Ampfield, about eight miles north of Southampton, derives its name from the spring that still rises within the church’s grounds. ‘An-felde’ was the village’s earliest name, ‘an’ being a Celtic word for a spring.

On the site of Gosport Farm stood a pilgrims’ inn called ‘God’s Port’, drawing its business from the old Saxon road running between Romsey and Winchester, and drawing its water from the ancient spring at Washers Well. The route of the main road has changed, however, and now the busy A31 carries its traffic well away from the site of the old inn.

The Rev W. Awdry, author of the Thomas the Tank Engine books, lived as a small boy in Ampfield, where his father was vicar of St Mark’s. His earliest recollection is of going down Pound Lane, climbing up the embankment, and strolling along the old London & South-West Railway line.

The two World Wars did not pass Ampfield by. During the First World War a ‘holding camp’ was established here for horses on their way to France, but one day 20 of them vanished into the bogs off Pound Lane when a noisy train caused them to bolt into the undergrowth. The same area was used as a decoy aerodrome during the Second World War, complete with lights and what looked like a control tower. The Old Thatches public house became a First Aid post and the White Horse a mortuary (though it was never used).

Until the 1930s Ampfield was a village predominantly feudal in character, dominated by the Ampfield House and estate, which comprised some 1,600 acres. In 1902 the Faber family took possession of the house and all the surrounding farms, and David Faber’s death in 1931 led to the final break-up of the estate the following year. Today Hilliers, nurserymen, owns the house and some of its land.

The village information above is taken from the The Hampshire Village Book, written by members of Hampshire Federation of Women’s Institutes and published by Countryside Books.