Dogmersfield

Dogmersfield is a small village lying between the towns of Fleet and Hartley Wintney located in Hampshire, England.

Map of Dogmersfield, Hook, UK

Places of interest include the village church, which is dedicated to All Saints, the Queen's Head pub and a mansion house known variously as Dogmersfield House or Dogmersfield Park. Henry VIII's elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, and his bride Catherine of Aragon are said to have stayed in the village.

There is also a small school (Dogmersfield Primary School) which was built in 1911 and currently has just over 100 pupils housed in five classrooms. Every year the school still has a May Fair with traditional Maypole dancing and crowning of the May Queen. Until very recently, pupils had PE lessons on Dogmersfield cricket pitch, which is adjacent to the school. Dogmersfield School is often involved in sporting activities with other schools in the area.

The Basingstoke Canal runs through Dogmersfield and a lake (Tundry Pond) is situated in the grounds of Dogmersfield House (now a hotel). Local legend says that Dogmersfield village was originally built on the area that is now Tundry Pond, until the owner of Dogmersfield House decided he wanted a view of a lake from his window. It was on his orders the houses were moved, brick by brick, to their current location. The house, originally built by the St John-Mildmays in 1727, was Reeds School in the mid-1900s and later became the Noviciate and house of studies for the De La Salle Order, a Roman Catholic institute of teaching Brothers. After they left the site, it was partially burned down, the remainder falling into disrepair. It was subsequently restored and enlarged, and then occupied by both the Amdahl Corporation and then Systems Union. In 2005, the estate was bought and is now the Four Seasons Hotel.

Following the De La Salle ownership of the house it was sold to the Vallance family, the owners of Daneshill School, who relocated from its previous home in Old Basing, at Daneshill House. Owing to increasingly stringent fire safety regulations and market forces it became uneconomic to accommodate boarders in the main house and smaller premises were sought. The house was both a family home and a school. The property was sold on to an investor who had the intention of opening a health farm; however this never happened owing to a devastating fire that took place in 1981.