A History of Greatham

The present-day Parish of Greatham lies in the county of Hampshire, on either side of the old Farnham (Surrey) to Petersfield Turnpike. The ‘Domesday Book’ of 1086 recorded Greatham as being ‘Terra Regis’, a Latin term meaning ‘Land of the King’, indicating that this was once a Royal manor belonging to William the Conqueror himself. In later years, the manor passed through many families by marriage and by purchase, including the Devenish, Marshall, Norton, Freeland, Love, Chawner and Coryton families. The name of the village has changed many times, however slightly, over the years. Greteham, Grietham, Gretham, Grutham, Gratham all derived from two separate words, the ‘Old-English’ (Anglo-Saxon) ‘ham’, meaning ‘village, estate, manor or homestead’ and an old Scandinavian word ‘griot’ or ‘gryt’, meaning ‘stones or stony ground’. Thus the name ‘Greotham’ came into being, literally a ‘stony estate’ or ‘farm on gravel’.