Otterbourne is a village in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately four miles (6.4 km) south of Winchester and eight miles (13 km) north of Southampton. At the 2011 census, its population was 1,539, and there were 626 dwellings.[1]
There are three public houses in the village: the White Horse Inn, the Otter, and the Old Forge. There is also a school, a post office and village shop. Before the 21st century, the post office and village shop were located opposite Cranbourne Drive at the bottom of Otterbourne Hill. However, at the end of the 1990s, the car garage at the centre of the village was rebuilt to include a petrol station and convenience store. Shortly after the opening of the convenience store, the village shop closed; the store then expanded to include a post office, taking over all previous functions of the old village shop. Until late 2007 the convenience store was running under a SPAR franchise. It was then taken over by Budgens. It has subsequently been taken over by Nisa Local convenience store, and the petrol station has been decommissioned.[2] In the early hours of 30 November 2015, William's Garage beside Budgens suffered from a fire.[3]
The Otterbourne Brass,[4] performs in Otterbourne Village Hall[5] every Christmas and concerts in and around the surrounding area. The band also competes in the 1st Section of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
At that time, Otterbourne's novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901) was 15 years old; her writings were influenced by Keble's sermons. In her day, she was a major celebrity, publishing more than 100 novels.
Already by 1840, however, the London to Southampton railway opened (later the South West Main Line), passing by the village. Within half a century, old Otterbourne had been abandoned, and the village moved half a mile east to its present location.
Charlotte Yonge lived the second half of her life in a house named Elderfield, which between 1959 and 2019 was a Residential Training Centre for former offenders run by the Langley House Trust, a registered charity. On 17 August 2005, resident Anthony Rice murdered Naomi Bryant at her home in Winchester, prompting an independent review (pdf) of his case by HM Inspectorate of Probation.
Waterworks
Otterbourne Water Supply Works
Prior to the centralisation of its regional offices, Otterbourne was home to the Hampshire headquarters of Southern Water. The 1980s office building (part of which was leased to the Audit Commission) is situated on the site of a large water supply works, which takes water from the River Itchen and a number of boreholes. Otterbourne water supply works feeds a covered reservoir in the village, which in turn supplies most of the eastern side of Southampton.
Following Southern Water's £20.3 million fine for 'deliberate misreporting' and failing to meet guaranteed standards of service to customers in 2007, the company shut down its use of the Otterbourne building and leased it to two NHS organisations; South Central Ambulance Service and Health Education Wessex.[8]
Church
The village church is dedicated to Saint Matthew.[9] It was built over two years from 1837 to a design by Owen Browne Carter and William Crawley Yonge.[9] Some the internal fittings are older than the church including a carved panel on the pulpit dating from the 15th century.[9]
^"Contact Us". Health Education Wessex. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
^ abcO’Brien, Charles; Bailey, Bruce; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David W. (2018). The Buildings of England Hampshire: South. Yale University Press. p. 420. ISBN9780300225037.
.svg){kind=spacer}
