BISHOP'S SUTTON HUNDRED 



having collars and braces. The tower a is of the fif- 

 teenth century, of three stages, with modern pinnacles 

 and battlements. Its internal measurements at the 

 ground level are 9 ft. by 9^ ft., with walls 3 ft. 10 in. 

 thick. There are no angle buttresses. In the ground 

 stage is a two-light west window, and in the second 

 stage a single-light window with trefoiled head in the 

 same position ; the belfry windows are of two lights 

 with a quatrefoil in the head. The arch from the 

 tower to the nave is of two orders with large hollow 

 chamfers and semi-octagonal capitals, responds, and 

 bases, of a local fifteenth-century type, which looks 

 earlier than it really is. The font is modern. There 

 are two bells by Thomas Mears of (Whitechapel) 

 London, 1838. In the vestry are two large eigh- 

 teenth-century paintings of Moses and Aaron, of more 

 than the average merit of their class. 



The plate consists of a silver communion cup and 

 cover paten of 1567, a silver flagon given in 1734, 

 and two pewter alms dishes. 



The parish registers date from 1537. 



The rectory of Headley was ap- 

 4DVOWSON propriated to Merton Priory subse- 

 quent to 1317, when Walter de 

 Brokesbourne, rector of the parish, was ordained priest 

 by Bishop Sendale of Winchester. 58 The prior and 

 convent presented to the vicarage until the dissolution 

 of the priory, 59 when the advowson passed into the 

 hands of the bishop of Winchester. It was included 

 in the possessions of the bishop granted to Sir John 

 Gate in 1 5 5 I , M but remained the property of the 

 crown after he was forced to surrender them until 



ROPLEY 



1626, when at the intercession of the queen Charles I 

 granted it to Queen's College, Oxford, 61 with whom 

 the right of presentation has remained to the present 

 day. There is a rectory house and 50 acres of glebe. 

 The question of tithes was dealt with by the Court of 

 Exchequer in I'j^.g. 6 ' 



The church at Grayshott, dedicated to the honour 

 of St. Luke, was consecrated in 1900. This consoli- 

 dated chapelry was formed, partly from Headley, and 

 partly from adjoining Surrey parishes, by Order of 

 Council of 30 January, igoi. 65 



There was in 1 549 an obit kept in ' Hedleigh ' 

 church, supported by lands called ' Bedvelles,' then 

 occupied by William Atmore, which yielded 36^. 6J. 

 a year ; l8/. id. of this sum was distributed to the 

 poor. 64 



There are Congregational and Bible Christian 

 chapels in the parish, and the Plymouth Brethren 

 have an iron chapel at Standford. 



In 1755 a free school for twelve poor 

 CH4RITT children was founded at Headley by the 

 Rev. George Holme, D.D., who gave a 

 master's residence and endowed the school with a 

 house and zj acres of land in Whitmore Valley, and 

 an annuity of 6 charged on an estate at Ash near 

 Aldershot. The whole now yields about 13 a year. 

 In 1872 the school-building was enlarged, and is now 

 used as the National Schools for all the children of the 

 parish. These schools were again enlarged in 18934, 

 and now accommodate 300 children. There is a 

 National School (mixed) at Grayshott, the property of 

 Miss I'Anson. 



ROPLEY 



Ropeleia (xii cent.), Roppele, and Roppeleghe 

 (xiv cent.), Ropeley (xv cent.). 



Ropley is a large parish with an area of 4,684 

 acres, situated 4 miles east from New Alresford, 

 with a station l^ miles from the village on the 

 Bentley, Alton, and Fareham branch of the London 

 and South- Western railway, which passes through it on 

 the north-west. Parallel to the railway runs the main 

 road from New Alresford to Alton, which enters the 

 parish at Ropley Dean, 1 close to Ropley Lodge, the 

 residence of Mr. Bowdon, where it is joined by the 

 main road from Petersfield. The village of Ropley 

 is built on a ridge between these two roads, rising 

 gradually from west to east, and approached by numer- 

 ous narrow lanes running off north from the Peters- 

 field road and east from the Alton road. Down 

 the ridge runs a narrow road, entering the parish at 

 the east and passing through the outlying ham'et of 

 Lyeway. At the upper end of the village it divides, 

 one branch going northwards to Gilbert Street, another 

 continuing westward and forming the village street. 

 The church stands in the north-east of the village, the 

 street forming the southern boundary of the church- 

 yard, while further down the hill on the south are 

 the schools, the smithy, and the coffee and reading- 



rooms, which were built in 1884 by Miss Hagen of 

 Ropley House for the use of the working men of the 

 parish. From the west end of the village the road 

 runs on to Ropley Dean, the vicarage and Ropley 

 House, with its well-grown beech trees, being on the 

 north, while to the south is Ropley Manor (formerly 

 Ropley Cottage), at present in the hands of Captain 

 Holroyd. There are several scattered hamlets in the 

 parish. Lyeway in the east ; Gilbert Street, north- 

 east of the village, on the road leading up to Kitfield 

 and the outlying farm of Kitwood, in the highest part 

 of the parish ; North Street, with its little inn ' The 

 Shant," and Ropley Soke, with a mission-room, both 

 lying on the main road from Alresford to Alton ; 

 Charlwood and Monkwood, situated in the east and 

 the south of the parish respectively ; and Four Marks, 

 with an inn called the 'Windmill,' on high ground 

 within about five minutes' walk from Medsted rail- 

 way station. The last is partly in Ropley and partly 

 in Medsted. 



The original schoolhouse is a whitewashed and 

 thatched cottage on the Petersfield road, near the 

 Anchor Inn, built in 1828 for the instruction of the 

 children of Bishop's Sutton and Ropley. The pre- 

 sent schools were built in 1869 and enlarged in 1888. 



*" The tower was apparently designed 

 for a different form of nave roof from that 

 at present existing. A few eighteenth- 

 century monuments are now placed in the 

 tower. 



58 Winton. Epii. Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 199. 



69 Dugdale, Man. vi, 248. 



Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. 5. 



61 Ibid. 2 Chas. I, pt. 7, No. 3 ; Ashm. 

 MS. 828, FzS.fol. 95. 



m Exch. Dep. 23 Geo. II, Mich. 3. 



68 Land. Gax. 8 Feb. 1901, p. 982. 



64 Chant. Cert. Hants. 



1 This section of the road is bordered by 

 wide uninclosed grass margins, from the 



55 



Chequers Inn at the east end of Ropley 

 Dean, to the junction with the Bramdean 

 road at the west They have been en- 

 croached on in several places by cottages 

 and gardens, on the south side near Dean 

 Farm, and on the north side by the 

 grounds of Ropley Lodge, further to the 

 west. 



