Eversley is a village and civil parish in the Hart district of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire is ...

, England. The village is located around northeast of

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

and around west of

Yateley Yateley () is a town and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. It lies in the north-eastern corner of Hart District Council area. It includes the settlements of Frogmore and Darby Green to the east. It had a population of 21,011 at ...

. The River Blackwater, and the border with

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

, form the northern boundary of the parish.

Character

Eversley means "Wild Boar Clearing" and the boar is the symbol of the village, as shown on the village sign. The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

contains a number of hamlets: Eversley Village (sometimes called Eversley Street), Eversley Centre, Eversley Cross, Lower Common and Up Green. The historical parish also included

Bramshill Bramshill is a civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. Its name has become synonymous with the Police Staff College, Bramshill located in Bramshill House. Bramshill forms part of the district of Hart. It is bordered by the Rivers Whi ...

, a modern civil parish largely covered by plantation forest, but also including the early 17th century

Bramshill House Bramshill House, in Bramshill, northeast Hampshire, England, is one of the largest and most important Jacobean prodigy house mansions in England. It was built in the early 17th century by the 11th Baron Zouche of Harringworth but was partly ...

. Eversley Centre and Eversley Cross (to the north of Yateley) are contiguous and constitute the main part of the village, whilst Eversley 'village' lies around to the north on the A327 road towards

Arborfield Arborfield is a village on the A327 road in Berkshire about south-east of Reading, about west of Wokingham. It lies in the civil parish of Arborfield and Newland in the Borough of Wokingham, about west of its sister village of Arborfield Cro ...

. There are a number of other large

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

s in Eversley: Firgrove Manor (now apartments), Glaston Hill House (private residence) and Warbrook House (now a Conference Centre). Monuments to their residents can be seen in St Mary's Church, a medieval building mostly rebuilt in the 18th century. St Mary's Church, Eversley

The churchyard is the burial-place of

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working ...

, who for 35 years was rector of the parish. As you enter the churchyard. Kingsley was a significant author and commentator in the 19th century: his novels include '' The Water Babies'' and ''

Westward Ho! Westward Ho! is a seaside village near Bideford in Devon, England. The A39 road provides access from the towns of Barnstaple, Bideford, and Bude. It lies at the south end of Northam Burrows and faces westward into Bideford Bay, opposite Sau ...

''. He was also a social critic and an early founder of modern

Christian socialism Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe ca ...

. One of his poems, "The Bad Squire", is displayed in the church.

Education

Charles Kingsley's Primary School

In Eversley there is a primary school called Charles Kingsley's Primary School, founded by Charles Kingsley in 1853. In 2011, it was inspected by OFSTED, and graded as "outstanding".

St. Neot's Preparatory School

The village is home to St. Neots, also an independent preparatory school. It was founded in Sunningdale in 1888 as a proprietorial boys’ preparatory boarding school. It moved to the current site in Eversley in 1894, acquired charitable trust status under a governing board in 1955, opened a co-educational pre-prep in 1988 and attained full co-education in 1990. Since 1997 the school has worked a five-day week, with weekly and flexi-boarding from Year 3. The boarding ceased in 2015. The boar was taken as a symbol of the school, replacing the deer, to link it with the meaning of the name of the village Eversley.

Modern notoriety

On 1 April 1992, Jacqueline Palmer-Radford, a 40-year-old mother of two, was found dead after having been raped and strangled at her home in the village. The murder remains unsolved despite being featured on the television programme ''

Crimewatch ''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that crime reconstruction, reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. ...

''.

Notable people

Laura Marling Laura Beatrice Marling (born 1 February 1990) is a British folk singer-songwriter. She won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards and was nominated for the same award at the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 Brit A ...

, musician *

Will Carling William David Charles Carling (born 12 December 1965) is an English former rugby union player. He was England's youngest captain, aged 22, and won 72 caps from 1988 to 1996, captaining England 59 times. Under his captaincy, England won Fiv ...

, former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player *

Rob Collard Robert Collard (born 1 October 1968) is a British auto racing driver from Hampshire, best known for racing in the British Touring Car Championship, winning two races in a West Surrey Racing MG, and claiming the Independent's Cup title in 2003. ...

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organis ...

driver *

Nigel Adkins Nigel Howard Adkins (born 11 March 1965) is an English professional football manager and former player and physiotherapist. Adkins played as a goalkeeper for Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Athletic. He finished his playing career and began his man ...

, former professional footballer, physiotherapist and manager

Sport

Eversley F.C. was founded in 1910. They became the first winners of the Surrey Elite Intermediate League in 2009 and gained promotion to Division One of the

Combined Counties League The Combined Counties Football League is a regional men's football league in south-eastern England with members in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Jersey, Kent, Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Surrey, and the western half and sou ...

for the 2009–10 season.

References

Notes Sources *

External links

Eversley info
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire