KINGS-SOMBOURN, a village, a parish, and a hundred, in Hants. The village stands near the Roman toad to Sarum, and near the Horsebridge station of the Andover and Southampton railway, 3 miles S of Stockbridge; is connected with extensive iron foundries; and has a post office under Winchester. The parish contains the tythings of Brook and Up-Sombourn; and is in Stockbridge district. Acres, 7, 425. Real property., £7, 860. Pop., 1, 241. Houses, 258. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged anciently to the Crown, and is still attached to the duchy of Lancaster. A palace of John of Gaunt stood near the church; and ruins of it, overgrown with large ancient yew trees, still exist. The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Little Sombourn, in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £696.* Patron, Lady Barker Mill. The church is partly transition Norman, partly decorated English; includes a sepulchral recess, with an ancient stone coffin; and has a tower, partly early English, but chiefly wooden. There are two dissenting chapels and a national school. -The hundred is in Romsey division; and contains four parishes and part of another. Acres, 21, 976. Pop. in 1851, 5, 767. Houses, 1, 174.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))