Romsey

Romsey, a municipal borough of Hampshire, on the Test, 8 miles NW. of Southampton. The fine cruciform abbey church, mainly Norman, but with Transition, Early English, and Decorated features, was the church once of a Benedictine nunnery, founded about 910 by Edward the Elder. Sir William Petty was the son of a Romsey clothier; and Lord Palmerston, of whom there is a bronze statue (1868) in the market-place, lived close by at Broadlands. A corn exchange was built in 1865, a town-hall in 1866. Pop. (1851) 2080; (1891) 4276. See Littlehales' Romsey Abbey (1886).