SELBORNE HUNDRED 



SELBORNE 



manor house of Oakhanger. On the opposite side of 

 the road is Chapel Farm, marking, it is supposed, the 

 site of the chapel of Oakhanger. This chapel, accord- 

 ing to Gilbert White, was identical with the chapel 

 of St. Mary of Waddon, or Whaddon, from which the 

 vicar of Selborne received a moiety of all oblations. 166 

 Repairs to the chapel of St. Mary of Waddon, which 

 had evidently been burnt down shortly before, were 

 entered in the rent roll of the prior and convent in 

 1463. Here there is mention of a house for travellers 

 attached to the chapel, which was evidently much 

 repaired and reroofed in that year. There is also 

 another entry, difficult to understand, of carriage paid 

 for the conveyance of the image of the Blessed Mary 

 of Waddon from Winchester to the chapel. 167 Besides 

 this image three silver rings and one pyx belonged to 

 the chapel. 168 There are no remains of the building 

 existing, nor were there in Gilbert White's time. He 

 tells, though, of a large hollow stone which, according 

 to tradition, was the Waddon chapel baptismal font. 

 Although Gilbert White so emphatically identifies 

 this chapel of Waddon with that of Oakhanger, it is 

 important to note that in the account of the endow- 

 ment of the vicarage of Selborne in 1352, oblations 

 from Waddon and oblations from Oakhanger chapel 

 are given separately. 163 



The church of OUR LADT at 

 CHURCHES SELBORNE stands to the north of 

 the village, at the north-east angle of 

 the Plestor, and at the head of the narrow wooded valley 

 through which runs the Oakhanger brook, the ground 

 falling from it on all sides. On the left-hand side of 

 the path leading to the church porch, and sheltering 

 the chiirch from view, is the famous yew tree. In 

 Gilbert White's time it measured 23 ft. in girth and 

 has increased since then by about four inches. Under 

 the yew is a grave without any headstone, which 

 tradition says is that of the village trumpeter. 

 Tradition again explains his office, how he was the 

 man who gathered the ' Selborne mob ' during what 

 seems to have been a period of famine or strike in the 

 village in the early nineteenth century, and how he 

 led them to an attack on the poor-house, where they 

 broke in the doors and made a bonfire of the furni- 

 ture. Then, as they marched on to the neighbouring 

 village of Headley, soldiers who had been summoned 

 from Winchester surrounded them and took them 

 prisoners to Winchester, where many were tried and 

 transported. The trumpeter, however, had escaped 

 and was in hiding for some time on Selborne Hill, 

 only coming down into the village at midnight. 

 During one of these descents he was captured and 

 taken to Winchester, but was pardoned, and returning 

 to Selborne died some years after and was buried 

 under the yew tree. The original churchyard was of 

 small extent, but has been twice enlarged on the 

 south side. The limestone rock lies near the surface 

 of the ground, and on two occasions, in digging a 

 grave in the new part of the churchyard, a large 

 passage or chamber in the rock has been broken into, 

 but not examined. 



The church has a chancel 27 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft. ; 

 north vestry, north transept, nave 53 ft. by 18 ft., 

 with a north aisle 6 ft. 7 in. wide, and large south 

 aisle 1 7 ft. 2 in. wide, of the full length of the nave ; 

 south porch, and west tower about 1 1 ft. square. All 

 measurements are internal. 



166 Silbornt Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 92. 



Ibid, 



The arcades of the nave are the oldest part of the 

 building, dating from 1170 to 1 1 80, and the north 

 aisle, though rebuilt, probably retains its twelfth-century 

 width. The width of the chancel is irregular, 

 I 5 ft. 10 in. at the chancel arch and 1 6 ft. 4 in. at 

 the altar rails, and it is probable that part of the 

 masonry of the walls is as old as the nave arcades, 

 though no feature earlier than the thirteenth century 

 is now to be seen. About 1220 the south aisle of 

 the nave was replaced by a large south aisle or chapel, 

 with entrances on south and west, and towards the 

 end of the century a north transept was added. It is 

 set out without reference to the nave arcade, and its 

 internal dimensions are approximately a square of 

 19 ft. 6 in. At what date the west tower was 

 added to the church is doubtful, owing to the many 

 alterations it has suffered. The external masonry is 

 covered with plaster, and the tower arch appears to 

 be not older than the fifteenth century, but it is 

 possible that part of the walling may be some centuries 

 earlier. The west end of the south aisle was refaced 

 in 1730, and the tower repaired and cemented in 

 1781. Practically the whole of the church has been 

 refaced at various times in the last century with rubble 

 of local white limestone and ironstone set at all angles 

 with a most unpleasing effect. The chancel was 

 'restored' about 1840, the nave and north transept 

 in 1877, the south aisle and tower in 1883, a new 

 east window made in the chancel in 1887, and 

 further work done in the chancel in 1889. The 

 chancel has three modern lancets in the east wall, and 

 in the north wall towards the east end an original 

 lancet of c. 1220, and further west a second lancet 

 which has been cut down to serve as a doorway to a 

 modern vestry. In the south wall are two windows, 

 each of two cinquefoiled lights, the stonework of that 

 towards the east being modern, while in the other the 

 head of one light and half that of the other are old, 

 and belong to the end of the fourteenth century. 

 Between the windows is a priest's door, the outer arch 

 being of modern stonework, but the rear arch 

 apparently of the thirteenth century. At the east 

 end of the wall is a trefoiled thirteenth-century 

 piscina. Over the altar is a painting of the Adoration 

 of the Magi, with, on the north side, St. Andrew, and 

 on the south St. George, and portraits of the donors 

 behind each saint. It was given to the church in 

 1793 by Benjamin White, and is good Flemish work 

 of c. 1500, attributed, but wrongly, to Mabuse. 

 The chancel arch is a modern copy of the nave 

 arcades, but the masonry of the responds is old, 

 and in the north respond is a small niche or 

 recess. 



The nave is of four bays with pointed arches of 

 one square order and scalloped capitals with circular 

 shafts and bases, the latter having spurs in the north 

 arcade, but not in the south. 



The north transept has a large three-light north 

 window with modern tracery, the head and jambs 

 with engaged shafts dating from c. 1275. There is 

 no window in the east wall, but four conical stone 

 brackets, one at a higher level than the other three, 

 point to the former position of two altars against the 

 wall, and in the south wall is a piscina with 

 geometrical tracery and a gabled head contemporary 

 with the transept. The north aisle of the nave is 

 en'irely modern, but probably on the old lines. 

 i, 1 1 6. s Ibid, ii, 112. "9 Ibid, i, 92 



