Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SELBORNE

SELBORNE, a village, a parish, and a hundred, in Hants. The village stands among trees, in a long valley, overhung by the Hanger and the Nore hills, 4¼ miles S S E of Alton r. station; was once a market-town; and has a post-office under Alton, an inn, and a fair on 29 May. The parish contains also eight hamlets, and is in Alton district. Acres, 8, 506. Real property, £5, 428. Pop., 1, 110. Houses, 223. The manor belonged, in the Saxon times, to Queen Editha; and belongs now to Magdalen College, Oxford. Temple was the seat of the free-booter Sir A. Gordon, taken in 1266 by Prince Edward; and was made a grange to Southington preceptory. An Augustinian priory was founded at the village, in 1232, by Bishop de Rupibus; and was given, by William of Wainflete, to Magdalen College, Oxford. The surface of the parish is picturesque, and figures minutely in Gilbert White's well-known " Natural History of Selborne." The S part of it consists of chalk; and the N and N Eparts exhibit constant out-croppings of the upper green-sand, the gault, and the lower greensand. A portion of the land is under hops, and much of the rest is sheep-walk. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester. Value, not reported.* Patron, Magdalen College, Oxford. The church is chiefly later English, simple, old-fashioned, and good. There are an Indepenpent chapel, a national school, and charities £12. Gilbert White was a native; both his grandfather and he were vicars; and the house in which he was born, and where he lived, still stands in the village. The hundred contains six parishes; is cut into two sections, lower and upper; and is in Alton division. Acres, 5, 632 and 13,056. Pop. in 1851, 723 and 2,034. Houses, 114and 398.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Selborne CP/AP       Selborne Hundred       Hampshire AncC
Place: Selborne

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