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NOTE: Buildings known to have existed in 1607 are indicated by the use of capital letters. It is also worth looking out for properties with low proportions and uneven rooflines: brick facades often conceal timber-framed houses behind.

The starting point for this walk is near the entrance to the alley on the west side of Boots the Chemist. There are options at various places along the walk, so that you may tailor it to your own taste, time and energy. The complete walk should take about 11/2 hours.

NB. The features numbered in the text are marked on the map on pages 24 and 25.

Standing with your back to the side window of Boots the Chemist (1) you are above the Holbrook Stream, flowing from the north. It once powered the Town Mills, formerly situated downstream (left) on the lower part of the Dukes Mill shopping centre (which will be seen later). The Holbrook also marks the one-time boundary between the two historically distinct civic parts of the town, known as Romsey Infra and Romsey Extra. The alley way was only created in the 1970s by covering in a short length of the stream.

Facing across the street, the road to your right, known as The Hundred, meets the Market Place. Until the 19th century the stream was fully open and crossed by a bridge called The Hundred Bridge. To the west (i.e. the left) was Romsey Infra Pontem, namely Romsey inside the bridge, and to the east was Romsey Extra Pontem, namely Romsey outside the bridge. (Romsey Infra and Romsey Extra survive as district names, but the boundary between them has moved to the outskirts of the modern town. The mainly rural area that is now Romsey Extra encircles the present Romsey Infra.) No 23 MARKET PLACE (now modernised as White’s the optician) was Romsey’s first town hall, initially rented and then bought in 1622.

Walk left into the charter borough of Romsey Infra and towards The Barclays Bank building in the fork opposite (2). This was the 19th-century Corn Exchange; the whole block behind it probably represents in-filling of the originally vast Market Place. The water trough (3) that stands in front of the bank was the gift of Lord Mount Temple (previously The Hon. William Cowper-Temple, MP) who inherited Broadlands from Lord Palmerston, his mother’s second husband. It was William’s great-great niece, Edwina Ashley, who married Lord Mountbatten of Burma.

The way to the left of the bank is the Cornmarket, once known as the Pigmarket. The open space of the Cornmarket is a busy market on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and a venue for occasional street entertainment during special events. Walk through the Cornmarket, passing old hostelries on your left.

The late Georgian façade of Bradbeers (4) – formerly an inn called The Dolphin – is the result of substantial refurbishment of an older property c1828. It served as an inn until the end of the 20th century. Just beyond is the timber-framed TUDOR ROSE (5), dating from the 15th century.

You soon reach the junction with Bell Street (6). This was once the main road to the west. It is reputed to be part of the route taken by Purkis, the carter, on his seemingly complicated journey to Winchester with the body of King William Rufus, killed in the New Forest. Turn right towards the statue of the third Lord Palmerston (7) in the main Market Place, where the weekly market was held until 1919. The statue by Matthew Noble commemorates Lord Palmerston not only as one of Queen Victoria’s prime ministers but as the owner of Broadlands, his country estate on the southern edge of town.

The Market Place buildings give the impression of unostentatious Georgian properties. Only the Conservative Working Men’s Club on the north-west corner seems to cling defiantly to the old timber-frame style of the Tudor period and, unfortunately, there is nothing left of the once genuinely old building that saw long service as The Swan Inn. This is not the only case of looks being deceptive. Further to the right THE WHITE HORSE’S stucco frontage hides a genuine Tudor inn with medieval cellars. The public rooms are heavily beamed and one has Tudor wall paintings. The NatWest Bank, dating from c1800, is even more illusory, since its apparent brick upper face is, in fact, an example of mathematical tiling.

