South Baddesley

South Baddesley
240px St. Mary's Church, South Baddesley
South Baddesley  South Baddesley shown within Hampshire
OS grid reference	SZ3510696570
District	New Forest
Shire county	Hampshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LYMINGTON
Postcode district	SO41
Dialling code	01590
Police	Hampshire
Fire	Hampshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	New Forest West
List of places UK England Hampshire

South Baddesley is a small village in the civil parish of Boldre in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire, England. It lies 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north-east from Lymington, its nearest town.

The Groaning Tree of Baddesley

In his Remarks on Forest Scenery, published in 1791, local author William Gilpin relates the history of "the groaning-tree of Badesly". He explains how around the year 1750 a local villager in South Baddesley frequently heard a sound like a "person in extreme agony" behind his house. He eventually discovered that the noise emanated from an elm tree. Within a few weeks the fame of the tree was such that people came from far and wide to listen to the tree, including Frederick, Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta. Many explanations were offered, both natural and supernatural for the phenomenon, but no adequate explanation could be found. The groaning continued, intermittently, for "eighteen or twenty months", until the owner decided to bore a hole in the trunk in an attempt to discover the cause. The tree never groaned again, and eventually the tree was deliberately uprooted, but nothing unusual was found.

See also

• North Baddesley

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• The story of St. Mary's Church South Baddesley, Boldre and South Baddesley Benefice
• South Baddesley Church of England Primary School