{{Short description|Village and parish in Hampshire, England}} {{Use British English|date=November 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox UK place | country = England | official_name = Plaitford | coordinates = {{coord|50.973|-1.604|type:city(500)_region:GB|display=inline,title}} | static_image_name = St Peter's Church, Plaitford - geograph.org.uk - 738697.jpg | static_image_caption = St Peter's Church | population = 352 | shire_district = Test Valley | shire_county = Hampshire | region = South East England | constituency_westminster = Romsey and Southampton North | post_town = ROMSEY | postcode_district = SO51 6 | postcode_area = SO | dial_code = | os_grid_reference = SU2785519329 | civil_parish = Melchet Park and Plaitford }} '''Plaitford''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|l|æ|t|f|ə|d}}) is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford, in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Romsey, which lies approximately 4.9 miles (7.8 km) east from the village; the large village of West Wellow is immediately west of Plaitford. In 1931 the parish had a population of 195.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10410939/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Plaitford Ch/CP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=20 May 2023}}</ref>
==Etymology== The name ''Plaitford'' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, as ''Pleiteford''. It takes its name from the Old English words *{{lang|ang|pleget}} ("playing field") and {{lang|ang|ford}} ("ford"). Thus it once meant "ford beside the playing field".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780521168557 |editor-last=Watts |editor-first=Victor |location=Cambridge}}, s.v. ''Plaitford''.</ref>
Nearby Melchet is one of the relatively few English place-names whose origin can be traced to Common Brittonic. The name is first attested, partly in Latin, as the name of a forest, rather than a settlement, in the Domesday Book of 1086, as ''Milchete silva'' and ''Milchet silva''; it is first attested in fully English form as ''Melchetwode'' in 1255. The name is first attested, transferred from the forest as a settlement-name, in 1231, as ''Milchet''; the modern spelling is first attested in 1275. The name contains that words that survive in modern Welsh as {{lang|cy|moel}} ("bare") and {{lang|cy|coed}} ("woodland"); thus it once meant "woodland on a bare [hill]".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780521168557 |editor-last=Watts |editor-first=Victor |location=Cambridge}}, s.v. ''Melchet Court''.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Coates |first=Richard |title=Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in Britain |last2=Breeze |first2=Andrew |publisher=Tyas |year=2000 |isbn=1900289415 |location=Stamford}}.</ref>{{rp|302}}
==History and geography== Plaitford manor was anciently within the county of Wiltshire. By 1885 it had become a civil parish,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Plaitford Ch/CP through time|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10410939|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-22|website=A Vision of Britain through Time|publisher=University of Portsmouth}}</ref> which was transferred to Hampshire in 1895.<ref name=":0" /> On 1 April 1932, the parishes of Plaitford and Melchet Park (north of Plaitford and also formerly in Wiltshire) were amalgamated to form the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Melchet Park and Plaitford CP through time|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10093831|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-22|website=A Vision of Britain through Time|publisher=University of Portsmouth}}</ref>
The original village of Plaitford lies to the north of the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Test, but the chief part of the population is now found further south near the A36 road, which crosses the parish from east to west. Plaitford Green is a small district in the north of the parish.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=1911|editor-last=Page|editor-first=William|title=A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4 pp542-543 – Parishes: Plaitford|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol4/pp542-543|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-22|website=British History Online|publisher=University of London}}</ref> Plaitford Common, which occupies the southern portion of the parish, consists chiefly of rough grassland and is owned by the National Trust.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Plaitford Common|url=https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/woods/plaitford-common/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-22|website=Woodland Trust|language=en-GB}}</ref>
==St Peter's Church==
Part of the church material dates from the 13th century as do parts of the font.<ref name=Bailey423 /> Most of the church dates from a restoration in 1856.<ref name=Bailey423>{{cite book |last1=O’Brien |first1=Charles|last2=Bailey |first2=Bruce|last3=Pevsner |first3=Nikolaus |last4=Lloyd |first4=David W. |date=2018 |title=The Buildings of England Hampshire: South |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=423–424|isbn=9780300225037}}</ref>
{{Test Valley}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline}} * [https://plaitford.org/plaitford-history/ Plaitford history] at plaitford.org
{{authority control}}
Category:Villages in Hampshire Category:Former civil parishes in Hampshire Category:Former civil parishes in Wiltshire Category:Test Valley
{{Hampshire-geo-stub}}