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The Abbey, from which the village got its name, originated when a colony of monks of the Cistercian Order crossed Southampton Water from Beaulieu to establish a new religious house at Netley in 1239.

Monastic life continued for three centuries at the Abbey, until its dissolution by Henry V111 in 1536.

Henry V111 granted the site of the Abbey to William Paulet, who converted it into a private residence destroying a lot of the original Abbey structure in the process.

Around 1700 a new owner, William Seymour, second Earl of Hertford, demolished and sold a lot of the stone fabric of the Abbey as building material, leaving the ruin we have today. Some of this stone was used to re-build St. Mary's Church in Southampton