Burley | |
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Burley, village centre |
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Burley shown within Hampshire | |
Population | 1,350 1,384 (2011 Census including Picket Post) |
OS grid reference | SU2123003124 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | RINGWOOD |
Postcode district | BH24 |
Dialling code | 01425 |
Police | Hampshire |
Fire | Hampshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
EU Parliament | South East England |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Burley village |
Burley is a village and civil parish in the New Forest, Hampshire, England, with a cycle hire centre and cycle shop, cider farm, tea rooms, gift shops, art galleries and a pick-your-own farm.
Burley is located towards the western edge of the New Forest, 5 miles (8.0 km) south-east of the town of Ringwood. The village is fairly scattered, and apart from the village centre, there is Burley Street to the north; Bisterne Close to the east; and the Mill Lawn area to the north-east. Burley has a post office, newsagents, butcher's shop, and village stores, as well as tea rooms, antique shops, art galleries and gift shops and a large Cycle Shop and Cycle Hire centre. The village still practices the old tradition of commoning, allowing animals to graze on the open Forest, and ponies and cattle roam freely around the village. Burley is home to a football club and a cricket club. Burley Golf Club can be found to the southeast of the village.
The village is surrounded by the open heathland of the New Forest, containing a complex of woodland, heathland and acid grassland, shrub and valley bog, supporting a richness and diversity of wildlife. Burley Fire Station is thought to be the only fire station in the country with a cattle grid at the entrance.
People have lived in the Burley area since prehistoric times. At least 23 Bronze Age barrows are known in the Burley area. The site of an Iron Age hillfort can be seen just to the west of the village at Castle Hill.
There is evidence of Saxon occupation as the name Burley is composed of two Saxon words 'burgh', which means fortified palace, and 'leah', which means an open meadow or clearing in a wood.
Burley is not specifically mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, but the entry for nearby Ringwood may well refer to Burley when it mentions lands in the forest with "14 villagers and 6 smallholders with 7 ploughs; a mill at 30d; and woodland at 189 pigs from pasturage."
Burley was part of the royal lands of the New Forest. By the beginning of the 13th Century the family of de Burley was firmly established here. Richard de Burley held the estate from Edward I who gave the village of Burley and Manor of Lyndhurst as dowry to his second wife Margaret, sister of Philip IV of France. The manor is said to have belonged to the Crown down to the time of James I.