Bedhampton - a micro-history

Recent History

Bedhampton Station Bedhampton remained a sleepy village until April 1st 1906, when the railway arrived and Bedhampton Halt was opened.

The little lane outside the Church, once the main road between Chichester and Southampton, gave way to a new road north of the Church, and not so many years ago, that gave way to the A27 trunk road that is built, partly on reclaimed land, to the south of Bedhampton.

Nearby Leigh Park was built fifty years ago as an overspill housing complex for cramped Portsea Island - the Church took a massive role in the development of the area, and you can read about it in our 1958 Parish Magazine, here on this site.

But look more closely, and the village atmosphere still exists...

The little stream that flowed down by the Rectory still runs, and indeed just a mile away, the headquarters of Portsmouth Water Company takes water from the Bedhampton Springs, where water from the South Downs breaks out from underground.

Bedhampton and Keats Bedhampton erected a new Village Sign in 2002, containing an inscription by John Keats, the famous poet who stayed in Bedhampton not far from St Thomas's Church. Click to see the inscription.

And the village atmosphere also bursts out at Bidbury Mead - the grassy area to the east of St Thomas - where on the first Saturday of July,the Bedhampton Summer Show fills the fields with stalls, sideshows, competitions and displays.