BISHOP'S SUTTON HUNDRED 



BISHOP'S 

 SUTTON 



BISHOP'S SUTTON 



Sudtone (xi cent.) ; Sottone Bishop (xiii cent.) ; 

 Button Bishops and Sutton episcopi (xiv cent.). 



The parish of Bishop's Sutton, containing 3,739 

 acres of land and 9 acres of land covered with water, 1 

 is of irregular shape, the central part, in which the 

 village stands, being in the comparatively low ground 

 [250 ft. above sea level] by the head-waters of the 

 River Alre, while a long strip runs north-east between 

 the parishes of Bighton and Ropley, rising to a 

 height of 500 ft. South of the river the boundary 

 extends to the high ground above Cheriton Wood 

 and Bramdean Common [450 ft.], its eastward 

 limit being about a mile from West Tisted church. 

 The village lies on the south side of the Alre, 

 which takes its source about a mile to the east.* 

 The main road from New Alresford to Alton runs 

 through the parish from west to east, dividing it 

 into two almost equal portions. The church stands 

 a little back from the main road on the north, and is 

 at the west end of the village, approached from a road 

 which runs north from the village street. At the 

 corner of this road is the Ship Inn, with its brightly- 

 painted sign-board, a steamer on one side and a 

 sailing-vessel on the other. Opposite is an ancient 

 timber-built house, and eastward from this point 

 the road is lined by cottages with narrow flower 

 gardens in front. Beyond them is the Fox Inn, 

 one of a group of little thatched cottages ; and 

 past it on the outskirts of the village to the south 

 of the road are several new villa residences and 

 the large racing stables owned by Mr. A. Yates. 

 As the road leaves the village and leads on to Ropley 

 it passes through the low-lying country where the 

 River Alre rises, running parallel with the railway, 

 beyond which Sutton Beech Wood rises in the dis- 

 tance. About half a mile from Ropley Lodge a branch 

 road runs southward to Bramdean, passing the fine 

 beeches of Old Park Wood, which, extended at 95 acres 

 and its timber valued at 60, was included in the 

 sale of Bishop's Sutton manor to Sir John Evelyn in 

 1647." Sutton Wood, Sutton Beech Wood, Hazel 

 Wood, Barnett's Wood, Bower's Grove Wood, and 

 Grant's Copse lie in the north-east of the parish. 



There is a rifle-range in the south of the parish a 

 little to the north of Old Park Wood. The soil 

 round the village in every direction is a friable loam 

 adapted to the growth of most crops, and particularly 

 good for barley. Along the valley from the source of 

 the river are rich meadow-lands, but on the outskirts 

 of the parish, especially in the north-east and south- 

 east, are tracts of land of an inferior quality. The 

 subsoil is chalk, and hence the chief crops are wheat, 

 oats, barley, and turnips. The parish contains 2,212% 

 acres of arable land, 1,028 acres of permanent grass, 

 and 222^ acres of woods and plantations.* In 1685 

 Sutton Common or Windley Common, with the 



consent of the bishop of Winchester, was ordered to 

 be inclosed and cultivated and divided among those 

 copyhold and freehold tenements to which common 

 of pasture there had always pertained. 



At the same time twenty acres of the common 

 were freed from tithes and annexed to the vicarage of 

 Bishop's Sutton. 6 The remainder of the common 

 lands were inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1796. 



An interesting description of the manor as it was in 

 the time of Edward VI exists at the Record Office 6 : 



' Sutton is distaunte from Alleresford a myle, and 

 the mannor-howse being a verie olde howse, somtyme 

 walled round abowte with stone, now decaied, well 

 waterid with an olde ponde or moote adjoyning to it, 

 and the ferme-howse being sett and within a stones 

 cast of the said manner-howse, thowsing being but for 

 a fermer, lying neer to Sutton churche. There is a 

 xii score beneth the said manner-howse a corne-mill 

 holden be copie, the ponde being the hed dam of the 

 said mill, and a lyttell beneth that a faier great ferme- 

 howse belonging to the Lorde Chief Justice and holden 

 by copie of the manner of Sutten. The parke of 

 Sutton being a lyttell myle from Sutton Towne, and 

 all the ground betwixt bi the heighwaie side parcell 

 of Sutton ferme, having allso a greate sheape pasture 

 enclosed lyeing round abowte thone haulf of the 

 parke, all plaine, callid the Parke Downe, bi estyma- 

 cion 400 acres, parcell of the ferme, and the parke 

 being abowte two myles good pasture, and muche 

 wood lately fellid ther, the lodge standing faier upon 

 a hill towards the northe end of the parke. A greate 

 wood lying from the sowthewest corner of the parke, 

 full west, a two myles in length, and being a quarter 

 of a myle or more over in moost places set with beache 

 and thicke upon the Lord's common, and a faier 

 plaine comon belonging to the said Lordeshipp, lying 

 all alongest the northe side of the said longe wood.' 



The ' verie olde howse,' mentioned by the surveyor 

 was no doubt the bishop of Winchester's palace, con- 

 cerning which Mr. Duthy in his Sketches of Hamp- 

 shire (1839) writes: 'Within the memory of many 

 persons now living considerable vestiges of a strong 

 and extensive building stood in the meadows to the 

 north of the church, which were the dilapidated 

 remains of an ancient palace of the bishops of Win- 

 chester. The walls were of great thickness and 

 composed of flints and mortar, but it was impossible 

 to trace the disposition of the apartments or the form 

 of the edifice.' He conjectures that it was destroyed 

 in the course of the Civil War. This conjecture 

 seems a plausible one, for many skirmishes must have 

 taken place in the neighbourhood both before and after 

 the battle of Cheriton. In 1830 the remains of the 

 palace were used as a malt-house, but only the site now 

 remains. The bishops of Winchester kept a kennel 

 from very early times in Bishop's Sutton. 7 In the 



1 Pop. Ret. 1901. 



2 Several springs close to the road 

 mark the source of the river. After 

 forming a series of ponds, in some of 

 which watercress is cultivated, the river 

 flows north-west towards Old Alresford 

 Pond. 



8 Close, 23 Chas. I, pt. 10, No. 14. 

 * Statistics from Board of Agriculture 



(1905). In the reign of Edward VI the 

 parish contained about 1,024 acres of wood: 

 Park of Sutton 237 acres, New Park 

 89 acres, Wyneley 294 acres, Haylynge 

 Grove 124 acres, and Ramscomble 280 

 acres (Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 136, No. i). 



Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 152, No. 4. 



6 Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. 

 5 Edw. VI, bdle. 8, No. 22. 



41 



7 Thus Mr. Duthy writes concerning 

 it : 'A perennial pond in the midst of a 

 group of trees on whose banks traces of 

 old foundations used to be discoverable is 

 pointed out by the traditional lore of the 

 neighbourhood as marking the situation 

 of the bishop's kennel' (Dutby, Sketches 

 of Hants, 116). 



