Mottisfont is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Test Valley Test Valley is a local government district and borough in Hampshire, England, named after the valley of the River Test. Its council is based in Andover. The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by a merger of the boroughs of Andover and Romsey, a ...

district of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England, approximately 7 km north west of Romsey. The village is best known as the location of

Mottisfont Abbey Mottisfont Abbey is a historical priory and country estate in Hampshire, England. Sheltered in the valley of the River Test, the property is now operated by the National Trust. 393,250 people visited the site in 2019. The site includes the histo ...

. Much of the surrounding land, which is part of the Mottisfont Estate, and several other buildings in the village, are in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. The unusual name is probably derived from the Old English motes funta, meaning 'spring near the confluence' or 'spring of the moot' or possibly 'spring of the stone' (from the Old English motere: sonte). Mottisfont formerly had a railway station on the

Sprat and Winkle Line The Sprat and Winkle Line was the common name of the Andover to Redbridge railway line which ran between Andover and Redbridge in Hampshire, England. In the Romsey area it joined, and then left, the Salisbury to Southampton line. It was built by ...

, which closed in the 1960s. The nearby Dunbridge station on the Wessex Main Line has recently been renamed as Mottisfont and Dunbridge. The

Test Way The Test Way is a http://documents.hants.gov.uk/countryside/walks/TestWayleaflet.pdf long-distance footpath in England from Walbury Hill in West Berkshire to Eling in Hampshire, which follows much of the course of the River Test. The northern ...

and

Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Su ...

long-distance footpaths pass through the village.

References

Villages in Hampshire Civil parishes in Hampshire {{Hampshire-geo-stub