Mottisfont, Nursling & Rownhams, East Tytherley

TOP BORDER:The bears and ragged staff in the centre represent the coat of arms of the Barker-Mills family which acquired the Abbey House in 1684. Stone chained bears are mounted on the gate piers to both entrances; the tiles on either side show the 13th Century tiles from the floor of the Priory, found in rubble in nearby fields.

MIDDLE SECTION:At the centre right is Mottisfont Abbey, which is surrounded by magnificent grounds with spacious lawns and mammoth plane, cedar, chestnut and beech trees. The parish church of St Andrew dates in part from the first half of the 12th Century. In the top right corner is the Post Office, for many years the village stores, which is now renowned for its cream teas. In the top left corner is the Mill Arms at Dunbridge. The long, low white extension is now a popular skittle alley. Below the Abbey is a beautiful stretch of the Test and in the foreground the famous Mottisfont or Oakley Oak tree, which is probably more than a thousand years old.

LOWER BORDER: The roses on either side represent the rose garden laid out in 1972 by Graham Stuart Thomas as a show place for the National Trust's collection of historic roses. In between are some of the fauna and flora, which abound in and around the village: the deer, Canada geese, swans, primroses, Speckled Wood butterfly and a barn owl.

TOP BORDER:In the centre is St. Boniface, named 'Winfrith' when he was born in Crediton in 680; the two crests are those of the Barker-Mills family, (left), and the Mountbatten family, both significant landowners in the area.

MIDDLE SECTION:The mock-gothic parish church of St John, Rownhams, is on the left. Rownhams House (top right) is the only surviving example of many large 18th Century middle-class residences built for Southampton businessmen. Below it is Ivy Cottage, one of the oldest houses in the area. Between it and the church is the radio mast erected on top of an underground reservoir at Toothill. The line below the church and Ivy Cottage represents the M27. The popular Romsey Golf Course is shown on the left and to its right is the 16th Century Grove Place. In the bottom right corner is St Boniface Church, Nursling, an early 14th century decorated style country church. To its left is the only surviving mill in Nursling. Behind it is a pylon, one of many which dominate the skyline. The phragmites reed and the spotted orchid are examples of plants in the Lower Test Reserve, established in 1978.

LOWER BORDER:An oak branch, symbolising the sacred oak of pagan German tribes which, according to legend, was chopped down by Boniface; a salmon; hazel nuts, a reference to the name Nutshalling; a green woodpecker, once common but becoming rarer.

TOP BORDER:The five butterflies were described at the time as "local" but sadly the designer of the panel has since died and neither her notes nor her drawings survive. A local naturalist is unable to identify the first which happens to be a moth but suggests that, allowing for some artistic licence the other four could be: small tortoiseshell; swallowtail; orange tip; small copper.

MIDDLE SECTION:The parish church of St Peter. The giant yew tree was planted by Denys Rolle, Lord of the Manor from 1755. Behind the church is a field of oil-seed rape. Next to the church is the attractive, timbered Letterbox Cottage with its comparatively rare Victorian letterbox. Above it hovers a kestrel, one of several birds of prey which nest locally. Rolle House, below Letterbox Cottage, was established in 1718 by Sarah Rolle as a charity school, one of the earliest in England. On the right is the stump of a tulip tree partially blown down in the 1987 gale. The Star Inn is splendidly represented in the bottom left corner. The sheep in the park and the cows in the foreground represent local farming activities.