Hartley Wintney

"HARTLEY-WINTNEY, a parish in the lower half of the hundred of Odiham, county Hants, 2½ miles from the Winchfield station on the London and South-Western railway. The land is principally arable and meadow, and watered by the river Loddon. The population is mostly agricultural. It is the head of a Poor-law Union, and of a superintendent registry district. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Winchester, value £108. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. There is a Baptist chapel. The parochial charities produce £11 per annum. A Cistercian nunnery, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. John the Baptist, was founded here in the reign of William the Conqueror. At the Dissolution it contained a prioress and 17 nuns, and had a revenue of £69 1s. Hartley Rao is in this parish, and is a meet for the Bramshill hounds. A large cattle fair is held on the 4th of December, and a fair and races on the 29th June. "

[From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]