The village of Wickham lies between our home in Portsmouth and Southampton, slightly nearer to us because we’re nicer than our south coast neighbours. Because of its conservation status it’s like a snapshot in time and while its origins can be traced back to the Roman era and it is referred to in the eleventh century Domesday Book records, the village has more of a mix of late medieval and early Victorian feel to it now. If we’re travelling towards Southampton or Winchester (or returning, of course) and fancy getting off the motorway then we’ll inevitably pass by Wickham and it’s a place that we’ve visited many times over the years (although not often recently) particularly because of its antiques.
The pictures in this post were taken in early 2011. A bit cold, a bit damp, but you should get a feel for the place from them as very little will have changed.
The Chesapeake Mill is the main antiques shop in Wickham and it’s very easily spotted on account of its timber frame and abundance of all signs on the exterior, particularly vintage dog food signs. The mill itself has an interesting architectural history in that those wooden beams came from the heavy frigate USS Chesapeake which had fought the British in the War of 1812 then been captured, pressed into service for the British, and ultimately broken up.
