| Wellow |
| Canada has moved to England! For it is here in the
south of Wellow parish that there is a Canada Corner, the origin of
which is unknown, especially so since no Canadian troops were stationed
here during WWII or anyone has any connections with the country. There is also Boxing Corner but that did have prize fights and stands between the junction of Buttons Lane and Romsey Road, but later it was near the county boundary as par of Wellow was in the county of Wiltshire and the fighters fled over the county border if the people arrived. The parishes of East and West Wellow lie three miles west of Romsey and comprise mostly of wood and commons on the River Blackwater and its tributaries. The large scatter village of West Wellow is situated along the A36 trunk road from Southampton to Salisbury and on to the west country, while the much smaller East Wellow has a 13th century church that has some 13th century wall paintings, but this little church is more famous for who it has buried in its churchyard. For here lies one of England's greatest Heroines, Florence Nightingale who lived for many years at Embley Park which was a large Elizabethan-style mansion and which is now a renowned private school. The grounds retain much of the original plant collections of rhododendrons and other exotic species,
East Wellow church is dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch. As well as the memorial to Florence Nightingale there are some momentoes of her life inside the church she actually died in London in 1910 at the age of 90. Not far from Embley Park was a stone bridge, built in 1818, that was known as the Sounding Arch and legend has it that a phantom coach and horses could be heard thundering over the bridge on New Years Eve. Today the bridge has gone but there is a seat made from the stones of the bridge in 1966 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ST MARGARET
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