ALTON HUNDRED 



BRAMSHOTT 



was a west window corresponding to the east win- 

 dow, showing by its position that the nave aisles 

 in the fifteenth century were very narrow, if they 

 existed at all ; its north jamb only remains, the 

 rest being destroyed by the arch into the north 

 aisle of the nave. The south transept is like the 

 north, but is ashlar-faced outside, and has under 

 the sill of its south window a recess for a canopied 

 tomb, now removed. The east window is square- 

 headed, of a fourteenth century type, but with 

 label and details showing it to be of the fifteenth. 

 A plain inserted doorway at the south end of the 

 west wall suggests a widening of the south aisle 

 of the nave in the sixteenth century. 



The roofs of both transepts are of the fifteenth 

 century, with cambered tiebeams and kingposts with 

 struts, and collared rafters ; the details in the south 

 transept are better than those in the north. 



The central tower, 1 7 ft. square at the base, has 

 a low belfry stage with single light fourteenth cen- 

 tury windows and a wooden shingled spire. The 

 walls are set back below the belfry stage. The 

 tower opens to the nave and chancel with modern 

 corbelled arches, and to the transepts as described 

 above. The entrance to the ringing chamber is 

 by a doorway in the south wall, above the south 

 arch. The nave and aisles are of four bays with a 

 western porch ; they date from 1872. 



The font is of the fourteenth century, the bowl 

 being modernized. It is octagonal, with deep 

 sloping sides, and stem with large central and 

 four small engaged shafts, round, with octagonal 

 caps and bases. 



On the north jamb of the east tower arch is a 

 fifteenth century brass with figures of John Weston 

 of Chiltley and Elizabeth his wife, with inscribed 

 plate and scrolls. On the south jamb of the same 

 arch is a brass plate with arms and inscription to 

 John Hooke of Bramshott, 1613. 



In 1795 there stood on the south side of the 

 church a building divided into two stories, the 

 lower open and entered by two Gothic door- 

 ways opposite to each other, which served as a 

 porch." 



There are six bells, which were rehung on 

 an iron frame in 1901. The sixth bell is in- 

 scribed, ' William Chalcraft & John Neale, church- 

 wardens ' ; the fifth bell has the inscription, 

 ' Thomas Jannaway of Chelsea made us all 1784' ; 

 the third bell has the legend, ' Musica est mentis 

 medicina' ; the first bell was recast in 1893, the 

 original inscription, 'When from the earth our 

 notes rebound, the hills and valleys echo round,' 

 being reproduced. 



The parish registers, prior to 1813, consist of 

 four volumes : i., 1560-1728 (omitting the years 

 165365, for which a separate book is mentioned, 

 but is not now with the registers) ; ii., 1729-1812; 

 iii., 1 754-93 ; iv., 1 793-1 8 12. There is a register 

 of affidavits of burials in woollen from 1678 to 

 1 730, a churchwardens' book for the period between 



1677 and 1704, and several seventeenth century 

 overseers' books. 



The communion plate consists of: (i.) a silver 

 chalice with date mark 1641 ; (ii.) a silver paten 

 with date mark about 1630 and inscribed, ' Bram- 

 shott in Comt. South.; (iii.) a silver paten with 

 date mark l698; 66 (iv.) a silver flagon with date 

 mark 1846, given by T. P. Platt, esq.,of Fowley ; 

 and (v.) silver chalice, altar paten and credence 

 paten (Victorian). 



In the middle of the thirteenth century Hugh 

 de Arundel confirmed the grant of the tithes of 

 Ludshott which his ancestors had made to Sher- 

 borne priory near Basingstoke ; 6 but thereupon 

 the rector of Bramshott claimed them as belong- 

 ing to the rectory. The decision of the priors of 

 Wallingford and Eynsham going against the rector, 

 he appealed to the Papal Court, and the dean and 

 penitentiary of St. Paul's were directed to hear 

 the pleadings. It was finally agreed that the 

 rector should receive the tithes, paying I 3/. yearly 

 to the convent. This payment was kept up until 

 the priory, which was alien, was dissolved. 



The advowson of Bramshott was sold in 1685 

 by Henry Hook to Queen's College, Oxford. 



In the fourteenth century the rectory possessed 

 60 acres of glebe, 67 but there 

 are now only 40 acres ; the 

 difference may have arisen in 

 the exchange of strips of land, 

 scattered amongst other hold- 

 ings, fora consolidated glebe. 

 There is now a large rectory 

 house in extensive grounds 

 occupied by the rector. 



Adjoining the churchyard 

 is a building, belonging to 

 the parish, in which persons 

 attending church can stable 

 their horses. The school- 

 room at Liphook is used for services on Sunday 

 evenings. The Bible Christians have a chapel at 

 Liphook. At Woolmer is a Roman Catholic chapel 

 dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and 

 erected 1870. 



Sir Edmund Pakenham, lord of Bramshott manor, 

 left by will in 1528 a yearly sum of 6 i$s. ^d. 

 for five years for an honest priest to pray within 

 the parish of Bramshott for his soul and for 

 those for whom he was bound to pray ; he also 

 gave to the parson of Bramshott a rent charge on 

 his lands called Clerks to maintain a light before 

 the high altar for twenty years to be continued 

 after the good will and mind of his heirs and 

 executors. 68 



There was a school at Bramshott as early as 

 1677, when 9/. 3</. was paid by the churchwardens 

 for nails ' for the church and schoolhouse," and in 

 a woodcut of 1795 69 a schoolroom is shown over 

 the south transept of the church, where the jambs 

 of a large square window can still be traced on 



PAKENHAM. Quarterly 

 gold and gules 'with an 

 eagle -vert in the quarter. 



64 Gents. Magazine, 1795, pt. 1 1, p. 



993-4- 



65 With reference to this paten there 

 it a memorandum of the same date in 

 the first volume of the registers, ' For 



enlarging ye Paten 5 oz. J, for ye Altare 

 with charges for carriage two journeys 

 to Chichester z 61.' 



68 Archives of Queen's College, Ox- 993-4. 

 ford. 



495 



67 Nonae Rolls (Rec. Com.), p. 108. 



68 P.C.C. Wills, 36 Porche. 



69 Gents. Magazine, 1795, pt. ii, p. 