The Town Hall is too late for the Georgian era, having been built in the 1860s; its restrained but imposing proportions are slightly at odds with its older neighbours. They all encroach inwards on the market area, intruding on the view from within the Abbey gateway. Similarly, LloydsTSB (built 1900) and the buildings to the right have edged forward from the presumed line of the nunnery’s precinct boundary, which would have originally lined up with the gateway. The properties next to Lloyds TSB are mostly just pre-Georgian. The late 18th-century facade of the HSBC hides a building dated by the archaeologists to the 1690s. Under these properties flows another of the town’s waterways, the Fishlake Stream.

To see this stream emerging, take the road to the left of Lloyds Bank and turn left just in front of the Abbey gateway. This takes you into Abbey Water (8), a delightful retreat from the bustle of the town. Abbey Mill stood at the far west end of Abbey Water, its history traceable from 1551 to 1925, when it burned down.

[If you wish to take a shorter walk, turn left at the end of Abbey Water, bearing left until you reach point 15 on the map. This short cut takes you through the centre of the 7th-century iron-smelting area. Otherwise continue as follows.]

At the end of Abbey Water turn right through the brick archway. Immediately in front of you the delightful terrace of white houses is on the site of the nuns’ domestic range, largely destroyed after the dissolution of the nunnery. A considerable amount of medieval stonework is incorporated into the houses. The ones towards the right end still have the 14th-century refectory roof timbering.

Walk to the left, noticing how the ground now begins to slope away towards the main river. The Bartlett Almshouses (9) on the far right corner were once on the south-west of the town but, being in the path of the by-pass, were re-established here in 1931. They were originally built in 1807 through the generosity of Dr John Bartlett, and further endowed by him in his will. The present buildings were designed by a local architect, William Comley Roles, who served as Clerk of Works to the renowned Sir Edwin Lutyens on a number of projects.

Carry straight on to the next vantage point, the rather inappropriately named White Bridge (10). This mellow construction spans yet another, quite substantial and very picturesque, offshoot from the main river; the water here has a long history of providing power to a number of mills on its journey through the town. The entrance to the Town Memorial Park is beyond the bridge, almost immediately on the left. Created in remembrance of those who died in the Great War, the park contains a stone memorial to which the names of those who died in subsequent conflicts have been added. The present bandstand dates from 2001. The Japanese gun at the far end of the park was one of two brought back by Lord Mountbatten after the Second World War.

Just inside the park, follow the side path round to the right, take the first right turning through a narrow opening, and bear left over yet another stream. A footpath passes open fields on the right and cottages on the left. At the end of the path you finally reach the River Test (11). The building on the far west of the bridge has a long history as Sadler’s Mill (12). This present building, used for corn-grinding, dates from the 18th century, but there was a mill on the site for centuries before; it was once one of the fulling, or ‘tucking’, mills that prospered during the heyday of Romsey’s woollen cloth-finishing industry. The mill and its mill-house have now been converted into private housing.

The footbridge on which you stand is, in fact, over sluice gates that control the flow downstream. This beauty spot is known as ‘Salmon Leap’, recollecting the dull Autumn days when the fish leapt out of the water as they struggled to return upstream to their breeding grounds. Fish ‘ladders’ now make it easier for the salmon to reach the higher water above the mill. That (and a smaller number of fish) has made the dramatic sight of leaping fish a rare occurrence.

From here, the gravel causeway along the river bank leads directly to Middlebridge (13). In 1607, a three-arched stone bridge spanned the river. It was already in a very poor condition and several worried inhabitants were leaving money in their wills for repairs to the bridge. Nevertheless, it survived to withstand much traffic and even a brief skirmish during the English Civil War some forty years later. In fact, despite official concern, only ‘temporary’ repairs were made, and a new bridge did not materialise until the 1770s.

In turn, this bridge, too, became unsatisfactory, though in a different way. It was deemed to be too steep when the Romsey by-pass was constructed in the 1930s. So it was carefully rebuilt with a shallower arch. On the other side of the bridge is the boundary of Broadlands Park. (Please note that crossing the road on this bridge can be hazardous.)

