways) Green is the triangle where three roads meet outside the Church and where the village stocks stood from 1405-1837. Here, also, grew the traditional look-out tree from where observers could see down the valley. An Elm was planted on 3rd November, 1824, to celebrate the 21st birthday of Richard, son of Rev. Durnford, later to become Bishop of Chichester. The present tree (Prunus Sargentii) was planted circa 1995.

Chilbolton Post Office and Shop

Chilbolton is on the list of Hampshire Post Offices that were open in 1845. Since then, Mr. Henry Child (1855) was wheelwright, carpenter, Postmaster and Shopkeeper; William John Olliff (1875) was carpenter Postmaster and Grocer; Mr. Frederick Annell (1899) was Postmaster and shopkeeper; Mr. George Stanley (1907) was Postmaster and shopkeeper; Mr. William Rose (1911); Mr Robert Hunt (1919); Bruce & Molly Hunt (1942). The village’s first telephone exchange (numbers 1 to 20) was in the sitting room with batteries kept in the wood shed. There were nineteen subscribers because nobody would accept ‘13′. The automatic exchange was opened in 1929.