Vintage Hampshire

Combining old-fashioned character and contemporary cool, Wickham mixes up lifestyle expectations, reckons Emma Caulton

WICKHAM is a time-slip into Hampshire past. At its heart is one of the largest market squares in England lined with picturesque period properties. However, every street reveals architectural gems: among them 16th century timber-framed cottages with jettied upper floors, elegant Georgian townhouses with impressive column framed entrances and a row of curving 17th century cottages, making this historic village a hot spot for those looking for a character home.

Wickham is also a destination for those keen on vintage style as there’s an abundance of places selling retro pieces and antiques. Many head for Chesapeake Mill on Bridge Street – itself a fine specimen of industrial architecture constructed with timbers taken from its namesake the USS Chesapeake, captured by the Royal Navy in 1812. It’s now an antiques and collectables market with pottery, kitchenalia, country furniture and fine antiques. Back on The Square, browsers can discover Warwick Lane and Bay Tree Walk - mini-shopping centres that provide small businesses with an opportunity to showcase a variety of goods including brica-brac and Nordic-inspired interiors. On the road out of Wickham an Edwardian pumping station has been reinvented as Pump House Antiques, with fortnightly auctions and lots including brass school bells, milk churns and wood crates.

This sizeable village offers something of an old-fashioned shopping experience and has enough in the way of essentials to make it self-sufficient – the likes of bank, butcher, chemist, co-op, post office and proper hardware store - its air thick with that familiar whiff of wood and WD40.