Ringwood

"RINGWOOD, a parish, post and market town in the hundred of Ringwood, county Hants, 29 miles S.W. of Winchester, 20 S.W. of Southampton, and 18½ from Salisbury. It is a junction station on the Salisbury section of the London and South-Western railway. It comprises the hamlets of Crow, High Town, Upper and Lower Kingston, and Poulner, with the extra parochial liberties of Burley Lodge, Godshill, Linwood, and Woodgreen. It is situated on the border of the New Forest, on the eastern bank of the river Avon, which, after dividing eastward into three branches, over each of which is a stone bridge, again unites its waters into a broad expanse, with an island in the middle, crossed by a causeway. Ringwood was a place of importance at a very early period, and was originally named Regnum, or the town of the Regni, mentioned by Antoninus. It was occupied both by the Romans and Britons as a military post, and was called Renoved and Regnewood by the Saxons, who set much store by it. "

[From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]