| Romsey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eleven miles southwest of Winchester and covering an area of 493 hecatres and with around 13,000 inhabitants is the market town of Romsey famous for its links with Lord Louis Mountbatten a previous Viceroy of India. The town has developed where the routes between Southampton, Salisbury and Winchester cross the River Test and where the lowest points at which the river can be bridged. It was here in ASD907 that Benedictine nuns built a community and a Norman Abbey which is still the most dominant part of the town and stands on their Saxon church. Both James I in 1607 and William II in 1698 granted charters to the town. The wool trade helped to make Romsey prosperous in earlier times but this declined in the 19th century but it was soon replaced by a thriving brewing industry, you often used to see the signs by the roadside "YOU ARE ENTERING THE STRONG COUNTRY" referring to the brewery, Strong and Company of Romsey. Sadly this has been taken over by a national brewers and the old brewery converted into apartments. Here the streams of the River Test still flow through the town and years ago this provided a source of energy for the mills on its banks. Now it is famous for its salmon.
In the town centre is The Square which has a grand statue of Lord Palmerston which was made by Matthew noble, and there is also what was an old inn that still has the hammered sign from which Fairfax hanged many of his followers. The home of Lord Palmerston was Broadlands which is a grand stately house on the banks of the Test on the outskirts of the town and it was that he spent his childhood. The house has been enlarged since the days when James I stayed here and the present house built in 1767 has ground landscaped by Capability Browne and Henry Holland. In 1947 Lord Louis Mountbatten lent the house to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinbugh for their honeymoon. And later Prince Charles and Princess Diana spent time here, it is now the home of Lord and Lady Romsey.
Just off the town centre is a narrow alley with a row of buildings in the middle, one of which is of interest, this is Church Courtm and one side are 18th century cottages while on the other is the wattle and daub walled Tudor cottage. Between these is King John's House which has been used as a workhouse and is now a museum which also houses the local heritage centre. The original stone doorways remain and the roof is of oak and there are many bits of graffiti cut into the plaster presumably with the point of a dagger around 1306 during a visit by Edward I and messages have been left such as: God advise me at
God's will. IMAGES OF ROMSEY
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