Did You Know?

Christchurch began as a Saxon village. Its original name was Tweoxneam, which means between 2 rivers. The Saxon settlement stood on a triangular piece of land between the rivers.

Christchurch is a town, civil parish and former borough in the county of Dorset on the English Channel coast, adjoining Bournemouth in the west, with the New Forest to the east. Historically in Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974 and is the most easterly borough in the county. The town has existed since 650 AD and its close proximity to the Cotentin Peninsula made it an important trading port and a potential target for invasion during the Napoleonicand Second World War.

The name of the settlement was changed to Christchurch when the church was built in the 11th century. According to legend St Catherines Hill was chosen for the site of a church. Each evening the builders would finish work but when they came back the next morning the building work was undone and the materials were moved somewhere else. One day a beam was cut too short and a stranger miraculously lengthened it. The builders decided the stranger must have been Jesus Christ so they moved the site of the church and changed the name of the town to Christchurch.

Early in the 10th century Christchurch was made a burgh or fortified settlement. (Alfred the Great created a network of fortified towns across his kingdom called burghs). Christchurch was defended by the sea on one side and by two rivers, the Stour and the Avon on the other two sides.

Medieval Christchurch had a weekly market. In those days there were very few shops and if you wanted to buy or sell anything you had to go to a market. By the 12th century, the town also had an annual fair. In the Middle Ages, a fair was like a market except it was held once a year and people would come from a wide area to buy and sell at one.I.

The sheltered harbour and easy access to neighbouring towns made the area popular with smugglers, culminating in "The Battle of deford" in 1784 between Customs & Excise and the smugglers. In July of that year the greatest volume of contraband ever managed in a single run was landed at the Haven in Mudeford. 300 men, 100 carts and 400 horses were involved and the cargo included 6,000 casks of spirits and 30 tons of tea.

The first half of the 19th century saw the introduction of the first state schools in Christchurch. The earliest school in the town was founded around c.1140 but this disappeared with the dissolution of the monasteries. Later a free school was established in St. Michael's Loft in the Priory. In 1662 this became a grammar school and then in 1828 it became a private academy under control of the vicar. It closed in 1869 when schooling became more widely available through the National Schools.