Owslebury is a village and civil parish in the county of Hampshire, in the south of England approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Winchester.

This was part of the wave of discontent among agricultural workers which had spread across southern England and expressed itself as the Swing Riots.

At Rosehill they assaulted Lord Northesk's steward, Moses Stanbrook, wrecked a winnowing machine, and extorted £5.

At Marwell Hall the lady of the house, Mrs. Alice Long, gave the mob £5 and signed John's document.

There was a good deal of sympathy for John Boyes and he was twice acquitted before eventually being found guilty and sentenced to be transported to Van Diemen's Land for seven years.

[5] Several archaeological projects have been undertaken in the neighbourhood, including major excavations in the late 1960s and early 1970s of an important Iron Age and Rural settlement and cemetery.

The village itself and Cockscomb Hill to the north-west are on high ground capped by the younger Newhaven Chalk Formation, deeply dissected by a dry valley running SW towards Hensting and Fishers Pond at Colden Common.