Langley is a small

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Fawley in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England.

History

The name Langley means "long wood/clearing". Langley is listed 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, when it was held by Hugh of St Quentin. In 1372 John Baron of South Langley and Julia his wife held a

messuage In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of real property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien. A typical conveyancing transaction has two major phases: the exchange of contracts ...

and land in South Langley.Victoria County History, (1912), ''A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5'', Fawley
/ref> Thence the tenement passed indirectly to Richard Goolde and his wife Joan in 1413. John Ludlowe held the land in 1482. In 1500 the right of the Ludlowes to hold the manor (here so-called for the first time) was fiercely disputed in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

by one William Fletcher. The Ludlowes evidently won, for in 1609 Sir Edward Ludlowe sold the manor of Langley to Sir Walter Longe. This united the manor of Langley to the manors of Cadlands (now beneath Fawley Refinery) and Holbury, all three following the same descent henceforward. One part of the merged estate eventually became Langley Farm held by the Stanley family at the beginning of the 20th century. The modern village now lies on the site of the old manor house. At the beginning of the 20th century Langley and Fawley were the only two villages in the parish. With the growth of the village of Blackfield the ward is now referred to as the Fawley, Blackfield, and Langley Ward.

Notes

External links

Villages in Hampshire {{hampshire-geo-stub