Mayflower Stephen Hopkins & your English Heritage

Mayflower Stephen Hopkins & your English Heritage From the ancient village of Upper Clatford in southern England, a warm welcome.

Upper Clatford was the birthplace of your ancestor Stephen Hopkins.This FB page has been created to bridge the Atlantic & bring you into the heart of your ancestral home

11/10/2026

A Pilgrim’s House Part 2 of 3

Part 2 of a trilogy that Nick created for me several years ago when we started sending out the church roof tiles to you 🥰

10/10/2026

A Pilgrim’s House Part 1 of 3

Part 1 of a trilogy that Nick created for me several years ago when we started sending out the church roof tiles to you 🥰

🍂 A Magical Autumn Walk Around Upper Clatford 🍁 Birthplace of your ancestor Stephen Hopkins…..It is truly enchanting bei...
07/10/2026

🍂 A Magical Autumn Walk Around Upper Clatford 🍁 Birthplace of your ancestor Stephen Hopkins…..

It is truly enchanting being on an autumn walk through my beautiful village of Upper Clatford especially on a soft, rainy morning like today, when the village seems very still and quiet except for the little raindrops dripping on tbe leaves and making them move…

After months of baking hot sunshine and relentless heat, the rain has arrived like a blessing. Yesterday I was roasting hot in a T-shirt; today I’m wrapped up in a raincoat, listening to the gentle patter of raindrops plop on my hood. What a difference a day makes!

The paths are carpeted in soft, soggy brown leaves and I kicked my wellies through them for fun just like i used to as a child. Little pieces of autumn magic.

Surprisingly, there were very few people about. It felt like the village and countryside had been left entirely to the birds, the trees and me.

My walk took me up Red Rice Road, before leading me towards Bury Ring, hidden amongst the trees. I love walking in to this ancient enclosure, it’s always so quiet and mysterious. Bury Ring is the remains of an Iron Age hillfort, a defended settlement dating back more than two thousand years. Its banks and ditches still lie quietly amongst the woodland (back in its day, it would have been clear of the trees that now shroud it) holding the memory of the people who once lived, worked and sought shelter here, long before roads, houses and familiar footpaths shaped the landscape.

Inside the ring, the trees are close together and dark, forming secret, slightly eerie green tunnels all along the overgrown footpath..almost enchanted and at any moment, someone from the distant past might emerge between the trunks. Only the occasional pitter-patter of soft raindrops landing on my hood disturbed the silence.

I walked only halfway around the ring and wandered out from the shadowy enclosure and into the wide, bleak openness of Bury Meadows.

Perhaps that is what I love most about living here. Upper Clatford is a place where history lingers in the air, in the ancient earthworks of Bury Ring, in the old village lanes and cosy thatched homes and in its connection with Stephen Hopkins, born here and later a passenger on the Mayflower.

Today’s walk felt like more than a stroll through autumn. It was a journey through layers of time, beneath my feet, among the ancient trees and across the rain-soaked meadows.

A quiet, soggy, wonderfully magical morning in one of the loveliest corners of Hampshire. 🍂

Mayflower Pilgrims & your English Heritage Group ⚓️

From Upper Clatford to Massachusetts…a Mayflower homecoming! 🌿⛵We were delighted to welcome several visitors from the US...
05/10/2026

From Upper Clatford to Massachusetts…a Mayflower homecoming! 🌿⛵

We were delighted to welcome several visitors from the USA to our little village last week, all descendants of our famous former resident, , Mayflower passenger and one of the early settlers of Plymouth Colony.

Stephen Hopkins has a rather wonderful connection with Upper Clatford. He was born and baptised here and his parents were tenant farmers at Norman Court Farm. Before setting sail on the Mayflower in 1620, he lived here in the village, where his early story began. Four centuries later, his descendants are still finding their way back to the place where it all started making Upper Clatford a rather special little dot on the Mayflower map!

Among our visitors were the lovely Lynn and Chuck from Massachusetts, who were given a proper Upper Clatford welcome. Their tour took in the village, including a peek inside one of our beautiful thatched cottages, a visit to Norman Court Farm, and a trip to our historic church.

And, in true village style, they didn’t just admire the church bells they actually got to ring them, thanks to our wonderful team of bell ringers! 🔔

There was also time for lunch at the Crook, where village favourites Phil and Angie joined them, before welcoming our visitors into their lovely home for refreshments and a good dose of English hospitality.

A huge thank you to all our wonderful volunteers who helped make their visit so memorable. It takes a village to give a proper village welcome and ours certainly rose to the occasion!

There is no charge for our meet-and-greets or village welcomes, but we are always very grateful for a donation towards the church coffers, helping us to look after this precious part of our village heritage for future generations.

Who knows… perhaps the next generation of Mayflower descendants will be making the journey back to Upper Clatford too. We’ll have the kettle on! ☕🇬🇧

04/10/2026

Sunday service this morning at

A few more pics from this evening….
25/09/2026

A few more pics from this evening….

25/09/2026

This evening…..

Birdsong at All Saints Church, Upper Clatford, a beautiful, peaceful spot with a remarkable history. This is where Stephen Hopkins, Mayflower passenger was baptised. A little piece of history, surrounded by birdsong and countryside. 🐦⛪️🌿

🌿 A Little Medieval Mystery in the Village 🌿Every old house seems to have a story or two hiding somewhere… and sometimes...
24/09/2026

🌿 A Little Medieval Mystery in the Village 🌿

Every old house seems to have a story or two hiding somewhere… and sometimes those stories turn up in the most unexpected places.

A small piece of decorated floor tile has recently been discovered in the garden of an old 16th-century thatched house in a Hampshire village.

What makes it particularly intriguing is its appearance.

The tile is a warm, earthy terracotta colour and carries what appears to be a fleur-de-lis design. It is noticeably uneven and irregular, with a wonderfully rustic surface and a very gritty, sandy texture running through the clay.

It certainly doesn’t have the perfectly uniform appearance of a modern tile.

And that raises an intriguing question…

Could this little fragment be medieval?

There is certainly some fascinating history in the village. All Saints Church has medieval origins dating back to the 12th century, and this part of Hampshire has been settled for many hundreds of years.

Hampshire also has a rich tradition of medieval decorated floor tiles. Wi******er Cathedral and other important ecclesiastical sites in the county have produced examples featuring fleur-de-lis and other elaborate designs.

Medieval tiles were handmade from earthenware clay, often containing grit and natural mineral inclusions. Designs could be impressed into the soft clay and filled with a contrasting pale slip before being fired, sometimes with a glaze applied afterwards.

So how did a tile like this end up in a garden?

Perhaps it came from an earlier building on the site. Perhaps it was reused during alterations to the old house. It may even have been brought from elsewhere as reclaimed building material.

And with a medieval church so close by, it is tempting to let the imagination wander…

Could this once have been part of a medieval floor, walked across by people hundreds of years ago? Your ancestors maybe???

For now, nobody can say for certain.

But the uneven handmade form, gritty clay, rustic surface and fleur-de-lis decoration certainly make this a fascinating little survivor from the past.

Sometimes history isn’t found in museums.

Sometimes it is simply lying quietly in the soil, waiting to be noticed.

The tile has not yet been professionally dated, so its medieval origin remains a possibility rather than a confirmed identification.

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