Fawley

Because Fawley is next to the Thames, there is a lot of prehistoric material. The Thames was very attractive to people in prehistory. A big site with many artefacts was excavated north of Fawley Court. 125 Mesolithic and Neolithic flint flakes and tools had been found on the surface, but in excavation 218 bladelets and bladelet cores and other flakes were found. This shows that there was seasonal occupation of the area over a very long time. A nearby pipeline uncovered three sites, one of which may have contained Neolithic worked wood, animal remains, flint and pottery and other Neolithic material has been found elsewhere in the parish.

St Mary’s church is the oldest building in Fawley, dating to the twelfth century. The thirteenth century tower was heightened in the sixteenth century and the chancel rebuilt in the eighteenth. Most of the other listed buildings in the parish date to the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Fawley Court is an eighteenth century folly reusing a fifteenth century window from a previous building. There was a banqueting house in the grounds in the seventeenth century, according to historic documents. The gardens today are a relic of eighteenth century landscaping and include terraces, a dairy that was turned into a chapel with a re-set twelfth century door and a former menagerie of animals turned into a stables.