The Middlebridge area was once surrounded by marshland, which made any large-scale settlement impossible here. A narrow gravel strip curved its way through the marsh away from the river, and Middlebridge Street (14) still follows this line as you turn left over the bridge and move back towards the town centre.

In the 19th century there were several private and charity schools in this street, but a much longer tradition places the tanning industry in this locality, once again taking advantage of the water, which here flows to the right of the thoroughfare.

Middlebridge Street retains much of its old character with many interesting buildings. On the left is a group of OLD THATCHED COTTAGES. A little further on the right, The Three Tuns is believed to date back to the early 17th-century. Bath House, No 91, was once occupied and embellished by Mr Ellery, a stonemason. No 48 is still remembered by older Romsonians as the Elite cinema, but has an earlier history as a wool warehouse. The flint-faced house, No 23, was custom-built in the 19th century for the Nowes Charity School; it cost £700. Beyond it is a good example of a well-restored JETTIED HOUSE, which must once have been typical of the town. At the far end, also on the left, No 11 is faced with mathematical tiling like the NatWest Bank in the Market Place. No 11 has another claim to fame. Together with No 13 it is the site of the 1686 birthplace of Giles Jacob who became an esteemed London lawyer, renowned for the Law Dictionary he completed in 1729.

Broadwater House, on the far corner of Broadwater Road, is an impressive 18th-century mill owner’s house, which features the header bond style of brick-laying. It was built for an owner of the now demolished Town Mills, latterly Duke’s Mill. (Duke’s Mill Shopping Precinct now occupies the site.) On the opposite side, a small block of TIMBER-FRAMED PROPERTIES (between road entrances) was well established by the charter year. Northwards into Bell Street and the second building to the north of the wide steps into the Duke’s Mill shopping precinct, was once The Bell Inn (15). This was a key staging post on the route west, helping to make this street a busy part of town. Census returns of the 19th century, and earlier documents such as leases and wills, show the long-established importance of Bell Street as an important commercial centre. Continue up Bell Street past La Parisienne, with its MEDIEVAL CELLARS, and other buildings whose upper storeys betray their age.

Back in the Market Place, turn left by the Town Hall and this time go straight through the Abbey gateway, pass the white terrace and then turn right towards the West End of the Abbey (16). The glass in the Abbey’s great West window is now plain, but in the 19th century the adventurous Reverend Berthon used 7lbs of magnesium inside the building to illuminate the newly installed Palmerston Memorial window. A century later, this window had to be removed, having become unsafe.

Romsey Abbey deserves a visit in its own right. Inside, the glories of this magnificently unspoilt Norman building are explained by guides and literature.

Meanwhile, this walk takes you further on round to the north side of the church (17). Stop just beyond the porch and stand with your back to the North Garth. In the time of the nuns, use of the north aisle was granted to the townspeople as their parish church, which was separately dedicated to St Lawrence. As the population grew, this had to be extended into the north transept. An additional section was built in line with the outer edge of the transept, and archways were punched through the original outer walls of both transept and nave. Then, when the entire Abbey church was bought as the parish church after the dissolution of the nunnery, the extension was dismantled. The archways, newly exposed in an outside wall, had to be plugged with assorted early-15th-century windows, re-used from the extension. The stages in this story are clearly seen. The two neater Norman-style windows nearest the transept were part of the Revd Berthon’s restoration work. Stone window frames removed for this work were reconstructed in the garden of the old vicarage, now Folly House.

The path takes you on eastwards to Church Street, which was at the centre of industrial Romsey from Tudor times onward. In this vicinity were dyers and clothiers, leather workers, brewers and bronze casters.

Cross over the road to walk up the side of Romsey Heritage Centre (18) well worth a visit when open. This is a complex of three historic buildings – KING JOHN’S HOUSE (a 13th-century stone building), TUDOR COTTAGE and the Victorian Moody Museum, all set in tranquil period gardens. There are displays throughout and a programme of special events.

[On returning to the street, it is again possible to finish the walk by turning left and returning to the Market Place.]

