Grateley Explained

Grateley is a village and civil parish in the north west of Hampshire, England.

The name is derived from the Old English grēat lēah, meaning 'great wood or clearing'.^[2]

The village is divided into two distinct settlements, 0.75miles apart: the old village and a newer settlement built around the railway station on the West of England Main Line.^[3] The hamlet of Palestine adjoins the railway station settlement, although it is located in the civil parish of Over Wallop.^[4]

Grateley lies just to the south of the prehistoric hill fort of Quarley Hill. The parish covers 1551acres with 616 people^[5] living in 250 dwellings. The village has one pub, a thirteenth-century church dedicated to St Leonard, a primary school, a school for children with Asperger syndrome, a railway station, a small business park, a golf driving range, and is surrounded by farmland with ancient footpaths and droveways.

King Æthelstan issued his first official law code in Grateley in about 930 AD.^[6] Recorded in the early 12th century Quadripartitus text,^[7] which referred to a ‘great assembly at Grateley’ (magna synodo apud Greateleyam). The legestaive assembly and construct of the Grateley law code acted as a manifestation of the peripatetic nature of Anglo-Saxon kingship.^[8]

In the 20th century Grateley was one of many ammunition dumps during the World Wars.^[9]

The economic history of Grateley is agricultural, but less than 10% of the village population now rely upon agriculture as an occupation.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Civil Parish population 2011. 18 December 2016. Office for National Statistics. Neighbourhood Statistics. 23 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161223144840/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11123848&c=Grateley&d=16&e=62&g=6431732&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0&r=1&s=1482068870080&enc=1. dead.
2. Web site: Grateley, Hampshire . University of Nottingham . Key to English Place Names.
3. Web site: Introduction . Grateley Parish Council . 19 July 2012 . 22 March 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120322211504/http://www.grateley.org/introduction.html . dead .
4. streetmap.co.uk . Map of Grateley, Hampshire . . July 19, 2012 . 24 September 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924110915/http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?x=427307&y=140690&z=115&sv=427307,140690&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=idld.srf&searchp=s.srf&dn=698&ax=427500&ay=141500&lm=0 . dead .
5. Web site: Neighbourhood Statistics (Test Valley Borough) . . July 29, 2012.
6. Why Grateley? Reflections on Anglo-Saxon Kingship in a Hampshire Landscape . Lavelle, Ryan . Hampshire Studies: Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society . 2005 . 60 . 154–69.
7. name="foo" Why Grateley? Reflections on Anglo-Saxon Kingship in a Hampshire Landscape . Lavelle, Ryan . Hampshire Studies: Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society . 2005 . 60 . 154–69.
8. Why Grateley? Reflections on Anglo-Saxon Kingship in a Hampshire Landscape . Lavelle, Ryan . Hampshire Studies: Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society . 2005 . 60 . 154–69 .
9. Web site: History - Part twelve . Grateley Parish Council . Later, Grateley, like many areas within reach of the south coast ports, became a munitions store for part of the invasion force involved in Operation Overlord. . 19 July 2012 . 1 March 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140301141944/http://www.grateley.org/part-twelve.html . dead .