SHIRLEY, a chapelry, with a village and four hamlets, in Milbrook parish, Hants; 1½ mile NE of Milbrook r. station, and 2 NW of Southampton. It has a post-office under Southampton. Pop. in 1861, 4,941. Houses, 962. S.-Common is one of the hamlets, takes its name from a recently enclosed common, and has also a post-office under Southampton. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Winchester. Value £450.* Patron, the Rev. W. Orger. The church was built in 1836. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school.

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