Plaitford
Plaitford is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford, in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Romsey, which lies approximately 4.9 miles east from the village; the large village of West Wellow is immediately west of Plaitford. In 1931 the parish had a population of 195.
Etymology
The name Plaitford is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Pleiteford. It takes its name from the Old English words *pleget and ford. Thus it once meant "ford beside the playing field".Nearby Melchet is one of the relatively few English place-names whose origin can be traced to Common Brittonic. The name is first attested, partly in Latin, as the name of a forest, rather than a settlement, in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Milchete silva and Milchet silva; it is first attested in fully English form as Melchetwode in 1255. The name is first attested, transferred from the forest as a settlement-name, in 1231, as Milchet; the modern spelling is first attested in 1275. The name contains that words that survive in modern Welsh as moel and coed ; thus it once meant "woodland on a bare ".
History and geography
Plaitford manor was anciently within the county of Wiltshire. By 1885 it had become a civil parish, which was transferred to Hampshire in 1895. On 1 April 1932, the parishes of Plaitford and Melchet Park were amalgamated to form the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford.The original village of Plaitford lies to the north of the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Test, but the chief part of the population is now found further south near the A36 road, which crosses the parish from east to west. Plaitford Green is a small district in the north of the parish. Plaitford Common, which occupies the southern portion of the parish, consists chiefly of rough grassland and is owned by the National Trust.