A concise illustrated history of an ancient community in Hampshire, England.

• The village lies on the estuary of the River Test, to the west of the large city of Southampton. A satellite picture of the area was produced from Landsat 5 data. The colours are as close to true colour representation as possible.

• Possibly the earliest reference to Nursling is as the Roman settlement called Onna guarding the crucial crossing point on the River Test - very close to where the modern M27 crosses the same river 2000 years later. The road along the south coast between Venta (now known as Winchester) and the New Forest (as it would become known a millenium later ) passed very close to Nursling Mill. Since no trace remains of the bridge across the Test it is assumed that it must have been a wooden one.

• The main activity in the dark Ages focussed around a large monastery. This was described by the Venerable Bede in AD 686 as the earliest Benedictine foundation in Wessex. The exact location of the monastery is no longer known, but it was probably close to the existing village church.

• In 716AD the young monk Winfrid, trained under Abbot Wolfhard, set off from what was then called "Nhutcelle" monastry to Germany. He went on to great things and eventually was canonised as St Boniface. Two accounts of his life may be found here and here.

• Unfortunately in AD 878 the Danes sailed up the River Test and completely destroyed the monastery. It was never re-built..

• In AD 908 the village is referred to by the Anglo-Saxon name of "Hnutscilling" - which translates as "shelter by nut [hazel?] trees".

• The village is detailed in the Domesday Book in 1086AD as a community of 21 people belonging to the Bishop (of Winchester?).

• Later the village name evolved to "Nutshalling" and then, relatively recently to "Nursling".

• The first accurate map of the area probably dates from surveys carried out about 150 years ago by the army surveyors and published in 1867.