The History of Otterbourne

Otterbourne is a village in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately four miles (6 km) south of Winchester and eight miles (13 km) north of Southampton. In October 2002, its population was approximately 1520, and there were 602 dwellings.

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, Williams 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.

The village of Otterbourne, on the stream Otter Bourne, lies on the old Roman road between Venta Belgarum (Winchester) and Clausentum (Southampton). It appears in the Domesday Book as Otrebourne. A picture of idyllic rural life, it attracted luminaries as their lights slowly dimmed. The physicist Sir Isaac Newton lodged at Cranbury House in his twighlight years, and John Keble, a leader of the Oxford Movement, settled down as vicar of the parish church, St Matthew's, around 1838.

At that time, Otterbourne's illustrious novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901) was 15 years old; her writings were deeply influenced by Keble's sermons. In her day, she was a major celebrity, publishing more than a hundred novels.

Already by 1840, however, the London to Southampton railway opened (later the South Western 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.