Twenty four wills and 22 inventories survive for this period of people involved in the local farming community and related trades.
About half of the parish of Old Basing lies on chalk, with the sands and gravels of the Reading beds running through the centre of the village from
The English Civil War broke out in August 1642.
Six wills and three inventories survive for this period. Newnham was a mixed farming village in this period and all worked on the land.
There are three surviving wills for this period which reveal a farming community.
Newnham is a small and pleasantly rural parish located in the north-east of Hampshire approximately 24 miles (37 km) to the north-east of Wincheste
The two wills and three inventories reveal a sheep and corn farming community.
This period is interesting as it contains the inventories of two of the Orpwood family who were the rectors of Steventon in this period.
Woodruff’s will from just before the outbreak of the English civil war is interesting for its indication of a local commercial woollen industry.
The will and four surviving inventories indicate a mixed farming economy of crops, sheep and cattle.
