THERE IS NOT much to see at Little London, a village in Hampshire, located between Basingstoke and Reading. It is a part of the civil parish of nearby Pamber. The place is spread out along its single main road. There are several attractive houses, and new ones are being constructed in the neighbourhood. This upsets the long-established locals who point out that apart from a single pub, there are no other amenities, not even a village shop.  The one pub, The Plough Inn, an old-fashioned looking building, was closed when we passed, but it is highly recommended judging by the reviews it receives.

Although Little London has an appropriately small village hall, I could not find any church in the place. On an old map surveyed in 1894, there is a Methodist chapel shown in the village. Today, the building, constructed in 1867, has been repurposed, and now provides bed and breakfast accommodation. 

If you are a church enthusiast, it is worth driving 1.8 miles northwest of Little London to the much larger village of Tadley. Using your navigating equipment, find Malthouse Lane, and drive carefully along this narrow road. Soon you will arrive at a building that could easily be mistaken for country cottage except that it is set amid a small cemetery. It is Tadley United Reform Church (‘URC’). A notice board near its entrance reads: “‘Old Meeting’ United Reform Church (1662)”. According to the establishment’s website, the reason that this church was designed to look like a house from the outside was it was built during the period when non-conformist worship was a punishable offence. It was best to disguise the purpose of the building. The website related:

“The original worship area consisted of an open space with a gallery on three sides which was accessed by an external staircase. It is recorded as being able to seat 450 people, although this must have been very cosy! It is understood that during the times of persecution there was a hidden door below the pulpit to allow the presiding minister to escape if there was a raid. The worship area was extended in … 1828 to accommodate an additional 100 worshipers and the ‘School Room’ added to the side maybe around 1848.”

It appears that although it is not a ‘mainstream’ church, it is one of the closest to Little London.  

By now, you might be wondering about Little London’s name. Apart from the village described above, there are 17 more Little Londons in England and Wales. Several of these, including that near Tadley, are within about 50 miles of London. One explanation of the name is that it was a place to which Londoners came when fleeing the Great Plague of 1665. Another possibility is that it was a place where people from London came to assist with the harvest. Another suggestion is that Little London is a corruption of Little Loddon, the Loddon being a stream that runs close to the village.

Hampshire’s own Little London is near to the site of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, which is close to the town of Silchester. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Little London was a centre for brickmaking, and it was from places such as this that the Romans built their nearby town. The brickfields at Little London were close to The Plough Inn.

Pleasant as it is, Little London lives up to the first part of its name. It is truly little.