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About Romsey
Romsey is a small market town 4 miles
(6 km) to the north-west of Southampton and 11 miles
(18 km) south-west of Winchester in Hampshire, England.
Occupying an area of approximately 4.93 square kilometres
it is home to a population of just over 13,000. It
is also situated on the banks of the River Test, a
river famous for trout fishing. Romsey is one of the
principal towns in the Test Valley Borough. Romsey's
MP is Sandra Gidley of the Liberal Democrats, who
contested the seat in a by-election in 2000 after
the death of the Conservative Michael Colvin, who
died with his wife in a house fire. Sandra Gidley
retained the seat the following year in the 2001 General
Election and again in the 2005 General Election. Romsey
is twinned with Paimpol in Brittany, France and Battenberg,
Germany. The name Romsey is believed to have originated
from the original "Rum's Eg", meaning "Rum's
area surrounded by marsh". What was to become
Romsey Abbey was founded in 907 AD. Nuns, led by Elflaeda
daughter of King Edward The Elder, son of King Alfred
The Great, founded a community - at his direction
- in what was then a small village. Later, King Edgar
refounded the nunnery, circa 960 AD, as a Benedictine
house under the rule of St. Ethelflaeda whose acts
of sanctity included the chanting of psalms whilst
standing naked in the freezing water of the River
Test! The village swelled alongside the religious
community it provided with local produce only to suffer
at the hands of Viking raiders in 993 AD. The village
was sacked and the original church burnt down but
both recovered and the abbey was rebuilt in stone
in circa 1000 AD. The abbey and the religious community
flourished as a seat of learning - especially for
the children of the nobility - such that a market
was soon established outside the abbey gates. In Norman
times a substantial, new stone abbey was built (between
circa 1120 and 1140 AD) on the site of the original
Saxon church and this dominates the town to this day.
By 1240 AD 100 nuns were living in the nunnery. King
Henry I granted the town its first charter providing
the townspeople with certain rights and permitting
a market to be held every Sunday and a fair for four
days in May each year. Later in the 13th century King
Henry III allowed the town to hold an additional fair
in October. The town appears to owe its continued
growth during the middle ages to a lucrative woollen
industry. Wool was brought to the town where is was
woven and then fulled - that is pounded with wooden
hammers whilst being washed. On being dyed it was
taken to nearby Southampton from where it was exported.
Romsey continued to grow and prosper until plague,
in the shape of the Black Death, struck the town in
1348-9. It is thought that as much as half of the
population of the town - which numbered about 1,000
- died as a result and the number of nuns fell as
low as 19. This so affected the area that the overall
prosperity of the abbey never recovered and it was
finally suppressed by Henry VIII during the Dissolution
of the Monasteries in 1539. Were it not for the fact
that the abbey had become "dual use" and
contained within it a church dedicated to St Lawrence
used solely by the townspeople, there can be little
doubt that the abbey buildings would have been demolished
like so many other religious communities at the time.
The town purchased the abbey from the Crown for £100
in 1544 and, somewhat ironically, then demolished
that section set aside as the church of St Lawrence
that had ensured its survival in the first place.
By the mid-16th century Romsey's population was about
1,500 with its woollen and tanning industries fuelling
its growth. In 1607 the town was granted a charter
making it a borough. During the English Civil War
the town was occupied by the Royalist forces during
late 1643 and following a skirmish between them and
Parliamentary or Roundhead troops the former fled.
The town was plundered by the victorious soldiers
who retained it for barely a year before the Royalists
returned and plundered it themselves towards the end
of 1644. They remained in control of the borough until
January 1645.
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