Otterbourne

The village of Otterbourne, on the stream Otter Bourne, lies on the old Roman road between Venta Belgarum (Winchester) and Clausentum (Southampton). It appears in the Domesday Book as Otrebourne. The physicist Sir Isaac Newton lodged at Cranbury House in his twilight years, and John Keble, a leader of the Oxford Movement, settled down as vicar of the parish church, St Matthew's, around 1838. At that time, Otterbourne's novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901) was 15 years old; her writings were influenced by Keble's sermons. In her day, she was a major celebrity, publishing more than 100 novels. Already by 1840, however, the London to Southampton railway opened (later the South West Main Line), passing by the village. Within half a century, old Otterbourne had been abandoned, and the village moved half a mile east to its present location. Charlotte Yonge lived the second half of her life in a house named Elderfield, which between 1959 and 2019 was a Residential Training Centre for former offenders run by the Langley House Trust, a registered charity. On 17 August 2005, resident Anthony Rice murdered Naomi Bryant at her home in Winchester, prompting an independent review (pdf) of his case by HM Inspectorate of Probation. ==Waterworks==

Prior to the centralisation of its regional offices, Otterbourne was home to the Hampshire headquarters of Southern Water. The 1980s office building (part of which was leased to the Audit Commission) is situated on the site of a large water supply works, which takes water from the River Itchen and a number of boreholes. Otterbourne water supply works feeds a covered reservoir in the village, which in turn supplies most of the eastern side of Southampton. Water is also pumped to a covered reservoir at Yew Hill in Olivers Battery Community Parish. Following Southern Water's £20.3 million fine for 'deliberate misreporting' and failing to meet guaranteed standards of service to customers in 2007, the company shut down its use of the Otterbourne building and leased it to two NHS organisations; South Central Ambulance Service and Health Education Wessex. ==Church==

The village church is dedicated to Saint Matthew. ==Notable people==

• Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901), was an English novelist • Jim Bailey (1908–1988), first-class cricketer • Chris Tremlett (cricketer) (1981–still alive), first-class cricketer ==References==