BISHOP'S SUTTON HUNDRED 



BRAMDEAN 



At the time of the Domesday 

 ADVOW&O'N Survey there was a church in Bishop's 

 Sutton with one hide attached, and it 

 then belonged to Eustace count of Boulogne, lord of the 

 manor of Bishop's Sutton. 53 Count Eustace granted the 

 advowson of the church to the prior and convent of 

 Merton (co. Surr.), 54 who continued to be patrons until 

 the dissolution." In 1539 Henry VIII granted the 

 advowson to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, in tail 

 male." He died in 1545, and his two sons Henry 

 and Charles on 1 6 July, 1 55 1, without male issue. 

 In the latter year John Poynet succeeded to the see of 

 Winchester and obtained a grant of the advowson of 

 Bishop's Sutton." Three months later, however, it 

 was granted with the manor and hundred to Sir John 

 Gate, 58 but was restored to the bishopric by Queen 

 Mary in I558. 59 However, in 1563 it was again 

 taken from the bishop and granted to William Stanley, 

 Lord Mounteagle, son and heir of Mary Mounteagle, 

 who was one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of 

 Charles duke of Suffolk. 60 



In 1 604 James I granted the advowson to Anthony 

 Crewe and William Starkey. 61 The following persons 

 have since presented to the living : John Lowman in 

 1622 ; Thomas Jones in 1672 ; Mrs. London, widow, 

 in 1711 ; Ann Alexander in 1724; James Brown 



Alexander in 1 746 ; John Wood and George Jackson 

 in 1757 ; the Rev. William Ralph and others in 1796 ; 

 the Marquis of Abercorn in 1 8 1 1 ; and the Marquis 

 of Abercorn and wife in 1 8 1 8 6 * ; Sir Thomas Baring, 

 bart., and John Deacon are given as the patrons in 

 1831, and John Deacon as the patron in l849. 63 

 The Misses Tanner were the patrons in 1878. The 

 living is now a vicarage in the hands of the Peache 

 trustees. 



By an undated deed between the canons of the 

 church of St. Mary of Merton, and Stephen, chap- 

 lain of Bishop's Sutton, it was agreed that Stephen 

 should have all the tithes of the chapel of Ropley and 

 all the land belonging to it by the rent of 3 marks, 

 and that the canons should have all the tithes of the 

 mother-church of Bishop's Sutton. In return for 

 this convention Stephen gave up to the canons all the 

 land which he held of them in Bishop's Sutton except 

 his messuage in that vill. 64 



In 1796 under the provisions of a 

 CHARITIES Private Act for the inclosure of the 

 common fields in this parish and 

 Crawley (34 Geo. Ill, cap. 81), an acre of arable 

 land was awarded in respect of the right of the parish 

 in a common field. The rent of l a year is applied 

 by the churchwardens towards church expenses. 65 



BRAMDEAN 



Brondene (xi cent.) ; Brundon, Brandun, and 

 Brendon (xii cent.) ; Branden and Bromdene (xiii 

 cent.). 



Bramdean is a small parish, with an area of 1,237 

 acres, situated nine miles east from Winchester. The 

 village, in the south-west of the parish, lies along the 

 main road from Petersfield to Winchester, at an 

 average height of 270 ft. above sea-level, the fall of 

 the ground being westward, and close to the west 

 boundary of the parish is the source of the little 

 stream which runs through Cheriton and Tichborne 

 to join the Alre below Alresford, a short distance 

 above its junction with the Itchen. Bramdean 

 Common in the north-east of the parish rises to 

 450 ft., and the view from the wooded ridge which 

 forms its northern boundary is very striking. The 

 open common slopes down, backed by woods on the 

 south and east, and crossed by two roads, one running 

 south-east towards West Meon, the other south-west to 

 join the Winchester road in the middle of Bramdean 

 village. At the south-west of the common is a group 

 of thatched and timbered cottages, and beyond them 

 the view opens out over the lower ground on which 

 the village stands to the downs which form the 

 western boundary of the Meon valley, Beacon Hill, 

 five miles away, standing out against the skyline. The 

 well-timbered park and grounds of Woodcote House, 

 now occupied by Sir Francis Seymour Haden, are in 

 the south-west angle of the parish, north of the 

 Winchester road, and a short distance east of the 

 village. The thatched and ivy-covered Manor Farm 

 stands at the west of the village on the south side of 



the road, and beyond it is the Fox Inn with its large 

 bay windows. On the higher ground to the south is 

 a picturesque group of houses, to which a road strikes 

 off at right angles. The rectory stands in the middle 

 of the village, on the south of the road, at the point 

 of junction with the road from Bramdean Common, 

 and is in part of considerable antiquity, with some 

 good early seventeenth-century panelling and beams. 

 Further to the west is the church, standing half 

 hidden by trees on the hillside to the south, and 

 approached by a steep lane, at foot of which is a brick 

 bridge over a dry water-course which runs all along 

 the south side of the village street. To the east of 

 the church is College Farm, an eighteenth-century 

 red brick house of good style, with several well-designed 

 chimney-pieces. The rectory meadow, planted with 

 several fine trees, rises towards the church from the main 

 road, and opposite to it on the north is Bramdean 

 House. This house formed part of the property entailed 

 by the Rev. Egerton Arden Bagot on his sister Honora, 

 the wife of the Rev. the Hon. Augustus George Legge, 

 about the middle of last century, and is at present the 

 property of the Misses Legge, the heirs of the Rev. 

 Augustus George Legge. The gravel valley in which 

 the village lies was apparently in former times the bed 

 of a river. At irregular intervals a spring bubbles up 

 from what is called ' a pocket ' in the chalk in Wood- 

 cote Park by the roadside, flows through the village 

 and across the meadows to Hinton Ampner, and finally 

 joins the Itchen at Cheriton. For years perhaps the 

 brick arch of the church path and the channel by the 

 roadside might be considered a needless precaution, 



V.C.H. Hants, i, 477. 

 M Dugdale, Mon. vi, 247. 

 65 Wykeham's Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 i, 20 1 ; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 49. 

 68 Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. 7, m. 23. 



W Ibid. 5 Edw. VI, pt. 6, m. 26-29. 

 68 Ibid. pt. 5, m. 20. 

 59 Ibid. 5 and 6 Phil, and Mary, pt. 4, 

 m. 6. 60 Ibid. 5 Eliz. pt. 5, m. 18, 19. 

 61 Ibid. 2 Jas. I, pt. 22. 



45 



" Inst. Bks. (P. R. O.). 

 68 Samuel Lewis, Tofog. Did. (183 i), 

 iv, 248, and (1849), iv, 274. 



64 Cott. MS. Cleopatra C. vii, 73. 

 85 Char, Com. Rep. xii, 509, 



