Nutley Manor HAMPSHIRE
Of all the counties that may lay claim to being the ideal location for shooting within easy reach of London, to many people it is Hampshire that scores most highly and takes the dog biscuit in the proximity and desirability stakes. It is an area geographically punctuated and delineated by its chalkstreams, from the Avon in the west to Oakhanger in the east and Anton and Loddon to the north and the county fairly bubbles with busy gin-clear streams coming out of the underlying chalk. In the middle of the county is the Candover Brook and just north of its headwaters lies the village of Nutley, nestling snugly in folds of downland that make for productive agriculture and have over many decades helped to create the legend of the Hampshire partridge manors. Not so much towering pheasants here, but more fizzy partridges zipping purposefully over hedgerows that require fast reactions and stylish address to bring them to ground.
Nutley was one of six manors in the parish of Preston Candover and by the time that William I, better known as William the, one hide appeared as 120 acres of arable land and was supposed to represent the land necessary to support a free peasant family, so when not counting the King’s money, Henry had around 300 of our English acres to tax upon.
