The centenary of the purchase of land for the modern Merry Oak estate will take place in 2028, so this seems a good time to create this blog to explore the history of the estate.
The blog sets out a timeline for the 51 acres of land now known as the Merry Oak estate. It shows that the area may not have been officially identified by this name for many centuries. Nevertheless, the lands surrounding the little valley around which the estate developed has witnessed events and the arrival of personalities that add interest to this particularly leafy suburb. They have been recorded in many different kinds of documents and this blog shows how and where those 51 acres belong in the geography and history of this unique landscape above the river.
The area of eastern Southampton that we know today as the Merry Oak Estate has been studied and written about in some detail from its establishment as an estate of Council Housing in 1930s when it was intended to rehouse the inhabitants of slum tenements in the old town itself.
One of the Victorian slums (accessed from See Southampton FB)
Most recently the estate has been by researched by Garth Groombridge, who has put together extensive information which he has kindly shared with me, and to which I will refer. However, as he admits, current assumptions about the early history of the land are highly speculative and constantly omit any references to exact records of sources of information. Garth supplies one example:
At least two different sources quoted by West End local historian Pauline Berry, together with information from Dr Cheryl Butler, seem to indicate that Merry Oak has a much longer history than anyone has previous stated in the local histories. One source says Merry Oak was given to a Gater family ancestor perhaps as early as the eleventh century. The other (supported by Cheryl Butler) says it was still owned by the Gater family in the sixteenth century and was a “farm at the time of Charles II”. This would indicate that the Merry Oak location was inhabited, with some kind of dwelling – farm, perhaps, or even a house – long predating the current narrative of 1800 (Southampton Country Houses East of the Itchen, ‘Merry Oak’, my emphasis.).
Further research will hopefully expand on this information, and for anyone wishing to follow up the sources I have accessed so far, I
have recorded those current sources in the text, or in the acknowledgements.
I also take a broader view of the estate to show how it fits into the landscape and history of the eastern side of the Itchen River, and because existing publications deal with the estate since its development in the 19th and early twentieth centuries, I will only sketch the estate’s modern history. Many of the books and pamphlets already published on this are available from the Bitterne Local History Society shop and museum.
In the creation of this blog, I owe additional debts of gratitude to Dr Cheryl Butler (Fellow of the Royal Historical Society), Martin Brisland and Rod Andrews, for help and advice at an early stage, and to the authors of the various publications which I mention in the text.
For the initial inspiration to develop this blog, I have to thank local Councillors Simon Letts and Eamonn Keogh.
I also especially thank Joanne Wren, Archives, Maritime and Local Studies Assistant (Culture and Tourism Service) at Southampton City Council, for her invaluable help with locating the maps, charters, and other documents I have relied on, some of which are reproduced here.
I gratefully acknowledged the access provided by Southampton City Archives to all these documents, and unless otherwise noted, all the maps shown in this blog are in the possession of the Archives.
Nevertheless, the blog remains a work in progress with the hope that more research will fill in the inevitable gaps in our knowledge, especially for the Roman and the medieval periods.
It's purpose is to update the work already done on the history of the estate of Merry Oak. The site will trace the history of the modern estate in its wider contexts as well as recalling nineteenth- and twentieth-century changes to the use of the land.
The name itself will be reconsidered, as at least 3 versions of its origins have been put forward. It is also worth recalling that its modern boundaries have been crossed by a Roman road, and have defined medieval land-holdings. Further details to follow. The local landscape of which it forms part fell within the notice of Jane Austen, and the future Emperor Napoleon.
Future posts will deal more specifically with these and later historical contexts, to build a picture of a residential suburb graced by more than usually interesting views, including the many trees that remain from the Victorian estate and later planting. For some of us there are also views far over the waterside high-rises to the high moors and woodlands of the New Forest, views which for many centuries would have been more extensive, and a reflection of the landscape of Merry Oak itself.
There is a question to be answered about why a blog for Merry Oak, when there a number of publications, Facebook pages, and online resources? As one of Southampton's older, more self-contained and scenic estates, with its own particular identity, it also reflects Southampton's characteristic as a busy commercial and industrial centre attracting an ever-changing population. And this is a characteristic that has a long historical lineage in the area around Merry Oak, as this blog will show. So to introduce new residents of Merry Oak to the history of their new home, and to confirm to long-established residents that it is indeed what they had always known, the blog is devoted to setting the estate in its long historical context.