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This is a lovely old town that has a mixture of
both new and old, small shop and lovely inns are plentiful here in this
village on the upper reaches of the River Hamble. It still retains its
market place, now a car park and here can be found a large block of wood
which is from a Viking galley that was discovered in the mud of the
river during the 19th century. Arthur Mees
Hampshire describes the village as;
"Richard Baker, parson of Botley for 54 years
c.1803. Baker was an enemy of Cobbett that he would not let the
villagers have the key of the church when they wanted to ring the bells
on Cobbett's release from Newgate, he having been imprisoned because he
expressed in public his indignation at Englishmen being flogged under a
guard of Hanoverian soldiers. Cobbett tells us how a legacy hoax once
got the parson up to London to a hotel. At the hotel he was beset a
whole tribe of applicants, they kept the parson in town for several
days, bothered him three parts out of his senses, compelled him to
escape as if from a fire. When he got home, he found the village posted
all over with handbills, giving an account of his adventure under the
pretence of offering £500 reward for the discovery of the hoaxers"
There are two churches here the older one that is a little way off (at the end of Brook Lane near the Farm
Museum)
and the other built in 1837has a distinctive diamond shaped clock
with a gilded crown that originated at the stable of William
Cobbett the Radical Farmer who lived here at Fairthorn Farm and it
was customary to see him riding out on his famous travels around
the country. Botley had everything he loved in it, Cobbett once
said, and nothing in it he hated. There was no workhouse, barber
or even a justice of the peace and he could walk along flower
filled lanes and hear the whistling of the local ploughboys in the
files surrounded by hedgerows filled with the sound of singing
birds.
He is said to have spent a lot of time arguing
with the parson and would listen to his preaching then ride outside to
gain attention and to say that he would love to horsewhip him in the
pulpit for talking a load of utter nonsense!!!
The parson, Richard Baker, can often be found
mentioned in Cobbetts Rural Rides as he was one of the only two
rectors in the village from 1803 to 1954. Baker died in 1854 and was
succeeded by John Morley and his son John Thomas Wright Baker was the
Curate of Botley at the time and married Harriet Martha Maria
Guillaume on 9th April 1855 and one of their grandchildren was Richard
Edward St Barbe Baker know locally as the Man of the Trees.
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