| Grateley |
| Grateley derives its name from the great lea or
meadow which is southwest of St Leonard's Church which was built in the
13th century and is believed to go back to Saxon times. The village
stands in the northwest of the county close to the border with
Wiltshire. It was in AD925 that King Athelstan founded the village from a council which it is believed was held at either Manor Farm or from the Iron Age fort that sits on Quarley Hill overlooking the village. Grateley is divided into two with one part being residential and grouped around the church and Manor Farm and the Plough Inn and the other sits a mile away and has had large developments added to it. The two are connected by what was a private road leading from Grateley House owned by the Boucher family to the railway station. The Shire Horse hotel once belonged to the Boucher family and it was then called the Railway Hotel. The area around the church has houses that were once part of the estate owned by the Marquis of Winchester who also owned Amport House which lies nearby. At the beginning of the 20th century only 24 dwellings were in the village and a population of 226 has been recorded, now this has increased considerably to over 200 with a new housing development near the station (mentioned above) and a council estate which replaces the old Nissen huts that the army had here in WWII. But there is a general store and the villages is served by a bus service into nearby Andover and the railway station has now been downgraded to a halt, but there is still a thriving farming community and a lot of the villagers now commute to the nearest town or even up to London.
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