North Stoneham Park

In 1599, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton sold the North Stoneham estate to Sir Thomas Fleming, whose descendants owned it until 1953.

In 1967, Pevsner described in his Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight how the parkland formed "a narrow but effective green belt between Eastleigh and Southampton".

[4] From 1991, Hampshire County Council recognized that efforts should be made to conserve, restore, and enhance North Stoneham Park as a viable historic and natural landscape, and commissioned a number of surveys and evaluations.

[5] [North Stoneham Park’s] landscape is almost unique at present in that it is one of the few ancient manors in England where development can be traced in an almost uninterrupted line for two thousand years.

The Eastleigh-Southampton Strategic Gap Planning and Management Framework (1993) set out the objectives to reduce further damage to the landscape, bring portions of land into public ownership as a ‘recreational and educational resource’, and protect and reinstate surviving features.

Nevertheless, it retains a large number of historic features worth safeguarding, is a significant element in the Eastleigh Southampton urban fringe, and has great potential for future use if ownership problems can be overcome.

[8] In 2008, Heritage Lottery-funding was awarded towards the project in order to return the Stoneham War Shrine to its original condition and further the conservation of the surrounding parkland.

The Plan states that the area "is not subject to major environmental constraints" and that "it is acknowledged that it forms part of an historic landscape, but much of this has now become degraded.