Sopley
| Sopley | |
| Hampshire | |
|---|---|
 The Woolpack Inn, Sopley village | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SZ158970 |
| Location: | 50°46’19"N, 1°46’38"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Christchurch |
| Postcode: | BH23 |
| Dialling code: | 01425 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | New Forest |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
New Forest West |
Sopley is a village in the New Forest in the south-west of Hampshire, on the old main road from Christchurch to Ringwood, on the east bank of the River Avon, three miles north of Christchurch.
The wider parish extends east as far as Thorny Hill and includes the hamlets of Shirley, Avon and Ripley. The area is mainly rural with less than 300 dwellings.[1] The village sits on the fringes of the New Forest, just outside the bounds of the 'New Forest National Park' but within the perambulation boundary of the forest. Most of the buildings date back to the 19th century but there are more modern houses to the north.[1]
Moorlands College in the village is one of the largest evangelical theological seminaries in the country: the college was built on the site of the old manor house which was demolished in 1988.[1]
History
Sopley is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086,[2] recording that befoe the Conquest it had been held by one Edric, but by 1086 it belonged to William son of Stur.[2] By that time 4 hides of the manor and all the woodland had been absorbed into the New Forest.[3] At the end of the 13th century, records are found of two distinct manors of Sopley.[3] One of the manors was for two hundred years part of the lands of the Earls of Ormond.[3] The other manor was owned, first by the Le Moyne family, and then, like nearby Ibsley, by the Stourton Barons.[3] In the middle of the 16th century, both manors were sold to the Berkeley family, and the two manors became one again.[3]
A mill in Sopley is recorded in the Domesday Book, on which an annual levy of 10 shillings and 875 eels was imposed.[1]
In 1575 Sir John Berkeley conveyed the manor to William Waller, and it eventually descended to the Tichborne Baronets, until the Henry Joseph Tichborne, the 4th Baronet, sold the manor around 1725.[3] The manor house was rebuilt in 1790 by the then owner, James Compton: he was a sheep farmer who, along with the local vicar, the Reverend Willis; introduced merino sheep form Spain to the area.[4] Sopley became for a while, an important specialist wool producing area.[4]
In 1834 the manor house, then known as Sopley Park, was sold to wealthy London merchant and owner of the Schweppes company; John Kemp-Welch.[4] He in turn sold it in 1885. The house was used as nursing home and two independent schools at various times during its post war history and was demolished in 1988 to make way for a bible college.[1]
RAF Sopley was a Royal Air Force base near the village built in the early fifties as a domestic camp and used by the MOD until 1974. In the late 70s and early 80s it was used to accommodate refugees from Vietnam. It is now a park.
Near to the village was the Ground Controlled Interception radar station, built in 1943 to detect, locate and track enemy aircraft and provide inland radar coverage. It was upgraded after the War, during the 1950s, with a two-storey underground operations centre.[5]
Parish church
The Parish Church of St Michaels and All Angels stands prominently on a high mound overlooking the mill and the River Avon. It has been variously proposed that this high mound may have been the site of an earlier pagan site or the base camp of Anglo-Saxon invaders who travelled up the Avon from nearby Christchurch.[6]
Parts of the church date from the 11th century, and it is recorded that a church here was endowed by Earl Godwin in 1050.[1] Much of the church as seen to day though is later: built in the 13th century from rubble ironstone dressed with stone brought from Binstead on the Isle of Wight.[1][6] The church is a Grade II* listed building.[7]
About the village
It is mainly rural with fewer than 300 dwellings and narrow lanes. The main Christchurch to Ringwood road passes through the centre of Sopley village. A small stream, known locally as Sopley Brook, cuts through the centre of the village and enters the river Avon south of the Parish church of St. Michael and All Angels. The surrounding area includes farmland, flood plain, and open forest.[1]
The Sopley Mill was built across different ages. It is not known whether the mill recorded in Domesday stood in the same location. A third floor for flour storage was constructed in 1878 and the original undershot wheel was later superseded by a turbine.[1][8] The mill remained in service until 1946.[1]
Much of the parish is within a large conservation area. The meadows to the west of the village are part of the River Avon flood plain and designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[1]
The Woolpack Inn sits in the centre of the one-way system in the middle of the village. It was initially built as a cottage with a wool store in 1725 but has served as a public house since 1783.[8] Built in brick with a thatched roof; it became a grade II listed building in 1986.[9]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Sopley) |
- Sopley Parish Council
- A History of the County of - Volume : Parishes: Sopley (Victoria County History)@Victoria County History of Hampshire
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 About Sopley: Sopley Parish Council
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sopley in the Domesday Book
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 A History of the County of Hampshire - Volume 5 pp 127-132: Parishes: Sopley (Victoria County History)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Moxey, Sarah (1997). Avon Valley Footpath Guide. Wellington: Halsgrove. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-874448-26-6.
- ↑ @"RAF Sopley". PastScapes. English Heritage. http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1136991&sort=4&search=all&criteria=ROTOR&rational=q&recordsperpage=60&p=1&move=n&nor=136&recfc=0.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Moxey, Sarah (1997). Avon Valley Footpath Guide. Wellington: Halsgrove. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-874448-26-6.
- ↑ Template:NHLEIIChruch of St Michael and All Angels@Church of St Michaels and All Angels
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Moxey, Sarah (1997). Avon Valley Footpath Guide. Wellington: Halsgrove. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-874448-26-6.
- ↑ "The Woolpack". British Listed Buildings. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-143779-the-woolpack-sopley.
