Dibden Purlieu

Coordinates: 50°51′07″N 1°24′54″W / 50.852°N 1.415°W / 50.852; -1.415

Dibden Purlieu /ˌdɪbdɛn ˈpɜːrluː/ is a village situated on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England. The village merges with the nearby town of Hythe.

The approximate population is around 4000 people. The regular Blue Star bus service provides Purlieu's quickest link with the city of Southampton. Dibden Purlieu is twinned with Mauves-sur-Loire, France.

History

Dibden Purlieu was in the parish of Dibden, referred to in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Deepdene, "dene" being an Anglo-Saxon word for valley.Purlieu is a Norman-French word meaning "the outskirts of a forest" – a place free from forest laws. In this particular case Dibden Purlieu was land removed from the New Forest in the 14th century when the forest boundaries were established by perambulations about 1300. In practice the king retained or claimed, certain rights in the area, and the activities of the royal foresters in enforcing forest law there were a matter of great resentment. Up to the 1950s Dibden Purlieu was a small settlement next to the village of Dibden, but the expansion of Fawley Refinery lead to a demand for more houses for workers, and Hythe and Dibden Purlieu were allowed to expand into a small town. In 1983 the parish was renamed, and Dibden Purlieu is now part of the parish of Hythe and Dibden.

Dibden

Coordinates: 50°52′08″N 1°25′11″W / 50.8689°N 1.4196°W / 50.8689; -1.4196

Dibden is a small village in Hampshire, England, which dates from the Middle Ages. It is dominated by the nearby settlements of Hythe and Dibden Purlieu. It lies on the eastern edge of the New Forest in a valley, which runs into Southampton Water.

History

The name "Dibden" is from the Old English for "deep valley", although the village is only slightly lower than the land around it. It is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Depedene" and was held by Odo of Winchester. Prior to 1066 it had been held by "Ketil the Steersman" from King Edward. There was a saltpan and a fishery in the manor.

The overlordship of Dibden belonged in the 12th century to Reynold de St. Valery, who died in 1166, and his son Bernard de St. Valery, who was killed at the siege of Acon in 1190, was probably the Bernard who was lord of Dibden in 1167. Descending with his granddaughters to Robert Count of Dreux, it fell, with the rest of the honour of St. Valery, into the hands of the Crown, when it was given to Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall whose son Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall died in 1300 seised of a fee there which belonged to the honour of St. Valery. Dibden was thereafter held of the Crown. It was thus held in the reign of Henry VII of Arthur, Prince of Wales.