Twyford, Hampshire

"For other places of the same name, see Twyford".Infobox UK place
official_name= Twyford
map_type= Southampton
country= England
region= South East England
static_

static_image_caption= Twyford Post Office and stores
latitude= 51.0218
longitude= -1.3136
os_grid_reference= SU482249
post_town= WINCHESTER
postcode_area= SO
postcode_district= SO21
dial_code= 01962
constituency_westminster= Winchester (constituency)
civil_parish= Twyford
shire_district= City of Winchester
shire_county= Hampshire
website= [http://www.twyfordpc.hants.gov.uk/main.htm Twyford Parish Council]
population = 1,456

Twyford is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, approximately three miles south of Winchester and near the M3 motorway and Twyford Down. In 2001, the population of the parish was 1,456. cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=795228&c=twyford&d=16&e=15&g=453039&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1196420812203&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 |title=Parish Headcounts, Area: Twyford CP |accessdate=2007-11-30 |work=Neighbourhood Statistics |publisher=Office for National Statistics ] The village lies on the River Itchen, which passes through nearby watermeadows, and has been important economically for its residents. The name "Twyford" means "two fords" and from medieval times, the river supported a very large number of water mills for grinding corn.

Twyford includes a village school, [http://www.twyford-pri.hants.sch.uk/index.php St. Mary's Primary School] , a travel agency (http://www.rogerwalkertravel.com), a doctor's surgery and pharmacy, a grocer's shop and Post Office, as well as numerous other small businesses.

The village benefits greatly from two parks, as well as many footpaths and large areas of water meadow which are held in trust or otherwise protected from building development.

Twyford School is a preparatory school in the centre of the village, which had the distinction of expelling the poet Alexander Pope in the early 1700s for lampooning a master in verse.

Twyford St Mary's Parish Church was designed by Alfred Waterhouse the renowned Victorian architect who designed London's Natural History Museum.

Demography

According to the 2001 UK census, the village has a population of 1,456 people, comprising 735 males and 721 females, living in 613 households. In 2001 there were twelve vacant dwellings in the parish, and the average household in Twyford had 6.40 rooms. cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=795228&c=twyford&d=16&e=15&g=453039&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1196420812203&enc=1&dsFamilyId=787 |title=Parish Profile - Accommodation and Tenure, Area: Twyford CP |accessdate=2007-11-30 |work=Neighbourhood Statistics |publisher=Office for National Statistics ] 433 of these households were owner occupied, 105 were privately rented and 75 rented from the Council, housing association or registered social landlord. Housing in the parish consists of 241 detached houses or bungalows, 328 semi-detached or terraced houses or bungalows, and 61 flats, apartments, caravans or temporary structures.

Transport

The B3335 road runs north-south through the village, linking with Junction 11 of the M3 Motorway to the north and the neighbouring village of Colden Common to the south. This road is called the High Street for the most of its route through the village; before completion of the M3 to the west it was the main A333 from Winchester to Portsmouth. In the centre of the village is a crossroads, where an unclassified road crosses the High Street. The east turn-off, Finches Road, becomes Shawford Road which runs through to the nearby village of Shawford before joining the main road from Winchester to Otterbourne. The west turn-off, Hazeley Road, travels past the (water) pumping station, to Hazeley Down and on towards Morestead and Owslebury.

The nearest rail station is Shawford railway station to the east. Twyford is served by several regular bus routes, operated by Solent Blue Line and Stagecoach Group among others, linking the village with Winchester, Eastleigh, Southampton and Fareham. [ cite web|url=http://www.carlberry.co.uk/rfnlistr.asp?L1=TWY003&op=A |title=Travel Search |accessdate=2007-11-30 |last=Berry |first=Carl ] The Monarch's Way long distance footpath passes through the village from east to west. The Itchen Way follows the western boundary.

Geology

Tywford lies on the chalk at the northern edge of the Hampshire Basin, dipping south from the southern limb of the Winchester anticline. Successively younger layers of chalk are exposed from north to south, from Turonian New Pit Chalk in the Plague Pits Valley south of St. Catherine's Hill, the Lewes Nodular Chalk at Twyford Down, the Seaford Chalk under the village, to the Santonian or Campanian Newhaven Chalk to the south. In the Itchen valley to the west the chalk is overlain by alluvium and tufa deposits. [British Geological Survey (2002), "Winchester. England and Wales Sheet 299. Solid and Drift Geology", 1:50,000 Series geological map, Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey, ISBN 0-7518-3340-1 ] The chalk is deeply incised by a series of dry valleys running south and west towards the Itchen.

ee also

*Twyford Down
*Winchester

References

External links

* [http://www.hants.gov.uk/localpages/central/winchester/twyford/ Winchester and its villages - Twyford]
* [http://www.stmarytwyford.fsnet.co.uk/ Twyford St Mary's Parish Church]
* [http://www.hants.org.uk/twt/ Victorian water pumping station]