Hale is a small village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. It lies on the border of the New Forest, overlooking the valley of the River Avon. The village is about north-east of the town of Fordingbridge, and about south of the city of Salisbury. Within the parish stands Hale House, a large 18th-century mansion which was the country house of architect Thomas Archer, who also rebuilt Hale church in 1717. Overview Hale is a village to the northeast of Fordingbridge in an area of woodland, to the east of the River Avon. It is a scattered community with some thatched cottages around the green, a village hall, and a Victorian school building which still houses the primary school. At the centre of the village is Hatchet Green, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Conservation Area. It contains various tree species including oak, ash, birch, holly, lawson cypress, chestnut and hawthorn. It was taken over by the Parish Council in 1975 because no owner could be traced. History The manor of Hale does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086. However, there was a hide of land in nearby Charford held of the King by Alwi son of Torber. Alwi was also holding West Tytherley at the time of the Domesday Book, and since Richard de Cardenvill, at the beginning of the 13th century, was holding Hale and West Tytherley of the King it is possible that this Charford estate was Hale. In the 14th century Hale passed by marriage to Sir Robert Brent of Cossington, in whose family the manor remained for about two centuries. Hale was probably sold to one of the Penruddocks in the 16th century. Thus Robert Penruddock, who died childless in 1583, evidently had a lease of the manor and was the first of the family to settle at Hale. Around this time the original mediaeval church was substantially rebuilt, and there is a brass on the floor of the church to Sir John Penruddock, who died 8 March 1600. In 1631 the classical architect Inigo Jones was commissioned by Sir John Penruddock to remodel the medieval church or St Mary's in Hale as a Tuscan temple along the lines of St Paul's, Covent Garden. It has long been suspected that the church was Jones's, but the proof was only recently discovered by Kate Bennett in a manuscript in the