South Gorley is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...

National Park 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 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Ellingham, Harbridge and Ibsley Ellingham, Harbridge and Ibsley is a civil parish in the west of the English county of Hampshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 1,171. The civil parish was formed in 1974 by the amalgamation of the three titular village ...

. Its nearest town is Ringwood, which lies approximately south-west of the hamlet. The hamlet sits on the western boundary of the New Forest National Park, about south of North Gorley. The River Avon lies just to the west.

History

The name Gorley means "triangular wood/clearing".Burgate, Old Hampshire Gazetteer
/ref> In 1086 Osbern the Falconer held the manor of Gorley from the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

.Victoria County History of Hampshire: Fordingbridge
/ref> The part which became South Gorley was for most of its history included in and followed the descent of

Ibsley Ibsley is a village in Hampshire, England. It is about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of the town of Ringwood. It is in the civil parish of Ellingham, Harbridge and Ibsley. Overview The village of Ibsley lies to the east of the River Avon on the m ...

, in particular that part of Ibsley which John atte Bere had owned in the 14th century.Victoria County History of Hampshire: Ibsley
/ref> South Gorley was, unlike North Gorley, in the parish of Ibsley, and it is now part of the

. The old village school of Ibsley, built in 1874 by the

Earl of Normanton Earl of Normanton is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for Charles Agar, 1st Viscount Somerton, Archbishop of Dublin. He had already been created Baron Somerton, of Somerton in the County of Kilkenny, in 1795 and Visco ...

, was at South Gorley. In 1902 the artist

Heywood Sumner George Heywood Maunoir Sumner (1853–1940) was originally an English painter, illustrator and craftsman, closely involved with the Arts and Crafts movement and the late-Victorian London art world. In his mid-forties he relocated to Cuckoo Hill, ...

acquired a plot land at Cuckoo Hill near South Gorley. He designed and built a house there where he lived from 1904 until his death in 1940 at the age of 87. The house is now a care home.Heywood Sumner House
carehome.co.uk

Notes

External links

Hamlets in Hampshire New Forest {{Hampshire-geo-stub

History

Notes

Further reading

External links