• Petersfield - In 1182, it was Peteresfeld - land owned by St Peter's church.

     Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 17 miles (27 km) north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road.
     Petersfield has its own railway station, on the Portsmouth Direct Line.
     The town is situated on the northern slopes of the South Downs. It is unique in that it is wholly within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, soon to be part of the proposed South Downs National Park.
     The town is on the crossroads of well used north-south (today the A3 road) and east-west routes (today the A272 road) and it grew as a coach stop on the Portsmouth to London route.
     Petersfield is twinned with Barentin in France, and Warendorf in Germany.
     The town was founded during the 12th century by William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester, later chartered by his widow, Hawise de Beaumont, and confirmed by charter in 1198 from "John, Count of Mortain" (later to be King John).
     The town grew in prosperity due to its position on frequently travelled routes, local sheep farming, and cottage level manufacturing industry of leather and cloth. The town had markets for sheep, horse and cattle trading and 3 annual fairs.
     The artist Flora Twort, the musician Sir William Henry Harris, the agriculturalist John Worlidge, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Algernon Willis, the footballer George Best, The Day of the Triffids author John Wyndham, author and naval historian Geoffrey Bennett, Royal physician Thomas Horder, 1st Baron Horder, actor Alec Guinness and the Hambledon cricketer John Small all lived in Petersfield at some point. Small was a Petersfield cobbler in the late eighteenth-century, whose shop sign read:
         Here lives John Small
        Makes bat and ball
        Pitch a wicket, play at cricket
        With any man in England. Residents and businesses are encouraged to contribute to the creation of the Petersfield Town Design Statementwhich will help improve future development in the town, and assist in improving town facilities for all age groups. This will be completed in 2009.
     Over August Bank Holiday the town throws a party known as the Petersfield Festivities, which this year will also feature the London Olympics handover celebration.
     On October 6 every year is The Taro Fair, the reminder of cattle fairs which were held annually until the 1950s (now a fun fair). ["Tarw" was the Welsh language shout by the herders for "Bull" and is where the word "Taro" was derived].
     Farmers' Markets are still held on the 1st Sunday every month in the town square.
     Petersfield boasts several museums, including the Flora Twort Gallery, based in her old studio, and the Petersfield Museum, which is concerned with the history of the town and is situated in the town's old Courthouse. Exhibitions are sometimes also held at The Festival Hall, St. Peter's Church, and The Physic Garden.
     Petersfield was once home to the world's first Teddy Bear Museum, which opened in 1984. It closed at the end of 2006, and is now a residential address.
     Petersfield's market square holds regular markets throughout the week, and there are also monthly Farmers' markets. On top of this, stallholders and farmers from Petersfield's French twin town Barentin visit Petersfield and hold a French market, selling items they sell on a typical French market.
     The town's market square has a statue of King William III (of Orange) by Henry Cheere. The king is carved sitting astride his horse, and the statue is raised up on an engraved plinth. This is the only statue of William in a town square in the United Kingdom outside Northern Ireland and, as such, attracts bands of marching Orangemen in mid-July, anxious to commemorate William's victory at the Battle of the Boyne.