Enham Alamein is a village and
civil parishIn England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and in some places the lowest tier of local government, below districts and counties. A civil parish can alternatively be known as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council; and in a limited number of...
about 2½ miles north of
AndoverAndover is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is situated on the River Anton some 18.5 miles west of the town of Basingstoke, 18.5 miles north-west of the city of Winchester and 25 miles north of the city of Southampton...
in the north of
HampshireHampshire , sometimes historically Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, , or the County of Southampton, is a county on the south coast of England. The county borders , Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was named "Knight's Enham" until 1945.
About a kilometer south along the A343 road from the current site of Enham Alamein is the dein of Knight's Enham. This is a small collection of 3 or 4 houses and a 12th century church. It is currently (2009) on the north edge of the suburban spread of
Andover-Places:In the United Kingdom:*Andover, Hampshire, EnglandIn Canada:*Andover, New Brunswick*Perth-Andover, New BrunswickIn the United States:*Andover, Connecticut*Andover, Florida*Andover, Illinois*Andover, Iowa*Andover, Kansas*Andover, Maine...
.
Enham Alamein and Upper Enham are the south and north ends of a village which is a little over a kilometer long.
Enham Alamein is a village and
civil parishIn England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and in some places the lowest tier of local government, below districts and counties. A civil parish can alternatively be known as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council; and in a limited number of...
about 2½ miles north of
AndoverAndover is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is situated on the River Anton some 18.5 miles west of the town of Basingstoke, 18.5 miles north-west of the city of Winchester and 25 miles north of the city of Southampton...
in the north of
HampshireHampshire , sometimes historically Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, , or the County of Southampton, is a county on the south coast of England. The county borders , Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was named "Knight's Enham" until 1945.
About a kilometer south along the A343 road from the current site of Enham Alamein is the dein of Knight's Enham. This is a small collection of 3 or 4 houses and a 12th century church. It is currently (2009) on the north edge of the suburban spread of
Andover-Places:In the United Kingdom:*Andover, Hampshire, EnglandIn Canada:*Andover, New Brunswick*Perth-Andover, New BrunswickIn the United States:*Andover, Connecticut*Andover, Florida*Andover, Illinois*Andover, Iowa*Andover, Kansas*Andover, Maine...
.
Enham Alamein and Upper Enham are the south and north ends of a village which is a little over a kilometer long. Enham Alamein has a museum
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/779934 about the
Battle of El AlameinThe Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The battle lasted from 23 October to 5 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance...
, and a factory.
Enham
From
Anglo-SaxonOld English , also called Anglo-Saxon, is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary...
ēan-hām or
ēan-hamm = "
lambDomestic sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
homestead" or "enclosure by a river, for lambs".
The name is recorded in 1316 as Enham Militis (= "the soldier's Enham").
The name "Knight's Enham" is recorded from 1398 and refers to a
knight's feeUnder the system of medieval European feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud, feoff, or fee, often consisted of inheritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a liege lord, generally to a vassal, in return for a form of allegiance, originally to give him the means to fulfill his military...
held here by Matthew de Columbers in the mid 13th century. In 1900 it was a group of a few houses.
Alamein
In 1918 a charity named Enham was set up, with the support of
King George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 through World War I until his death in 1936...
and
Queen MaryMary of Teck was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India as the consort of King-Emperor George V. By birth, she was a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, with the style Serene Highness...
. A 1,000 acre estate in the village was bought for it and adapted to house and rehabilitate employ soldiers returning disabled from WW I with "the effects of
amputationAmputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for such problems...
s,
neurastheniaNeurasthenia is a psycho-pathological term first used by George Miller Beard in 1869 to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, neuralgia and depressed mood.[The term had been used at least as early as 1829 to label a mechanical weakness of the actual...]
, shellshock or
feverFever is a frequent medical sign that describes an increase in internal body temperature to levels above normal...
". By the end of 1919, 150 men were residing in and about Enham Place and Littlecote House.
Much of its land had to be sold to pay expenses during the 1920's and 1930's.
Some of its patients remained there and set up in jobs such as
carter- Musical groups and artists :*Carter , contemporary American artist*Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, British indie band 1988–1998*Carter Family, American country music group 1927–1943*Carter's Chord, country music group founded in 2006...
s, hauliers, market gardeners and dairy farmers.
In WWII many of the injured from the
Battle of El AlameinThe Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The battle lasted from 23 October to 5 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance...
were brought back to the UK and to the recovery centre in Knight's Enham. This close association of servicemen and the village continued during and after the war.
In November 1945, two public subscriptions in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
raised £6,000,000 to thank Britain for ridding their country of the Axis forces. A small part went to build a new UN Forces Sports Club in
GeziraGezira Island is located in the Nile River, in central Cairo. Gezira is best known for its up-market residential district Zamalek. Cairo Tower, the Gezira Sporting Club, and the Cairo Opera House are also located on Gezira, as are numerous embassies....
; most was given to the charity Enham to care for disabled ex-servicemen. This greatly improved the charity Enham's finances, and let them build their disabled ex-servicemen's centre as it is. In thankfulness for this the component "Alamein" was appended to the village's name.
In Enham Alamein there is still a center run by a
charitable trustA charitable trust is a trust established for charitable purposes, and is a more specific term than "charitable organisation".-United States:...
that provides work for disabled members of the community, including ex-servicemen. The Enham Trust has recently sold some of the land it owned to property developers, and is looking to sell more.
Arabic
Al `Alamain اَلْعَلَمَيْن means "the two
flagA flag is a piece of fabric, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used symbolically for signaling or identification. It is most commonly used to symbolize a country...
s".
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