To continue the walk, a right turn at the Church Street frontage takes you past No 25 CHURCH STREET (now Oasis Christian Centre), probably newly built in 1607. A few more yards lead to the junction with Portersbridge Street. Facing Portersbridge Street is the Church Street house (site of his birthplace) that bears the memorial plaque to Sir William Petty (19). In Portersbridge Street itself, the large iron gates (20) on the left have been preserved and re-located here from the old entrance to the great brewery complex, which lay beyond the present site of the gates. A little further on, past a small TIMBER-FRAMED HOUSE, the road bends right where the Holbrook Stream flows out of the old brewery site and runs under the roadway. Just before the stream, probably on the left of the street, were dyers in the 14th and 15th centuries. Over the stream and on the right a succession of brewers operated in later centuries. Later, this latter area, now a car park, was the site of the boatyard of the Victorian vicar, the Reverend Berthon.

Having crossed the stream you are now in old Romsey Extra and shortly reach a junction. To the left the 19th-century Station Road contains the Romsey Public Library. However, for the purposes of this walk, you should turn right into Latimer Street (21). This street offers a good example of the close proximity of public houses, recorded throughout Romsey, giving rise to the saying that someone was ‘so drunk he must have been to Romsey’. Facing Portersbridge Street is the William IV, still a pub. No 33 was the Coachmaker’s Arms where a one-time landlord actually combined coachbuilding with bartending. No 16 was once the Rose & Crown, whilst the restaurant at No 11 was The Latimer Arms as recently as the 1970s. A Victorian beer house, popularly known as Tumbledown Dick’s, was on the corner of Love Lane and there may also have been another called The Ship on the east (left) corner with The Hundred. On the opposite corner with The Hundred, Tudor cellars recall the long and continuing history of a building on this site (now The Tavern).

[Here again the weary, or those pressed for time, may turn the corner on the right side of Latimer Street and walk up The Hundred towards the starting point in the Market Place.]

The determined walker should take the narrow left turning into Love Lane (22) (just before the main road junction). There the intricate roofline of Tudor House can be seen on the right. On the left the new building of The British Legion is home to a large Elizabethan coat of arms, salvaged during demolition of an old Church Street house; it is occasionally on view to the public. At the far left end the picturesque Old House At Home with its thatched roof is the only building to survive a stretch that was cleared in the 1960s. As the road turns and becomes Linden Road the car park on the outer corner was the site of the Romsey Gas and Coke Company until 1950, so the character of this area has changed considerably.

At the end of Linden Road is the lovely mellow 18th-century brick façade of Linden House. A right turn leads past Wykeham House, another splendid early 18th-century building. Turn left now into Palmerston Street (23). This was part of the post-Dissolution road and was the start of a new way to Southampton. THE OLD MANOR HOUSE on the next right hand corner was probably new at the time of the charter: it was once the manor house of Romsey Extra. On the far corner is the pleasant frontage of Edwina Mountbatten House for the elderly, established and named in memory of Lord Mountbatten’s wife.

From here it is possible to see that Palmerston Street ends as it meets the busy by-pass. Once, though, this Tudor route to Southampton went straight on through what is now a private road within the Broadlands Estate. When the Andover-Southampton railway was built through Romsey, Lord Palmerston offered land for the line to the east of the town in return for the re-routing of the Southampton road and the building of an impressive wall around his park. This wall is popularly known as ‘The Mile Wall’.

Turn right at the corner by The Old Manor House and make a leap of several centuries, from ancient thoroughfare and Tudor building to 1960s’ road and flats. Broadwater Road (24) is Romsey’s monument to the national vogue of the 1960s, when everything possible was swept away and replaced in the clinical, geometric styles then popular. Not old enough to have acquired historical status, this development nevertheless has a validity of its own in the history of Romsey. It has the present virtue of bringing the walk to a full circle by means of the right turning at the roundabout that leads through the bus station to the rear of Boots the Chemist.