Stratfield Saye

Stratfield Saye is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Basingstoke and Deane and the English county of Hampshire.

The parish includes the hamlets of West End Green, Fair Oak Green and Fair Cross.

The name means 'Street-Field of the Saye family'. The street was the Devil's Highway (Roman Britain), the Roman road from London to Silchester which forms the northern parish boundary.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin

Stratfield Saye House was built around 1630 as the Pitt family home, from fortunes made by Thomas "Diamond" Pitt. In the late 18th century the family were closely related to the famous Prime Ministers of Great Britain, William Pitt the Elder and William Pitt the Younger. It has been the home of the Dukes of Wellington since 1817.

The parish church, near the house, is an unusual domed Georgian building with the plan of a Greek Cross. It contains memorials to the Barons Rivers and to most of the Dukes of Wellington, except the famous first duke. His hatchment may, however, be seen.

Some older sources use the alternative spelling Strathfieldsaye, Stratford Saye, and Stratford Sea.[1]