Nether Wallop 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. It is located approximately northwest of Stockbridge, and approximately southwest of

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

. Nether Wallop is the easternmost of the three villages collectively known as The Wallops, the other two being Over Wallop and Middle Wallop. The name "Wallop" derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

words and ''hop'', which taken together roughly mean "the valley of springing water". The village was the site of the

Battle of Guoloph The Battle of Guoloph, also known as the Battle of Wallop, took place in the 5th century. Various dates have been put forward: 440 AD by Alfred Anscombe, 437 AD according to John Morris, and 458 by Nikolai Tolstoy. It took place at what is now N ...

that took place around AD 440. The element 'Wallop' is first attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 as 'Wallope', while Nether Wallop is first attested as 'Wollop inferior' c. 1270 in Episcopal Registers. Nether Wallop contains many old thatched cottages, and has been featured in books and TV programmes as one of the prettiest villages in England. In particular, Dane Cottage in Five Bells Lane was used as

Miss Marple Miss Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Jane Marple lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterized as an elderly spinster, she is one of Ch ...

's home in the village of St. Mary Mead for the BBC TV adaptations of the

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fiction ...

novels. The house and many of the surrounding lanes within the village were used as the setting and are commonly seen throughout many of the Miss Marple films. Sir

Richard Reade Sir Richard Reade (1511–1576) was an English-born judge in sixteenth-century Ireland, who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Background and early career He was born at Nether Wallop in Hampshire, second son of Richard Reade (d ...

(1511–1575),

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

, was a native of Nether Wallop, where his family were Lords of the Manor for several generations. The conductor

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...

died at his home in Nether Wallop on 13 September 1977. St Andrews Church Nether Wallop (geograph 3905330)

The church of St Andrew is partly

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

, and unique fragments of frescoes apparently dating to the late Anglo-Saxon period have been discovered. For more than 200 years one of the two village pubs, The Five Bells, was a place to meet, eat and enjoy alcohol. For a few it was the centre of the village; a social hub along with the uniquely quaint village hall. Over the last two decades it has had a number of tenants and managers who were unable to make a success of the business. It finally closed in 2013 when the most recent tenant surrendered his lease early citing a lack of local support for the pub. The Nether Wallop Parish Council had it listed as a Community Asset that year. Whilst it remains closed the village has formed a Community Benefit Society, and sufficient pledged finance, to buy it at its current market value, but have so far failed to provide the owners with evidence of the availability of the funds for their proposed purchase .

References

External links

Youtube - 1984 LWT documentary chronicling the First International Nether Wallop Arts Festival.
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire

Further reading

References

External links