Stratfield Saye

"STRATFIELDSAYE, a parish, partly in the hundred of Reading, county Berks, but chiefly in the lower half division of Holdshott hundred, county Hants, 8 miles N.E. of Basingstoke, its post town, and 2 S.E. of Mortimer-Stratfield railway station. It is situated on the river Loddon, and contains the tything of Beechhill. Stratfieldsaye was the seat of the Sayes till Richard II.'s time, and afterwards of the D'Abridgecourts and Pitts, but was bought by parliament of Lord Rivers in 1815, and presented by the government to the Duke of Wellington. The Bramshill hounds meet in this parish, The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Winchester, value £669. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. The parochial charities produce about £43 per annum, of which £22 go to Pitt's school. There is also an infant school, supported by the Duke of Wellington. A Benedictine priory, in honour of St. Leonard, was founded here in 1170 by Nicholas de Stoteville, as a cell to the Abbey of Valemont in Normandy, and at the suppression was granted to Eton College. "

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