History of the Parish

700 hundred years of Clanfield

Historically Clanfield started in 1305 as a small farming community centred on the Church of St. James. The present church was rebuilt in 1875 and both bells, the font and much of the stone for the west window came from the original church. It appears that little changed for many years and in 1929 the population was recorded as 129. However, during the Second World War people started to move to the village to escape the bombing in Portsmouth and by the late 1940s the population had grown to 500. Steady development has continued over the years with the addition of several small and large residential estates and widespread in-filling.

It is now estimated that there are over 2,000 households and a population exceeding 5,000.

Development has changed the nature of the village and it now consists of two parts, Old Clanfield, based around the Church of St James and containing the few remaining thatched cottages, the Well Head, village pond and the Mill House and New Clanfield which has grown up around and extended from the Drift Road shops over the last 30 years or so; this is now widely regarded as the centre of the village.

Clanfield today

Clanfield can now be described as a semi-rural community. The newer part of Clanfield is linked to the northern extremity of Horndean by a "causeway" of urban development that is approximately a quarter mile wide, parallel to the A3. The eastern boundary extends beyond the main London to Portsmouth railway line and the western boundary originally being through the Bat and Ball public house at Hambledon, alongside the ground that was the birthplace of cricket. A dividing line between the Parishes of Hambledon and Clanfield is marked along the centre of the floor of the public bar, although the modern boundary places the Bat and Ball just outside the Clanfield Parish.

Some of the Parish still comprises of woods and green fields, hence "clean fields" from which the village derives its name.