When Bishop Peter des Roches established The Borough he had it was laid out in ‘Burgage’ plots. By the 1230s, 12O families occupied the houses and workshops, providing the Bishop with an annual income of £10.
Many of the houses in The Borough can still be identified as Burgage plots by the numbers carved in stone blocks set into their front walls, usually over the doorways. The numbers were originally painted but the stones were put in place when Lord Radnor gained control of the Burgages in the late l8th century. Burgages had by this time become very important as they gave each holder the right to vote in Parliamentary elections. One Burgage number remains painted rather than in stone. (Heritage Trail Plaque 16).
Turning along the south side of The Borough the first house you pass is Fairfield House, once the site of the village fair ground and, according to folklore, also that of the maypole or whirlygig.
On the green in this area there was also a pound where stray cattle and horses could be kept until claimed by their owners. Until the introduction of cattle grids at the entrances to the open forest in the 1960s, animals not only strayed from within the village, but also from the New Forest.
‘The Bunny’ also passes under the Green here. ‘Bunny’ is a local name for a drainage ditch, deriving from the old word ‘bunnell’. The ditch can still be seen next to the electricity sub-station on one side of the road and alongside the Memorial Hall on the other.
PLAQUE 3 is at the Memorial Hall. In 1840 Lord Radnor gave this site for the building of a British School in Downton, for the ‘instruction of boys in the principles of the British and Foreign School Society‘.
The building became the parish hall when the pupils moved in 1896 to the new school built in Gravel Close. Still the main village hall, it is the venue for many meetings and events, and was named the Memorial Hall when the portico and plaque to those who died in World War One were dedicated at a service on Easter Sunday, 27 March 1921. Further plaques were added following the loss of more villagers in World War Two, Korea and the Suez Crisis. More recently the Hall was extended to give further meeting rooms and a dedicated children's nursery space.
The Memorial Gardens were given to the village by Mrs Emily Bonvalot of Wick House, in memory of her son 2nd Lieutenant Edward Bonvalot, who was killed in the First World War. The dedication to him can be seen on the sundial by the main gates. Note the cuckoos on the gates to celebrate the Cuckoo Fair held annually in The Borough. The two fairs granted to Gyles Eyre had died out before the Second World War and a further fair, granted for the eve, day, and morrow of St Laurence (April 9th to 11th) probably declined with the population in the mid 14th century.
Until the middle of the 20th century Downton held an annual Carnival but support for this waned and it too died out. In 1979 ‘the Cuckoo Fair’ was created to raise funds for local charities and groups. The event is held on the Saturday nearest to the May Day Bank Holiday and attracts 20000 visitors. Where does the name come from? There are several versions of old stories that probably originate from a time when folk did not realise the cuckoo was a spring migrant to England. One tale tells of how the bird sinks to the bottom of the river and stays there until the warm spring weather arrives. Another of how a wise woman of the village would capture the cuckoo and keep it safe in a cage to over-winter from the cold, before releasing it in spring.
Ancient Spring festivals often centre on a young girl, a May Queen or Princess, and Downton’s Cuckoo Fair has a Princess. Each year a girl is chosen from the community and on fair day is crowned with a coronet, made in 1991 of traditional Downton Bobbin Lace.
A little further to the west you will pass the Old Police House, where the village constable used to live. Next to this is Long Close Park, the field that was once the home of both the Downton Cricket and Football Clubs.
Back on the southern side of The Borough are a number of quintessential thatched cottages, most of which are listed buildings.
