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Odiham history

Odiham history

Spend a weekend in Odiham and you'll notice that almost every lane has a story. The trouble is that the stories get passed around, and some of them get better (and less true) with each telling. So this is our attempt at a proper history of the village, written in plain English but checked against the best sources we could find: the Victoria County History, Historic England's listings, the Odiham Society, Hart District Council's conservation area appraisal and the archaeologists who dug the castle in the 1980s. Every page lists its sources at the bottom, and where the sources disagree we say so.

High Street, Odiham
Photo: “High Street, Odiham” by Andrew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons, colour and exposure lightly adjusted.

The short version

People were here long before there was a village. Flint tools, a Bronze Age spearhead and a big Roman house at Lodge Farm, near North Warnborough, all turn up in the record. By 1066 Odiham was a royal estate held by Harold, and in Domesday Book it's the very first entry for Hampshire.

King John built a castle in a bend of the River Whitewater between 1207 and about 1214, and stayed there often. He was at Odiham days before Magna Carta in June 1215. A year later a French army besieged the castle and its garrison of 13 men held out for about two weeks. In the 1350s it held a king of Scotland, David II, as a prisoner.

Later, Tudor and Stuart monarchs used a mansion called Odiham Place on the north side of the High Street. Elizabeth I stayed there more than once. The parish built a little brick house for the poor in about 1622 that later became the Pest House, and in 1783 a group of gentlemen and farmers meeting at the George started a society that helped create Britain's first veterinary college.

French officers lived here on parole during the Napoleonic wars and put on plays for the locals. The Basingstoke Canal arrived in the 1790s, went broke, and is now a lovely, quiet place for a walk. And since 1937 there's been an RAF station on the hill to the south, which is why you'll hear Chinooks overhead.

Explore the history

A quick timeline

WhenWhat happenedHow sure are we?
Palaeolithic to Iron AgeMammoth tusk at Lodge Farm, Mesolithic flints, Bronze Age urns and metalwork, a Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age enclosure south of the villageGood: museum and HER records
4th century ADRoman courtyard house and baths at Lodge Farm, North WarnboroughGood: excavated 1929 to 1930
1066Odiham held by Earl HaroldGood: Domesday
1086First entry for Hampshire in Domesday Book, 248 households, 8 millsGood
1116Henry I at "Wudiham" (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)Good
1130First mention of Hugh the Parker, keeper of the deer parkGood
1207 to 1214King John builds Odiham CastleGood
June 1215John at Odiham on 4 and 9 June, before Magna CartaGood. The idea that he rode to Runnymede from here on 10 June is a tradition
July 1216French siege; garrison of 13 surrenders after about two weeksGood
1303A parliament meets at OdihamGood
1355 to 1357David II of Scotland held at the castleGood (dates from the castle excavation report)
c.1530Odiham Place built north of the High StreetGood
1560 to 1591Elizabeth I stays at Odiham Place on several visitsGood for 1591; the total number is less certain
1622Parish poor house built; later the Pest HouseGood
1623Sir Edward More's almshouses foundedGood
1644Civil War trouble: a raid on the church and a skirmish at WarnboroughFair to good
1694Robert May leaves money for a free schoolGood
1743The Bridewell (house of correction) builtGood
1783Odiham Agricultural Society meets at the GeorgeVery good: minute book survives
1794Basingstoke Canal and Greywell Tunnel openGood (some sources give other years)
1806 to 1812French officers on parole in OdihamGood
1909 to 1910Cottage hospital builtGood
1932Roof collapse in Greywell TunnelGood
1937RAF Odiham formally opensVery good
1980 to 1981Chinooks arrive: No. 240 OCU in December 1980, then No. 18 Squadron in August 1981Very good
2025RAF Odiham given the Freedom of the ParishVery good

Visiting

Most of what's on these pages you can see on foot in a day. Our Odiham heritage trail covers the Bury, the church, the Pest House and the High Street in about an hour, and the walk to King John's Castle takes you out along the canal to the castle ruins. For food, pubs and practical bits, see our Odiham guide, and for more routes there's the full list of walks around Odiham.

If you'd like to stay right in the village while you explore, check dates for Laurel Cottage.

Walk to the places

Tap a button for walking directions in Google Maps from wherever you are. Most of the village sites are within a few minutes of each other; the castle and Greywell Tunnel are a longer stroll along the canal towpath.

Sources