Eversley is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the Hart district of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. The village is located around northeast of

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

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, and is approximately 33 mi (53 km) southwest of Central London. It includes the settlements of Frogmo ...

. The River Blackwater, and the border with

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, 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 Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

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 ...

, 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 architecture, Jacobean prodigy house mansions in England. It was built in the early 17th century by the Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron ...

. 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. There are a number of other large

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire 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 Townhou ...

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. 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 workin ...

, who for 35 years was rector of the parish. Kingsley was a significant author and commentator in the 19th century: his novels include '' The Water Babies'' and '' Westward Ho!''. He was also a social critic and an early founder of modern

Christian socialism Christian socialism is a Religious philosophy, religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...

. 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 reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was or ...

''.

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, Kent, Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Surrey, and the western half of Greater Lond ...

for the 2009–10 season.

References

Notes Sources *

External links

Eversley info
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire