Sandwiched between the parishes of Amport to the north and Grateley to the south, the rural hamlet of Quarley lies south of the busy A303, on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border. Before the Norman Conquest, the manor of Quarley was held by Earl Harold, but the Domesday Book assigns it to William the Conqueror. The manor house and the church are both mentioned in Domesday.

The parish church of St Michael dates from Saxon times: having no bell tower, its three church bells hang in a shingled wooden frame outside the church. The village hall was rebuilt and opened in 1987, with funds raised by the villagers themselves. Quarley used to have a public house, but this was destroyed by fire in the late 1920s.

The Marquess of Winchester, who then owned virtually the whole village, gave the villagers a choice of a new pub, or a water supply. They chose the water supply, and thereafter villagers who wanted something stronger walked across the fields to the Plough Inn at Grately.

The Winchester office of Jackson-Stops & Staff (01962-844299) quote a guide price of £2.75m for Grade II-listed Long Mead House at Quarley?undoubtedly the best house in the village since the old Manor House was pulled down, and ‘one of Hampshire’s perfect Georgian houses’.

Built as a parsonage in about 1786 at a cost of £600, it stands opposite St Michael’s church, and has four reception rooms, 7/8 bedrooms, five bath/shower rooms, a self-contained flat, and 5.08 acres of splendid gardens and grounds.