Chris Korte's New Zealand Genealogy Project
Woodgreen, Hampshire, England
About page
This page has information about the village of Woodgreen in Hampshire, England. Emily Mist (1868-1954) was born in Woodgreen where her father was an agricultural labourer. Emily migrated to New Zealand in 1877 with her parents.
If you can provide additional information, or corrections, please contact (see Info menu).
Woodgreen
Woodgreen is a village and civil parish within the New Forest district of Hampshire in England. The village is in the valley of the Hampshire Avon and is located due south of the city of Salisbury. Its nearest town is Fordingbridge, lying 3 miles south and west. The village of Breamore is to its west, across the River Avon.
Woodgreen lies between the River Avon and a hill on the edge of the central plateau of the New Forest. It is a typical Forest village, with brick and thatch cottages surrounded by thick hedges to keep out the cattle and Forest ponies which graze on the surrounding unfenced greens. Footpaths which were once cattle-tracks lead to the Forest tableland and to Woodgreen Common. Footpaths from the common lead down through the woods to the Drove, a broad, three-quarters-of-a-mile-long avenue of magnificent oaks. They are called the Napoleonic Oaks, and were planted nearly 200 years ago to provide the Royal Navy with timber for its men-of-war.
The village has a pub, church, church hall and a community shop. Two thirds of the parish is an area of woodland, heathland, acid grassland, scrub and valley bog, supporting a richness and diversity of wildlife. There are lots of forest ponies on the Common and they wander the village.
19th Century Woodgreen
Woodgreen was part of the Fordingbridge District in the 19th Century. The following is extracted from the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72):
FORDINGBRIDGE, a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred in Hants. ...... The district forms only one sub-district, or is not divided; and it contains the parishes of Fordingbridge, Rockbourn, Breamore, Hale, North Charford, and South Charford, and the extra-parochial tracts of Woodgreen and Ashley-Walk electorally in Hants, and the parishes of Martin, Whitsbury, and South Damerham, and the extra-parochial tract of Toyd-Farm-with-Allenford electorally in Wilts.
Woodgreen is described briefly in the The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) as follows:
WOODGREEN, an extra parochial place in the upper division of Fordingbridge hundred, county Hants, 3 miles N.E. of Fordingbridge, on the river Avon.
1861 Census - Woodgreen parish (47 acres) had a population of 345.
1871 Census - Woodgreen civil parish had 80 households with 336 people. The occupation of men were Agricultural labourer 69, Farmer 1, Shepherd 1, Carpenter 8, Bricklayers and their labourers 7, Stone mason 1, Boot and shoe maker 3, Labourers 4, Waterman 3, Gardener 2, Sawyer 2, Blacksmith 1, Tailor 1, Innkeeper 1. The census indicates that farming was main economic activity in Woodgreen parish during the mid-ninteenth century. Agricultural labourers ranged in age from teenagers to elderly men.
 |  |
| St Boniface Church, Woodgreen and Village Hall | Horses on Woodgreen Common beside the village |
 |  |
| Horse and Groom Pub, Woodgreen | River Avon near Fordingbridge |
Page last updated on 29 July 2018.
