Alresford: 5 things you didn't know about the Hampshire town
A ten-year-old lottery winner, a T-shaped medieval town, a watercress railway nicknamed the Alps and two great fires.
New Alresford was planned by Bishop Henri de Blois and completed by Godfrey de Lucy, bishop from 1189 to 1204, so it is over 800 years old. The author Mary Russell Mitford was born there in 1787 and won a £20,000 lottery ticket at ten, and a fire in 1689 destroyed 117 houses.
Mary Russell Mitford, author of Our Village, was born in New Alresford on 16 December 1787, and in 1797, aged ten, she won a lottery ticket worth £20,000 for her father. That is Wikipedia's account. Sources differ on which lottery it was, and one says Irish, so we say only a lottery. Here are the Hampshire town's other stories.
A town built to a plan
Wikipedia and the Alresford website say New Alresford was planned by Bishop Henri de Blois and completed by Godfrey de Lucy, who was bishop from 1189 to 1204. The town is T-shaped, and the Great Weir dam made the pond. Because the dates fall around 1200, "over eight hundred years old" is a safe description whichever founding date you prefer.
Watercress
The chalk springs run at a constant temperature of 51 degrees Fahrenheit, which suits cress. The railway of 1865 carried it to London. We have not used a statistic about how much of the county's cress came from here, because the figure we saw dates from a 1976 local-history piece.
The Alps
The Watercress Line, the Mid Hants Railway, has steep gradients between Alresford and Alton, nicknamed "The Alps". Medstead and Four Marks is described as the highest station in Hampshire. Both claims rest on Wikipedia alone, so they are worth checking if you plan to repeat them.
The Mothers' Union
Mary Sumner founded the Mothers' Union in the parish of Old Alresford, where her husband was rector. Wikipedia says it has about four million members, though it gives no date for that. Even the founding year is unclear: Wikipedia says 1876, the Alresford site says 1875 and the memorial plaque in St Mary the Virgin church says 1873. We have not picked one.
Two great fires
The great fire of 1 May 1689 destroyed 117 houses, the church and the Market House, per the Alresford history page, while Wikipedia dates it "1689/90". A further major fire on 30 April 1736 began in a brewery on West Street.
How well sourced is all this?
Most of the above comes from Wikipedia, the Alresford community website and the Mid Hants Railway page. Where only one of them says something, such as the nickname of the Alps or the highest-station claim, we have said so. The Mitford lottery story is the most colourful, and the detail that sources disagree on which lottery it was is a reminder that famous anecdotes drift over time. The Mothers' Union dates show the same problem in miniature.
What we left out
The Royalists are said to have fired Alresford after the Battle of Cheriton on 29 March 1644. That belongs in another story, so we cover it separately.
Exploring
The town and the railway are well worth a day, though we have not checked opening dates or train timetables, so check the Watercress Line's own website before you go.
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