Hartley Wintney

Hartley Wintney is a village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire.

Location and character

Hartley Wintney is located at gbmapping|SU764567 in the Hart district of North-East Hampshire. The parish includes the joined village of Phoenix Green to the south and surrounding hamlets of Dipley, West Green, Elvetham and Hartfordbridge, as well as large wooded areas such as Yateley Heath Wood and part of Hazeley Heath. The River Hart flows to the north-east of the village. The River Whitewater forms the western parish boundary and the M3 motorway forms the southern boundary. The nearest railway station is located in Winchfield, and is signposted from the village.

The village has a typical wide Hampshire main street, lined with local businesses, shops, public houses and a Baptist church. It is particularly well-known for a proliferation of good antique shops. At the southern end is the village green and duckpond (with thatched duck house). The red-brick parish church of St John over looks the green and the elegant Mildmay oak trees beyond. The oaks were planted by Lady St John Mildmay in response to the call, in 1807, by Admiral Collingwood following the Battle of Trafalgar for landowners to plant oaks to provide timber for naval ships. The cricket green, home of the oldest cricket club in Hampshire, is behind the shops adjoining a second picturesque duckpond and Dutch-gabled farmhouse.

In 1831, the village (excluding Elvetham and Hartfordbridge) had a population of 1139. In 2004, the ward had a population of 4954 and is expected to only increase to 5022 by 2008. The village is twinned with Saint-Savin near Poitiers, France and with Malle, famous for its Trappist beer, near Antwerp in Belgium. [http://www.hartleypc.force9.co.uk/]

Notable buildings and structures

*Elvetham Hall now known as [http://www.elvethamhotel.co.uk The Elvetham Hotel] was a stately home rebuilt by Teulon in 1860. It was originally a secondary home of Queen Jane Seymour's father and her nephew entertained Queen Elizabeth I there. It is now a dedicated conference and banqueting venue with 70 hotel bedrooms.
*St Mary's Church is the original 13th century parish church, now redundant and owned by the Churches Conservation Trust. It has good wall paintings and a very large churchyard with some notable monuments.
*West Green House is an 18th century country house owned by the National Trust. The gardens are open to the public.
*Hartley Wintney cricket pitch is the oldest continually played on cricket pitch in the world.fact|date=December 2007

History

It is recorded in the 13th century as "Hertleye Wynteneye" which means "the clearing in the forest where the deer graze by Winta's island". Winta was probably a Saxon who owned the island in the marshes where a priory of Cistercian nuns was founded in the middle of the 12th century.

In prehistoric times, the area was probably fairly heavily wooded with a lake and a marshy area. Although Roman settlement here cannot be proved, there were Roman settlements not far away at Odiham and Silchester. A small settlement around a wooden church in the vicinity of St Mary's Church would possibly have existed in Saxon times. The village would have been included in the Hundred of Odiham in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was part of King Harold's royal estate at Odiham and after 1066 it became King William's land. About 100 years after the Conquest the lands comprising Hartley Wintney became a separate manor owned by the FitzPeters family. This family subsequently gave land to the Cistercians to found a priory of nuns. A deer park, which stretched from Odiham to the outskirts of the settlement and to the north, was used for 600 years by Royalty and others for hunting and the wood was used for fuel.

Notable residents

*During the Second World War, the village was the home of Field Marshal Alan Brooke, later Viscount Alanbrooke. He remained in the village until his death in 1963. His younger son, the third Viscount Alanbrooke still lives in the village. Field Marshal Brooke is buried in St Mary's churchyard, next to the remains of his daughter who was killed in a horse riding accident.
*Lieutenant-General Henry 'Hangman' Hawley, the infamous butcher at the Battle of Culloden, lived at West Green House and is buried in the family vault beneath St Mary's Church.
*William Lethaby, architect and architectural historian, is buried on the south side of St Mary's churchyard.
*William Lowe, the English cricketer, died in Hartley Wintney.
*Admiral Sir William Milbourne James was born here, in 1881.

Preservation Society

The Hartley Wintney Preservation Society has published "The Old Village of Hartley Wintney" by the local historian, David Gorsky, now in its fifth edition, which describes walks in the area with detailed points of historical interest on route. [http://www.hwpreservationsociety.org.uk/]