Grateley is a village, parish and civil parish in the north west of Hampshire, England.

Name

The name is derived from the Old English grēat lēah, meaning 'great wood or clearing'.

Geography

The village is divided into two distinct settlements, 0.75 mi apart: the old village and a newer settlement built around the railway station on the West of England Main Line. The hamlet of Palestine adjoins the railway station settlement, although it is located in the civil parish of Over Wallop.

Pre-history

Grateley lies just to the south of the prehistoric hill fort of Quarley Hill. The parish covers 1551 acre with 616 people living in 250 dwellings.

History

King Æthelstan issued his first official law code in Grateley in about 930 AD. Recorded in the early 12th century Quadripartitus text, which referred to a ‘great assembly at Grateley’ (magna synodo apud Greateleyam). The legestaive assembly and construct of the Grateley law code acted as a manifestation of the peripatetic nature of Anglo-Saxon kingship. In the 20th century Grateley was one of many ammunition dumps during the World Wars.

Amenities and economy

The village has one pub, a thirteenth-century church dedicated to St Leonard, a primary school, a school for children with Asperger syndrome, a railway station, a small business park, a golf driving range, and is surrounded by farmland with ancient footpaths and droveways. The economic history of Grateley is agricultural, but less than 10% of the village population now rely upon agriculture as an occupation.