Chandler's Ford

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Chandler's Ford
Chandler's Ford shown within Hampshire
Population	6,361 ^[1]
District	Eastleigh
Shire county	Hampshire
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	EASTLEIGH
Postcode district	SO53
Dialling code	023
Police	Hampshire
Fire	Hampshire
Ambulance	South Central
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Eastleigh
	Romsey
List of places: UK • England • Hampshire

Coordinates: 50°59′02″N 1°22′45″W / 50.984, -1.3792

Chandler's Ford (originally The Ford^[2] and historically Chandlersford^[3]) is a largely residential area in the borough of Eastleigh in southern England, with a population of 6,361 in the 2001 UK Census.^[1]

Chandler's Ford lies on the old Winchester to Southampton road and the 'Ford' is thought to refer either to the ford of Monks Brook^[4] on the Hursley Road or on the Winchester-Southampton road.^[2] The "Chandler's" prefix was added in the late 16th century,^[2] and is derived from the surname, Chaundler, of a family in the area from the 14th Century.^[5]

Chandler's Ford has seen a general reduction in crime in recent times, the exception being house burglaries which have increased by almost 25 percent over 2006.^[6] This increase meant that more than 1 in every 100 homes in Chandler's Ford were burgled in 2006.^[1] ^[6] In one notable incident, the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad dealt with an attempted armed bank robbery.^[7] House prices in the area have started to fall in the past 6 months.^[8]

1 History
2 Governance
3 Demography
4 Crime
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Hiltonbury Farm (now a public house) appeared on a map of 1588 and may originally have been owned by the Hursley Park Estate in nearby Hursley. It was later sold to Cranbury Park Estate and stopped being a working farm in the late 1970s, when the surrounding area was developed. Other communities revolved around other farms in the area but Chandler's Ford was very sparsely populated until the 19th century.

In 1889, an iron church (building) and some schools were constructed.^[3] The civil parish of Chandlersford was created in 1897, from portions of North Stoneham, North Baddesley, and Ampfield, although the railway station remained in the North Baddesley parish.^[3]

Chandler's Ford could be described as a town of housing estates and little else. In the 1920s, building took place in the King's Court, Merdon and Hiltingbury areas. Later, development in the Hursley Road area happened, followed by housing across Hiltingbury, Scantabout, Peverells Road, Spring Hill and Oakmount areas. More recently, developments in South Millers Dale, North Millers Dale and the 'new town' of Valley Park to the West of Chandler's Ford have completed the mix of housing. Chandler's Ford is considered to be the development to the West of the M3 motorway and now forms the majority of the Eastleigh urban area.

Due to the development of the town, there is little identifiable 'town centre'. The main commercial centre is in Fryern, the area of the Halfway Inn (near the old tollhouse for Winchester-Southampton), but other smaller shopping areas include the Central Precinct and the area around St Boniface Church (built 1904). An Anglican Church was added in Hiltingbury in the 1960s, with the Roman Catholic and Methodist churches existing on the main Winchester-Southampton route.

Chandler's Ford had a cricket team representing it until 1995 when Chandler's Ford CC merged with Compton and Shawford CC to form Compton and Chandler's Ford CC. Compton and Chandler's Ford 3rd XI still played in Chandler's Ford on Hiltingbury Recreational Ground until 2005, when the ground was needed to undergo redevelopment and the 3rd XI moved to King George V Playing Fields in Winchester and have played there since.

Chandler's Ford railway station was re-opened in May 2003. It had been closed since 1969 and is now served by an hourly Romsey to Salisbury service by South West Trains, stopping at all stations in between.

On 13 September 2007, Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad foiled a Bank Raid on the HSBC branch in Bournemouth Road, Chandlers Ford near Southampton around 10:10am. "One robber was shot dead at the scene while another died in the back of an ambulance en route to Southampton General Hospital." Schools were contacted and were told to keep children inside at all times. Toynbee School in Bodycoats Road was contacted first to warn of diversions in place because of its close proximity to the cordoned off area. After the shootings, "A MAJOR hunt was underway for two remaining gunmen who attempted to rob a security van outside a Hampshire bank this morning. A police helicopter was continuing to circle the area above Bournemouth Road and Hursley Road this lunchtime as the search to find the other men continued. Officers in unmarked cars as well as on foot were scouring the area, inside a 150 metre cordon which had been put in place by police. It is thought that staff inside many shops and businesses at the Fryern shopping centre had been ordered to stay inside for their own safety while initial searches of the area were carried out." "I saw blood everywhere, it was horrible," says witness (This information was taken from the Daily Echo website)

[edit] Governance

Two Members of Parliament serve Chandler's Ford. Chris Huhne is the Liberal Democrat member for the Eastleigh constituency and Sandra Gidley is the Liberal Democrat member for the Romsey constituency, although large parts of Chandler's Ford are now part of the newly expanded Winchester constituency for the next General Election.

The Eastleigh (Chandler's Ford) seat on the Hampshire County Council is held by Colin Davidovitz, representing the Conservative Party.^[9]^[10]. Chandler's Ford is represented on Eastleigh Borough Council by four councillors. Haulwen V Broadhurst and Pamela Holden-Brown represent the Chandler's Ford East ward, while Alan Broadhurst and Andrew Wray represent Chandler's Ford West; all four are Liberal Democrats.^[11]

[edit] Demography

As of April 2001, Chandler's Ford had a population of 6,361, consisting of 3,065 males and 3,296 females, across 2,674 households.^[1] The ethnicity of the population was mainly white, with only 49 mixed race people, 80 Asian or Asian British people, 22 Black or Black British people and 46 in other ethnic groups.^[12] In 2001, 4,883 of the population were Christians, 942 professed no religion, and 415 did not state their religious beliefs.^[13] There were 18 Buddhists, 28 Hindus, 36 Muslims, 14 Sikhs and 19 people of other religions living in the ward.^[13]

[edit] Crime

Wikinews has related news:

Two shot and killed in UK bank robbery

Crime statistics for the Eastleigh West Neighbourhood Performance Information, which includes Chandler's Ford and neighbouring Hiltingbury, show a year-on-year reduction in every type of reported crime except house burglary, and an overall reduction of 13.8 per cent.^[6] However, Chandler's Ford made national headlines in September 2007 when an armed bank robbery was foiled: On 13 September 2007 the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad, in conjunction with the Hampshire Constabulary, foiled a bank robbery outside the HSBC bank in the central precinct on Winchester Road in Chandler's Ford.^[7] Two robbers were shot dead by the police as they were tipped off to the robbery and hid behind the nearby toilet cubicles. One more robber fled the scene by car and was later arrested.