Romsey Heritage Trail Leaflet
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Romsey Heritage Trail A walk through Romsey’s history 1. Church Place and Romsey Abbey 2. The Abbey (road) 3. La Sagesse Walk through the gates to the Opposite the Temple buildings right hand side of the Abbey. you’ll see the walls to La Sagesse. The Daughters of Wisdom were Keeping the Abbey to your left you originally a French order of Catholic will see the former vicarage called Sisters known as Filles de la Folly House. It was built in the Sagesse. They came to Romsey 1850s and is very similar in style in 1891 and have since, at various to the Abbey School building which times, provided an orphanage sits to its right hand side, which was and a school. They now provide a built at a similar time. The logo of nursing home in their grounds. It is the bishopric of Winchester can be pure coincidence that the town has seen on the wall of the House. housed two quite separate orders of religious ladies. Within the gates you’ll find Abbey House, the home for those Sisters Our trail begins at the Romsey Also to your right is The who live in Romsey. This is the site Visitor Information Centre (VIC), Charter Stone, erected in 2007 of a miraculous healing of a sister originally the premises of a cutler to commemorate the 400th in 1927. The labyrinth is to the right and gunsmith, Mr Moody. anniversary of Romsey receiving a within the gates of Abbey House. This building also houses the borough charter. It was unveiled by The Labyrinth can be walked Moody Museum. King John’s Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. around for those who want peaceful House and Garden sit behind the contemplation. Carved upon it are the names of all VIC and we will return here to finish our trail. the town’s waterways and bridges, both ancient and modern. Now walk down the road to Cross over Church Street to your left (called the Abbey). Church Place. Romsey Abbey is full of interesting historical facts and you could spend On your left you will see a charming In front of you is Romsey Abbey. much more time here. To keep on terrace of houses with a Regency façade on buildings that are of Between the 14th and 16th track with our trail today have a centuries, the Parish Church a much older period concealing walk around the church and take occupied the northern part of the medieval structures in places. Just Abbey. Church Place was the road in the points of interest including around the corner to the left again, along which people went to church. the gates, the North Transept, you’ll see the Temple Buildings. The road used to have houses on Saxon remains, The Abbess’s The copper flashings and sundial the north side (to your right as you doorway and rood and the Waterloo were added in the 1920s. Temple face the Abbey), where the Council Memorial. You can hear more about was the name of the Palmerston Offices now stand. these on the audio guide. family. When the Sisters came to Romsey As a way of commemorating the by Lord Louis Mountbatten, who there was no Roman Catholic 5. War Memorial Park contribution made by horses and had accepted the surrender of the Church in the Town. By 1913 they mules in the First World War, a Japanese in his role as Supreme had built St Joseph’s Church in the statue was commissioned with Allied Commander South East Asia. Arts and Crafts style, and made it funds from voluntary donations. It He kept five of the Japanese guns, available for Catholic worship by is a rare example where the soldier the remainder being destroyed. the laity. is an adjunct to the horse instead A café and public toilets are of the other way round. The statue, available in the Park. 4. Abbey Meads in bronze resin, was sculpted by Return through the gateway Amy Goodman and unveiled by 6. Sadler’s Mill and turn left down The Meads. the Princess Royal, HRH Princess Anne in 2015. Saddler’s Mill, circa 1903. © The Francis Frith Collection To your right you will see the Interesting things to see within Bartlett’s almshouses. Dr the Park boundary are The War Bartlett lived in Romsey but Romsey created a War Memorial Memorial and The Japanese Gun. worked in Salisbury Infirmary Park in 1920 as a way of The memorial was designed by and in Winchester. He provided remembering those killed in the Charles Dyson who was Surveyor almshouses for six poor widows First World War. In order to improve of Romsey Rural District Council. in 1807. Originally these were in the drainage on a very wet field, It was unveiled by General ‘Jack’ Middlebridge Street but had to be hard core was brought in from the Seeley, Lord Mottistone, on 21 demolished to make way for the nearby Remount Camp where June 1921. He had been a cavalry by-pass and were rebuilt, in the horses had been trained throughout officer and his horse Warrior same style, here in Abbey Meads the war. The camp was no longer was the inspiration for Michael needed after the war was over and Follow the footpath accessed Continue down The Meads Morpurgo’s ‘Warhorse’. its buildings were demolished, so to the right of the Café that towards the bridge, known as much of them are to be found under The 150mm field gun was leads to the town’s beauty spot ‘White Bridge’, and cross over the presented to the town in 1946 Sadler’s Mill. road to see the entrance to War the lawns of the park. The camp Memorial Park, our next stop. lay to the south-west of Romsey This path crosses another branch on Pauncefoot Hill. The park was of the River Test at a bridge the inspiration of Charles Moody, that used to be known as ‘Black whose former shop now houses the Bridge’. Keep an eye out for our VIC and the Moody Museum heritage trail markers on the Originally the park was fenced and ground to make sure you are on the gates locked at nights. Fencing the right route. You will also pass and gates were taken away in 1941 through a kissing gate. when metal was collected for the Keep a look out for the floor The River Test is one of war effort. Both have been restored, markers to make sure you Hampshire’s renowned chalk are on the right path but the gates are only locked when streams and is noted for both trout flooding makes the park unsafe. and salmon fishing. at the end of the causeway is In the Middle Ages there was a Further down the road on the left called Middlebridge and beyond it street beside the pub called Eny you’ll come across an unusual is the beautiful Broadlands Park, Street that went south into the flint faced building. In 1718 John which is the home of the Earl and Broadlands Park area. This street Nowes died and left land to Countess Mountbatten. had gone before 1800. provide money for the education of boys in Romsey, Yeovil and This bridge takes the A3090 Salisbury. By 1843 the charity across the Test. It was designed to River Test, circa 1932. © The Francis Frith Collection had accumulated enough capital match the remodelled Broadlands The main water channel is here, to build the Nowes Charity to the west of Romsey, and until House in the 1780s and rebuilt by Hampshire County Council in 1931. School with accommodation for the water flow was altered in the the Master and his assistant. The 1990s, the mill race at Sadler’s It is thought that there was a small School was closed in 1876 when Mill attracted crowds of visitors battle at this site during the Civil its funds were invested in a new every autumn who came to see War in 1643. the salmon leaping through the Boys’ National School that had rushing water as they made their 7. Middlebridge opened in Station Road. That way upstream to spawn. Street building is now the Library. Sadler’s Mill was bought by Next door is 21 Middlebridge the first Lord Palmerston in the Street, one of the surviving 15th 1740s. In the 20th century corn century buildings in Romsey. As milling was replaced by an electric Further along on the left side of was typical of its time, the upper generator so that Broadlands had the road is Bath House. Built in storey projects over the ground an electricity supply even if the the 19th Century, this was the floor, to give a jettied structure. In mains supply failed. The building home of a stone mason, A.F. the 1870s a tailor, Harry Newman, is now converted into private Ellery, who decorated it to look as worked here in the window of his residences. Mr Sadler was the though it were built of Bath stone; shop, and would frequently rescue miller in the late 18th century. On he added examples of his carving boys who fell into the unfenced the right between the cottage and skills around the windows. stream opposite. the former farm house, there is a public footpath that leads across Opposite Bath House you will Opposite is the little chapel of the meadows to Squabb Wood. findWatermill Studios, a wool Elim Church that was built by warehouse for well over 200 the Primitive Methodists in 1895 From Sadler’s Mill follow the Turn left and walk along years.