History
Hiltonbury Farm (now a public house) appeared on a map of 1588 and may originally have been owned by the Hursley Park Estate in nearby Hursley. It was later sold to Cranbury Park Estate and stopped being a working farm in the late 1970s, when the surrounding area was developed. Other communities revolved around other farms in the area but Chandler's Ford was very sparsely populated until the 19th century.
In 1889, an iron church and some schools were constructed. The civil parish of Chandlersford was created in 1897, from portions of North Stoneham, North Baddesley, and Ampfield, although the railway station remained in the North Baddesley parish.
Chandler's Ford used to be a town with mainly housing estates, however there are now various developments of shops and schools that have been built in the area. In the 1920s, building took place in the King's Court, Merdon and Hiltingbury areas. Later, development in the Hursley Road area happened, followed by housing across the Hiltingbury, Scantabout, Peverells Road, Spring Hill and Oakmount areas. More recently, developments in North Millers Dale, South Millers Dale and the 'new town' of Valley Park to the West of Chandler's Ford have completed the mix of housing. Chandler's Ford is considered to be the development to the West of the M3 motorway and now forms the majority of the Eastleigh urban area.
Due to the development of the town, there is little identifiable 'town centre'. The main commercial centre is in Fryern, the area of the Halfway Inn (near the old tollhouse for Winchester-Southampton), but other smaller shopping areas include the Central Precinct and the area around St Boniface Church (built 1904). An Anglican church was added in Hiltingbury in the 1960s, with the Roman Catholic Church of St. Edward the Confessor and Methodist churches existing on the main Winchester-Southampton route.
Chandler's Ford is represented by Compton and Chandler's Ford Cricket Club which formed in 1995 when Chandler's Ford Cricket Club (CC) merged with Compton and Shawford CC.
Chandler's Ford railway station was re-opened in May 2003. It had been closed since 1969 and is now has an hourly service by South West Trains, running from Romsey to Salisbury via Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh and Southampton, and stopping at all stations in between.
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