Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ROMSEY

ROMSEY, a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a division in Hants. The town stands on the river Test, near the intersection of the Andover and Southampton railway with the Portsmouth and Salisbury railway, amid pleasant environs, 8 miles N W of Southampton; was known to the Saxons as Rumesea, and to the Normans as Romesyg; is thought, by some antiquaries, to occupy the site of a Roman town; grew to importanceunder the shadow of an abbey founded at it by Edwardthe Elder; suffered injury from an incursion of the Danesin 992; figured, for some time, as a seat of considerablemanufacture; was chartered by James I.; is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12councillors; is a seat of county courts and a polling-place; and has a head post-office, ‡ a railway station withtelegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a bridge, a town hall, a church, five dissenting chapels, a literary and scientific institution, news-rooms, young men'smutual improvement and reading associations, nationaland British schools, alms-houses, and aggregate charities £650. The abbey was originally a religions house forladies; was rebuilt and made a Benedictine nunnery, by Bishop Ethelwold, in the time of Edgar; underwent restoration, after being desolated by the Danes; enjoyedgreat favour from royal patrons; had as abbesses, adaughter of Edward the Elder and the youngest daughter of King Stephen, and, as inmates, a cousin of the Confessor and Queen Maud; possessed a revenue of £538 at the dissolution; and was then given to J. Bellow and R. Bigot. The archway of the precinct gatehouse stillstands. The church also stands, and is now the parishchurch; exhibits very fine Norman work, with portions of transition Norman, early decorated English, and perpendicular; comprises an aisled and seven-bayed nave, 134 feet long, 72½ feet wide, and 80 feet high, a transept, 121½ feet long and 611/3 feet high, a massive-central tower, 261/3. feet square and 92½ feet high, a Ladychapel, 60 feet long, and an ambulatory, 71¼ feet long; underwent restoration during the incumbency of the Hon. Rev. Gerard Noel, and again in 1865; and contains abroken tombstone of the abbess Joanna Gervas who died in 1349, a canopied effigies of a lady said to be the Princess Mary, and a statue of Sir W. Petty by West-macott. The town hall was built in 1866, at a cost ofabout £4, 500; is in the Italian style; and contains a council-chamber, county court offices, two reading-rooms, a library room, and other apartments. A weekly market is held on Thursday; and fairs, on Easter Monday, 26 Aug., and 8 Nov. Several woollen and other manufactures, which formerly were important, are now extinct; but there are still flax mills, paper mills, cornmills, malt-houses, breweries, and tanneries. Sir H. Petty and Jacob the author of a Law Dictionary, werenatives. Pop. of the town in 1851, 2,080; in 1861, 2, 116. Houses, 443.

The parish is divided into R.-Infra, conterminate with the borough, and R.-Extra, containing the places called Ashfield, Toothill, Whitenap, Cuperham, Lee, Mainstone, Ranvills, Spurshot, Stanbridge, Woodbury, and Wools. Acres, 7, 652. Real property, £22, 340; of which £200 are in gas-works, and £142 in fisheries. Pop. in 1851, 5, 654; in 1861, 5, 848. Houses, 1, 177. The manor, with Broadlands House, belonged to the late Lord Palmerston. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £351.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Winchester.—The sub-district contains also the parish of Nursling, and comprises 9, 776 acres. Pop., 6, 795. Houses, 1, 386. The district includes also the sub-district of Michelmersh, containing the parishes of Michelmersh, Timsbury, Mottisfont, East Wellow, Sherfield-English, Lockerley, and East Dean, and the extra-parochial tract of Dunwood, electorally in Hants, and the parishes of Plaitford and West Wellow, and the extra-parochial tract of Melchet Park, electorally in Wilts. Acres of the district, 28, 203. Poor-rates in 1863, £5,027. Pop. in 1851, 10, 840; in 1861, 10, 771. Houses, 2, 248. Marriages in 1863, 76; births, 337, of which 16 were illegitimate; deaths, 244, of which 95were at ages under 5 years, and 5 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 625; births, 3, 297; deaths, 2, 105. The places. of worship, in 1851, were 9 of the Church of England, with 3, 404 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 810 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 352 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 90 s. 4 of Wesleyans, with 430 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 130 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 22s. The schools were 15 public day schools, with 1,008 scholars; 17 private day schools, with 309 s.; 23 Sunday schools, with 1, 649 s.; and 1 evening schoolfor adults, with 52 s. The workhouse is in Romsey Extra; and, at the census of 1861, had 100 inmates. The division contains the hundreds of Redbridge, Thorngate-lower half and Kings-Sombourn-lower half. Acres, 97, 671. Pop. in 1851, 21,028. Houses, 4, 174.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a division"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Romsey AP/CP       Romsey SubD       Romsey RegD/PLU       Hampshire AncC
Place names: ROMESYG     |     ROMSEY     |     RUMESEA
Place: Romsey

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