DURLEY
Durley is about 7½ miles North Eat of Southampton near Bishop's Waltham and has a population of around 500. it was first mentioned by its original name of  Deolage when Edward the Elder granted land to the Abbey of New Minster at Winchester. It was known as Doerleage then and it became the property of the Bishops of Winchester as part of their Manor of Bishop's Waltham. It is said that Durley Manor was the where the granddaughters of Oliver Cromwell lived but this has not be confirmed.

The village is a mixture of both old and new with new council estates and older private houses and bungalows and the school was originally Victorian but now has had dramatic alterations and extensions.

 
The Farmers Home public house has always a good show of flowers during the summer and a lot of its old
charm has been retained. Though it is set right on the edge of a narrow lane it has adequate parking and is
a popular venue with the locals.		  

The church of the Holy Cross

Many of the the surrounding farms are also fine and interesting buildings and Durley Mill shows that there was industry here in the past.

Gilbert White the naturalist was the curate of The Church of the Holy Cross in 1753 and served here for 18 months though he did in fact lodge at Bishop's Waltham. The church itself was built around 1300 but has had a lot of restorations and now stands on the high ground on the road out of the village towards Botley and Hedge End.

In the church yard can be found the grave of Louis Leopold Jenner who departed this earth in 1904 he was a research student at the Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine and on his grave stone is written

The Church of the Holy Cross dates back to about 1300 and has since undergone several additions and restorations. Gilbert White, the naturalist, became curate of Durley in September 1753 and held the post for eighteen months. He did not live at Durley, however, but took lodgings in Bishop's Waltham.

'devoted his gifts and his energies to the advancement of science and the lessening the suffering and sorrow of mankind and finally sacrificed his life in his labours for those ends, dying of enteric fever in the thirty-ninth year of his age'.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS