Welcome to Old Netley Village

Old Netley is a Parish within Hound. It lies to the north of the parish and borders onto Bursledon. Both are in the Borough of Eastleigh.

As a village at one time it was larger than that of Netley (Netley Abbey). It had linkage through to Southampton in the west and Fareham in the east. Whereas Netley was more of a cul-de-sac with no connecting road through to its neighbouring parishes of Weston and Woolston.

The rural area would have been used for the growing of crops such as; Wheat, Oats and Barley with land given over to pasture and grazing.

With the introduction of the railway, fields were given over to the growing of strawberries. The growing of strawberries was an important part of the heritage to the area and had a direct bearing on the growth of the railways, which were used to transport the crops to London for distribution. The area was part of what is now called the Starwberry Coast.

A prominent feature of the village is its Parish Hall built before and leased from September 1870, which is also known as The Reading Rooms. The hall was improved in 1995 when plans were drawn by a praish councillor of Netley, who was also an Architect. Sadly now though, it is up for auction.

There is the village green with its 'strongly protected' triangle of greenery and lastly its recreation ground called King George's Field with its imposing gate posts. 

NOTE: GRI - Georgius Rex Imperator is a Royal and Imperial Cypher of George V of the United Kingdom. (Wikipedia).

Also, when preparing the photographs of the Lion and Unicorn, I noticed that there where the stone mason's initials carved as; WC and BC on the Lion and KG and BC on the Unicorn by their tails.

Not forgettng the most important community links, its two public houses the Plough and The Manor house. The Manor House had been used for local elections.

Also there are small light industrial units and a variety of farms that sell vegetables etc. with the lager known as Pickwell Farm (P.Y.O.). Some of the farm land is given over to pasture for livestock such as horses of which there are a great many. Most of the land is flat and has a layer of gravel under the top soil. It is prime target for extraction and then for housing development, but this is on-going.

Extract from the; BURSLEDON, HAMBLE-LE-RICE AND HOUND LOCAL AREA COMMITTEE - Tuesday, 4 December 2007.

‘Preferred area for sand and gravel extraction - Pickwell Farm, Old Netley, Southampton (pPA5). Comment: The Pickwell Farm site (pPA5) is within Eastleigh Borough and the parish of Hound, not in Southampton.

The site is located between Netley Abbey and Old Netley in Hound. It extends to 37.4 hectares and it is envisaged that around 220,000 tonnes of sharp sand and gravel could be extracted per year from 2010 to 2016.’

The Portsmouth Road (A3025) dissects the village and acts as an alternative route for traffic to and from Southampton via Sholing and Woolston. Its junction with Hamble Lane (B3397) has been a cause for concern over the last forty years and there seems to be no resolve to improving the flow of traffic at this junction.

The Village green has been a subject of discussion as its boundaries are along both roads and alteration to it, to assist with traffic flow, has been fought by the locals.