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Damerham is a rural village and civil parish in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England, near Fordingbridge. The area has notable Neolithic and Bronze Age tumulus. It was the site of an Anglo-Saxon religious community, mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great. By the time of Domesday Book (1086), Damerham was a major settlement in the possession of Glastonbury Abbey. The village has a riverside mill and a Norman church.
The village is about north-west of Fordingbridge and is connected to nearby settlements by minor roads. The county boundary with Dorset follows the south-west and south boundaries of the parish.
Another earthwork, Soldiers Ring, situated on a crest in an area of Celtic fields, is thought to be a Romano-British cattle enclosure.
Damerham was a royal estate of the kings of Wessex, and a religious community there was mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great: "And it is my will that the community at Damerham be given their landbooks and their freedom to choose whatever lord as is dearest to them, for my sake and for Ælfflæd." (1983). 9780140444094, Penguin Classics. ISBN 9780140444094 It may have been a nunnery headed by Ælfflæd, possibly a kinswoman of the king. In 940–6 Edmund I granted a hundred mansae at Damerham with Martin and Pentridge to his queen, Æthelflæd. Damerham may have been the birthplace of Æthelflæd. Æthelflæd bequeathed Damerham to Glastonbury Abbey when she died in the late 10th century. Will of Æthelflæd, at www.anglo-saxons.net
Another important manor was the manor of Little Damerham which was owned by Glastonbury Abbey. Glastonbury Abbey also held lands in the manors of Hyde and Stapleham. Some of these lands were also held by Cranborne Priory, and Tewkesbury Abbey, to which Cranborne Priory was a cell. The hide at Lopshill ( Lopushale) is mentioned as within the boundaries of the manor of Damerham in 940–6; it is now Lopshill Farm, in the south of the parish.
The Domesday Book records four watermill at Damerham. One was given to Geoffrey Fitz-Ellis by John, Abbot of Glastonbury (1274–90). In 1326 Henry Dotenel released to the Abbot of Glastonbury all his claim in a water-mill called Weremulle in Damerham. In the survey of the manor taken in 1518 a water-mill called Lytellmyle is mentioned. This mill probably stood near Littlemill Bridge at North End, but it has now disappeared. In 1608 "all the water-mills of Damerham" were granted to Robert Earl of Salisbury. The only mill now in existence in the parish is Damerham Mill in the village on the River Allen.
The Church of Saint George dates from the Norman period. The earliest sections are the lower part of the tower and the north aisle (12th century). In the 13th century the chancel was seemingly rebuilt and a south aisle added to the nave. The tower was nearly rebuilt about this time. The 12th-century north aisle and transept were probably pulled down in the 15th century and the existing aisle substituted. The church has rare features including a canonical sundial and a relief of St George.
In 1830 the manor-house (West Park House) was attacked in a riot against the introduction of machinery (Swing riots) and several people were captured and sent to Winchester. One quarter of the village burned down in the "Great Fire" of 1863, but the damage was soon repaired owing to the exertions of the vicar, William Owen. History , www.damerham.net.
Damerham was transferred from Wiltshire to Hampshire in 1895. In 1953, the village gave its name to a Ham class minesweeper, .
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