Medieval Agricultural Settlement

1200-1500

Through the medieval period, the Hedge End area remained part of the Bishop of Winchester's extensive Hampshire landholdings. The landscape was one of open fields, hedged enclosures, scattered farms and small clusters of dwellings along the lanes between Botley and Bursledon. The population was small and entirely dependent on agriculture. The hedgerows that divided the fields and marked property boundaries were a prominent feature of the landscape, and it is from these hedgerows that the name Hedge End eventually derived, marking the point where the hedged fields ended and common land or woodland began.