Compton and Shawford is a civil parish in the City of Winchester, Hampshire, England. The word compton means village in a combe and aptly describes the settlement as it primarily consists of a long street on the side of a chalk valley.

All Saints church in Compton is unusual in that it has two naves and two chancels, the original Norman constructions being supplemented by a new nave and chancel in 1905.

Shawford is notable for having the longest railway viaduct in Hampshire (now known as Hockley Railway Viaduct). This is over feet in length and 40 feet high. The viaduct was initially threatened with demolition when the M3 motorway was proposed but after much protest it was incorporated into the scheme.

The two halves of the parish are linked by Shawford Down which runs alongside the River Itchen. However they are now symbolically separated by the motorway with Compton on its west side and Shawford on its east.

Shawford is served by a railway station on the South Western Main Line. The parish is crossed from east to west by the Monarch's Way long distance footpath, and from north to south by the Itchen Way.

Geology

The parish lies on the Upper Cretaceous chalk at the northern edge of the Hampshire Basin, dipping south from the Winchester anticline, with successively younger beds being exposed from north to south. In the north the Seaford Chalk formation of Santonian age makes up Compton Down. South of this the Newhaven Chalk outcrops in the dry valley running down from Olivers Battery to Shawford. In the south of the parish the Culver Chalk of Campanian age is largely overlain by a layer of 'clay-with-flints' weathered out of the chalk. In the east the chalk is cut through by the Itchen valley and overlain by calcareous tufa.^[1]

Media

Shawford was the location used for Victor Meldrew's death in One Foot in the Grave in the episode "Things Aren't Simple Anymore".^[2] It is also referred to in Robyn Hitchcock's song "Winchester". http://www.rogerwatersonline.com/Artists_R/Robyn_Hitchcock_lyrics/Winchester.html

Shawford railway station was featured in a 1974 film starring Sophia Loren, a remake of Brief Encounter, as was Winchester station. It caused great excitement in the village; a large crowd watched the actress being filmed getting out of a car on the forecourt.

Nearby places

• Otterbourne
• Twyford

References