ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



APPENDIX NO. I 

 ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTY 



The district now known as Hampshire was during the middle part 

 of the seventh century in the diocese of Dorchester. In 676 Bishop 

 Haedde moved the seat of his bishopric to Winchester, and in the diocese 

 of Winchester this district has always been from that date, although the 

 bishopric was in 705 divided into the dioceses of Winchester and Sher- 

 borne, 1 and again in 709 the then existing bishopric of Winchester was 

 divided into the dioceses of Selsey and Winchester. 1 



From 1291, the date of Pope Nicholas' taxation, 3 till the arch- 

 deaconry of the Isle of Wight comprising the whole of that island was 

 formed in 1871,* the county was co-terminous with the archdeaconry of 

 Winchester. The rural deaneries within this archdeaconry were, in 

 1291, ten in number, namely Alresford, Alton, Andover, Basingstoke, 

 Drokinsford, Fordingbridge, the Isle of Wight, Sombourne, Southamp- 

 ton and Winchester. 5 According to the Valor Ecc/esiasticus* taken in 

 1535 they were at that date the same, except that the rural deanery 

 of Alresford was included in that of Andover, but this is clearly 

 a mistake caused by the omission of the heading of the former rural 

 deanery, as all the parishes in Alresford deanery are taken together 

 at the end of that of Andover. The rural deaneries remained practi- 

 cally unchanged till 1850, when the Isle of Wight was divided into 

 the rural deaneries of East Medina and West Medina. 7 About 1856 

 the archdeaconry of Winchester was re-constituted and the rural 

 deaneries were increased to twenty-four, namely Alresford, Alton East 

 Division, Alton West Division, Andover North-East Division, Andover 

 North - West Division, Andover South - West Division, Basingstoke 

 South- West Division, Basingstoke North-East Division, Chilbolton, 

 Droxford North - East Division, Droxford South - East Division, 

 Droxford South -West Division, Droxford North - West Division, 

 Fawley, Fordingbridge East Division, Fordingbridge West Division, 

 Micheldever, Odiham, Somborne, Southampton, West Meon, Win- 

 chester, East Medina and West Medina in the Isle of Wight. 

 Some further alterations were made about fifteen years later when the 

 deaneries were reduced to twenty-one, namely Alresford, Alton, Alver- 

 stoke and Portsea, Andover North Division, Andover West Division, 

 Andover South Division, Basing South- West Division, Basing North- 

 East Division, Bishop's Waltham, Fawley, Fordingbridge East Division, 

 Fordingbridge West Division, Havant, Odiham, Petersfield, Romsey, 

 Southampton and Winchester. By order in council of 18 April, 1878, 

 the rural deaneries of Surrey were reconstituted, and the parish of Bentley 



1 Jngh-Saxm Chron. (Rec. Com.), i. 68. 



1 Bede, Hut. Eccl. (Mon. Hist. Brit.), v. 1 8, and Matth. Paris, Cbron. Maj. (Rec. Com.), i. 313. 



3 Popeti'ub. fax. (Rec. Com.), zio. 4 London Gazette, 22 Dec. 1871. 



8 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 210. Valor Ecclei. (Rec. Com.), ii. 7, etc. 



7 Clergy List, 1851, p. *8i. 



101 



