Ossemsley is an extended

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

National Park 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. It lies close to the village of Bashley. The nearest town is

New Milton New Milton is a market town and civil parish in the New Forest District, New Forest district, in southwest Hampshire, England. To the north is in the New Forest and to the south the coast at Barton-on-Sea. The town is equidistant between Lymi ...

, which lies approximately 1.7 miles (2.4 km) to the south.

History

Ossemsley

The name Ossemsley probably means "Osmund's wood/clearing". A. T. Lloyd, J. E. S. Brooks, (1996), ''The History of New Milton and its Surrounding Area, Centenary Edition'', page 14 An estate called "Oselei" appears twice in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'', but it is listed with places in the

Boldre Boldre is a village and civil parish in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It is in the south of the New Forest National Park, above the broadening (estuary) of the Lymington River, two miles (3 km) north of Lymington. In the 2 ...

area, so it is thought unlikely to refer to Ossemsley. In 1670 Thomas Stevens is known to have been in possession of "Osmondsley".

Ossemsley Manor Estate

Ossemsley has never developed into a village, and today it is a scatter of houses in a mix of farmland and woodland.

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed Ossemsley Manor House changed hands a few times during the 19th century before being rebuilt in 1908 for

Sir Alfred Cooper Sir Alfred Cooper (28 January 1838 – 3 March 1908) was a fashionable English surgeon and clubman of the late 19th century whose patients included Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Cooper was born in Bracondale, Norfolk, England, the son of ...

. Ossemsley Manor was one of the houses in which

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World ...

's wife, Lady Hester Gatty, spent her childhood. Sassoon himself is known to have visited Ossemsley Manor in the 1930s. In the lead up to the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

invasion of 1944, the battalion of the 2nd Glosters were stationed (in tents) at Ossemsley manor. It is also reported that there was a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

at Ossemsley, but its precise location is not certain. In 1982, the manor house was converted into exclusive residential apartments and remains a private residence.

References

{{New Forest towns Hamlets in Hampshire