The bustling market town of Romsey was once famous for three things: its brewery, its abbey, and as the home of the late Lord Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India.
The brewery, Strong and Company, was well known for its "You're in the Strong Country" signs, and excellent beers. Both came to an end in 1981 after 123 years, when Whitbread decided to centralise its brewing. The buildings are now flats and offices.
Broadlands, the nearby large country house formerly the home of Earl Mountbatten, is now is occupied by Lady Brabourne and is open to the public on weekdays in the summer.
The church of Romsey Abbey is still very much with us, although little remains if the other monastic buildings.
Sitting somewhat incongruously between the children's play area and the refreshment kiosk in Romsey's War Memorial Park is a large Japanese field gun. The plaque on the gun explains:
This World War II 150mm Japanese field gun was presented to the townspeople of Romsey in 1946 by Rear Admiral, the Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, GVCO, KCB, DSO, LLD, DCL Supreme Allied Commander - South East Asia Command, in recognition of the townspeople's service both military and civil in the Second World War.
Mountbatten was given two of these guns at the end of the war; the other one can be found outside his house, Broadlands.
The King John's House is the oldest of three buildings now occupied by the Romsey Heritage Centre.
It dates from the 13th Century, and was once part of a major medieval complex associated with the nearby Benedictine nunnery of Romsey Abbey.
Joined to it is a late Tudor/early Jacobean timber-framed house, the ground floor of which is Miss Moody's Tudor Tea Room. For further information please see the official site, listed below.
External Links and References
External Links
King John's House
Official site with details of opening times, Admission Fees, etc. https://kingjohnshouse.org.uk/
As the plaque explains, the Romsey Rose was commissioned in 2005 from Simon Cooper and Matthew Duke, by the John Lewis Partnership for Test Valley Council.
It is based on a simplified version of the five-sided Hampshire rose, supported at 45° on round-headed archways like those found in Romsey Abbey.
You are encouraged to touch, walk through and sit on the sculpture, but climbing on it is forbidden.
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