Geographically, the Merry Oak Estate lies along a shallow valley running behind the high land that forms a ridge above the impressive estuary of the Itchen River, whose name , according to one 19th century commentator was a Celtic remnant from a time when it was ‘anciently known as the Icnean’ (T. W. Shore, ‘Springs and Streams of Hampshire’, https://www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk/publications/hampshirestudies/digital/1885-99/Vol_2/Shore.pdf.) In the form ‘Icene’, the name is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086).
This area of high, exposed landscape through which the river cuts would once have mirrored that of the New Forest on the western side of the estuary, which can still be seen from the upper floors of some houses on the Estate, and was fully visible before the land around Chessel and along the line of the present Peartree Avenue, formerly the Ridgeway, was extensively built on. The unobstructed views are shown in a number of eighteenth-century engravings held by Southampton City Archives, and were referred to approvingly at the time by lovers of the ‘picturesque’.
Lawrence Burgess, in Streams and Watercourses of Southampton (Friends of Old Southampton Occasional Papers 3, 1982), calls this high land the Peartree Plateau and notes that one small stream
‘rises just off the West End Road and flows south southwest to a confluence with Jurd’s Lake stream near its own confluence with the Itchen. Our stream therefore flows parallel with the Itchen all the way, thought nowadays mostly underground Its influence on human settlement has been profound …. The whole Merry Oak estate is laid out along this valley which passes to the east side of Peartree Green, behind Jesus Chapel…. The streets of Woolston are clearly shaped by its valley (15).’
Thanks to Garth Groombridge for this copy of the map. His red X marks the Merry Oak stream.
Mudie’s Hampshire vol. 1 published first in 1838, describes the area ‘opposite Southampton’ as having
‘a fine appearance … but the soil is naturally bad; and at an average distance of about a mile from the river, it passes into one of the most sterile heaths in the south of England.’ Mudie continues: ‘Though cold in winter from the freedom with which the winds sweep over it, this moor or heath is very healthy; and the prospects from it are extensive and delightful’.
This high and inhospitable heathland is made up of many clay and gravel deposits, and the area lies within walking distance – for those accustomed to walking – of the iron age ‘fortification’ at Telegraph Hill, where the embankment is still visible among the trees.
This was a vantage point, lookout post, place of safety or assembly for local Iron Age people, the likely creators of the tumuli (burial mounds) on what is now called Donkey Common, but known for many centuries as Netley Common.
OS Map 1805-1869 https://www.archimaps.co.uk/
Extending now north and eastwards from the modern Burseldon Road, it once stretched south and west taking in the modern area of Merry Oak, which was later part of Bitterne Common. The modern Merry Oak Road, the south eastern boundary of the present estate, follows the line of the ancient lane or track that led across these Commons, running up from the former Itchen ferry and out towards Hedge End.
Other evidence of prehistoric inhabitants of this high ground includes the Mesolithic tools that have been found at Weston Shore, on the Itchen estuary. Mesolithic flints have also been discovered in the excavations at Roman Clausentum, along with a coin of the Durotriges – the local British tribe, while Bronze age implements have also been found in the area, so that ancient people are likely to have been crossing this landscape to access fish, shellfish, and birds along the shores of the river, as well as foraging for nuts, fruit and edible herbs, in the area that included the later Merry Oak estate, long before the Romans came to the area. Indeed, the early construction of a landward defence across the peninsula marking the bend in the river below the eastern high lands, suggests the presence of local native people, who may have been perceived as a potential threat to the Roman settlement and its colonising enterprises, or at least that the Roman garrison intended to stamp their presence on the landscape and its population, as well as controlling the river.