Sopley
| Sopley | |
|---|---|
 The Woolpack Inn, Sopley village |
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 Sopley
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| Sopley shown within Hampshire | |
| OS grid reference | SZ158970 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CHRISTCHURCH |
| Postcode district | BH23 |
| Dialling code | 01425 |
| Police | Hampshire |
| Fire | Hampshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Sopley is a village and civil parish situated in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire, England. It lies on the old main road from Christchurch to Ringwood, on the east bank of the River Avon. The Parish extends east as far as Thorny Hill and borders the parishes of Bransgore and Burton to the south and west respectively. It includes the hamlets of Shirley, Avon and Ripley. The area is mainly rural with less than 300 dwellings. The village is situated on the fringes of the New Forest, just outside the New Forest National Park but within the perambulation boundary of the forest. Most of the buildings date back to the 19th century but there are more modern houses to the north. It is also home to Moorlands College, one of the largest evangelical theological seminaries in the country. The college was built on the site of the old manor house which was demolished in 1988.
There has been settlement in the area since the Bronze age and it has existed as a manor since before the Norman conquest. Sopley is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. Before 1066 it had been held by one Edric, but by 1086 it belonged to William son of Stur. By that time 4 hides of the manor and all the woodland had been absorbed into the New Forest. At the end of the 13th century, records are found of two distinct manors of Sopley. One of the manors was for two hundred years part of the lands of the Earls of Ormond. The other manor was owned, first by the Le Moyne family, and then, like nearby Ibsley, by the Stourton Barons. In the middle of the 16th century, both manors were sold to the Berkeley family, and the two manors became one again.
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Wikipedia