Place:Hawkley, Hampshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Hawkley is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire District of Hampshire, England. It is 3.5 miles (5.7 km) north of Petersfield, to the east of the A3 road.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Hawkley from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HAWKLEY, a parish in Petersfield [registration] district, Hants; near the boundary with Sussex, 3½ miles N of Petersfield [railway] station. Post town, Petersfield. Acres: 1,710. Real property: £1,923. Population: 312. Houses: 60. The property is divided among a few. Hawkley-Hanger is a steep hill, clothed with wood; and commands a remarkable view. Cobbett says, on reaching the top of it, "Never in all my life was I so surprised and so delighted. I pulled up my horse, and sat and looked; and it was like looking from the top of a castle down into the sea, except that the valley was land and not water." The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester. Value: £118. Patron: J. J. Maberly, Esq. The church is good; and there are an Independent chapel, and a national school."

Hawkley was originally a chapelry in the parish of Newton Valence. In 1932 it absorbed the neighbouring civil parish of Empshott.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 3, chapter on Empshott.
• GENUKI has a list of archive holders in Hampshire including the Hampshire Record Office, various museums in Portsmouth and Southhampton, the Isle of Wight Record Office and Archives.
• The Hampshire Online Parish Clerk project has a large collection of transcriptions from Parish Registers across Hampshire.
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 together with tables listing the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered, along with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The three-storey City Museum in Winchester covers the Iron Age and Roman periods, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian period.
• Volumes in The Victoria County History Series are available for Hampshire through British History Online. There are three volumes and the county is covered by parishes within the old divisions of "hundreds".

A collection of maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrating the English county of Hampshire over the period 1832-1932 (the last two are expandible):

• The Hundreds of Hampshire, a map from HMSO Boundary Commissioners, dated 1832
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts as of 1900, a map from the Ordnance Survey
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts after the alterations of 1932, a map from the Ordnance Survey

• A group of maps of the post-1974 municipal districts or boroughs of Hampshire on Wikipedia Commons