Whiteley Farm established

c. 1700

Whiteley Farm, which gave its name to the modern settlement, was established as a working agricultural holding in the area between Fareham and the Hamble valley. The farm worked the heavy clay and loam soils of the area, producing crops and grazing livestock on the gently undulating land north of the M27 corridor. The farmstead and its associated fields, hedgerows and copses formed the landscape that remained largely unchanged until the development proposals of the 1970s. The farm's name, derived from a clearing or meadow in white-coloured or chalky soil, entered the planning documents when Hampshire County Council began designing the new settlement.