The village of Bank seems to begin in the 16th century, as a settlement
encroaching on the Forest.[3] The original name was apparently "Annis' Bank".[3] The oldest surviving building is Japonica Cottage, which dates from the 16th century.[4] Old Cottage dates from the 17th century, although it is nowadays dominated by a 20th-century wing.[4] To the east of Bank were the large 18th-century estates of Cuffnells and Wilverley,[1] and the inhabitants of Bank may have been involved in servicing these two large estates and their associated farms.[1] The Oak Inn is a two-storey late 18th century building of painted brick,[5] which may have been a cider house in the 18th century.[6]
Nearby is a small cluster of cottages which go by the name of Gritnam. It is likely that Gritnam is the place recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name "Greteha".[7][8] It was one of the 51 manors held by Waleran the Hunter as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.[7] Prior to 1066, Bolla had possessed it from King Edward.[7] Gritnam is also mentioned in 1300 as "Grettenhamdune" (i.e. Gritnam down).[9] The name might mean "the gravelly place,"[9] or "the great homestead."[10] The famous New Forest "snakecatcher" Brusher Mills was reported living in an old charcoal burner's hut by the boundary of nearby Gritnam Wood in around 1895.[11]
The Liberal MP, Robert John Price, was a resident of Bank,[12] as was the Liberal M.P. John Fletcher Moulton,[13] who, when he entered the House of Lords in 1912, took the title "Baron Moulton of Bank".[14]
Several literary figures have stayed in Bank. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of the sensation novel, Lady Audley's Secret, built Annesley House, with her husband, in the 1880s.[14] They used it as a country home, whilst retaining a main residence in Richmond, Surrey.[14] Her son, the novelist W. B. Maxwell, also stayed here as a young man.[15] The house was later used as a Barnardo's children's home.[14]
In Christmas and New Year, 1904–05, Virginia Woolf stayed at Lane End House in Bank with her sister and two brothers.[16] Later, Rupert Brooke stayed at a cottage called "Beech Shade" in Gritnam.[10] He would later write to his friend, Bryn Olivier, about his recovery from depression in Bank:
Then there was Bank, Bryn. For three whole months I'd been infinitely wretched & ill, wretcheder than I'd thought possible. And then for a few days it all dropped completely away, and — oh! how lovely Bank was! — I suppose I should never be able to make you see what beauty is to me, — physical beauty — , just even the seeing it in spite of all the hungers that come.[17]
