Nether Wallop in Hampshire

Henry II in 1177 granted the royal estate of Wallope to the Benedictine nuns of Amesbury Monastery, in which were both brethren and nuns. For administrative purposes they probably used a Grange or manor house in Nether Wallop Estate, roughly today's parish. By 1270 Nether Wallop was referred to as 'Wallop Inferior' or 'Welhop Priorissa'; in 1283 Over Wallop was 'Wallop Superior'; by 1291 they had become separate parishes. The Church of Nether Wallop was granted to York Minster to provide a prebend in the Church of York by Henry II.

Three smaller estates in Nether Wallop Manor were Wallop Fif'head (Fifehead Manor); Wallop Ethemannestreete (Heathmanstreet Manor); Nether Wallop Buckland (Place Farm) and part of Broughton Manor (Garlogs) without manorial rights. Amesbury Priory's income accrued from the rents of the manors, tithes, courts, markets, and later a fair. The Prioress held ecclesiastical and manorial courts and she had power to use pillory, tumbril, and 'free gallows' (hanging). She fixed prices and weights (no standardisation then), and enjoyed the royal prerogative of 'free warren', the right to chase game on the manor and in Buckholt Forest. Rabbits, introduced by the Normans, were kept in a special warren or coninger, now Cunnigar Copse, for their meat.

In 1491 the Prioress was granted an annual market on Danebury Hill, and in 1515 the right to hold an annual fair, a custom which continued into the eighteenth century when 'it was attended with bad consequences from the number of idle people resorting to it and judiciously suppressed'. These undertakings brought trade and industry to Wallop and profit to the Priory.

In the fourteenth century the Black Death struck the district causing high mortality among the population, and in 1349 the incumbent of Wallop died of it. Murrain caused a high death rate among cattle. War abroad and famine at home caused a further decline in population. Men of Wallop joined Henry V's army at Bossington, five miles downstream where the Wallop Brook joins the Test, as there was not enough food in Southampton for his army before embarking to France in 1415 to fight victoriously at Agincourt.

At home in the Wars of the Roses Nether Wallop with strong Yorkist ties, had its martyr in John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, of Nether Wallop Buckland, who was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1470 for treason.

Because of the depleted labour force, sheep farming further replaced arable, and payments were made in money rather than in kind. The Vicar of Nether Wallop visited York in 1472 where his expenses amounted to 6d. Under this continual distress, the power of the Church was questioned, and declined, and so did Amesbury Priory.

During the 362 years of Amesbury Priory's overlordship, only one Prioress, who may well have been a local girl, was buried in Nether Wallop's Church - Maria Gore, died 1436, under her unique brass depicting her in her winter fur-lined tunic, veil, and wimple.

By the 1530s Henry VIII had made himself Head of the Church of England and proceeded to sweep away all monasteries (the reformation). This caused little repercussion at the time, but that decade altered the way of life of the entire country, certainly of Nether Wallop. In 1539 the Prioress was 'persuaded' to hand over the large nunnery and all its estates and possessions 'to the King and his heirs forever'.

Henry wanted money; speculators were to hand; after changing hands twice, the Nether Wallop Estate was bought by Sir William Paulet. So began the overlordship of the Paulet or Powlett Family which lasted 364 years.

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