A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



An additional school was built in 1902 a little to the 

 east of Ropley Soke with funds raised by the vicar, 

 the Rev. W. H. Leak. There is a small Methodist 

 chapel near Malthouse Farm and Gilbert Street. 1 

 The kennels of the Hampshire Hunt hounds are 

 situated in the parish, and near them are new stables, 

 which were erected in 1889. 



There are no wide stretches of uninhabited country 

 in Ropley ; everywhere are scattered farms and houses, 

 and the parish is intersected by a network of roads 

 leading to them. Many bungalows and villas have 

 already been built, and many more are being erected, 

 especially in the north and east, where the average 

 height above the sea level is about 550 ft. Ropley 

 is not on the whole well wooded at the present day, 

 the only wood of any size being old Down Wood 

 near Swelling Hill, but there are numerous little 

 copses and many scattered pine trees. A surveyor 

 gives the following description of Ropley in 1551 : 

 ' Being a lyttell village a good myle from Sutton 

 church, the lorde of Sutton being chief lorde ther, 

 having sundry faier wodds lyeing four or five myles 

 together in sundry places sett moost with beache, 

 which woodds we came not in. 3 The following woods 

 are named in a perambulation of the parish made 

 about the same time :* ' Churlewood ' containing 95 

 acres, 'East Byxtrydge' containing 148 acres, 'West 

 Byxtrydge ' containing 1 1 2 acres, ' Oysterslade ' con- 

 taining 150 acres, ' Rudgehomes' containing 78 acres, 

 'Highomes' containing 88 acres, ' Redhyll' contain- 

 ing 1 14 acres, 'Holthele' containing 136 acres, and 

 ' Hamerdene ' containing 1 16 acres. 



Previous to July, 1882, Ropley was annexed to 

 Bishop's Sutton for ecclesiastical purposes, but by an 

 Order in Council dated August, 1882, it became a 

 separate parish. It contains 2,277^ acres of arable 

 land, 1,505^ acres of permanent grass, and 282^ of 

 woods. 6 The soil is generally light, the subsoil chalk. 

 The chief crops are wheat, oats, and green crops. 



The following place-names occur in a court roll of 

 1628 : ' Kittiert, Lyshard, and Houndlose.' ' Crete 

 Alberts and Threleggedcrosse ' are found in the sixteenth 

 century/ and in a patent roll of 1403 are the follow- 

 ing 8 : 'Alfedoun, Wandelesworth, Pollardeswode, 

 Hokereslane, Brechelond, Rykemannescroft, Pudelston, 

 Kyteswode, Merelond, Couperescroft, Amkyncroft, 

 Hokecroft, Sweolynge, Lytelreode, Gervaisdoun, La 

 Stubbyng, Inhome by Buxterigge, Le Guletter, 

 Le Colynge, Hamerden, and Solrugge.' 



A large portion of the parish of Ropley 



M4NOR and the vill of ROPLEY itself formed 



part of the demesne lands of the manor 



of Bishop's Sutton, and thus belonged to the bishop 



of Winchester, as forming part of his liberty. 9 In a 

 survey taken in 1551 the lord of Bishop's Sutton was 

 said to be chief lord of the vill of Ropley, 10 and the 

 fact that Sutton-cum-Ropley " and Sutton Ropley" are 

 sometimes mentioned shows a very close cohnexion 

 between the two parishes. The descent of these 

 demesne lands necessarily followed that of the manor 

 of Bishop's Sutton (q. v.). The earliest evidence of 

 the manor of Ropley, which was held of the bishopric, 

 is between 1304 and 1316, when Henry, bishop of 

 Winchester, granted licence to William Gervays of 

 Ropley to hear service in a chapel in his manor of 

 Ropley." In 1332 Robert le Botiller of Brown 

 Candover settled a messuage, 3 carucates of land, 

 20 acres of wood, and 10 rent in Bishop's Sutton 

 and Ropley on William Gervays and Christine his 

 wife, with remainder in fee-tail successively to their 

 sons, William, Roger, and John, and their daughter 

 Isabel. 14 William the son died without issue, and 

 the manor passed in accordance with the above settle- 

 ment to his brother Roger. 15 In 1369 Andrew, son 

 of Roger Gervays, granted 2 messuages, 2 tofts, 

 4 carucates of land, 10 acres of meadow, 100 acres 

 of pasture, 100 acres of wood, and 10 rent in 

 Ropley, Bishop's Sutton, and other places to William 

 de Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, in return for an 

 annuity of ^2O. 18 The bishop in 1392 obtained 

 royal licence to alienate a part of these premises 17 in 

 frankalmoign to the warden and scholars of the 

 college called ' Seynte Marie College of Wynchestre,' 

 which he had lately founded. 18 Ten years later 

 licence was granted him to alienate the rest of the 

 premises 18 to Winchester College for an annual rent 

 of 3 i8/. y\d. and is. 6J. tithing pence." In this 

 way the whole of the manor of Ropley came into 

 the hands of Winchester College, to whom it belongs 

 at the present day." A court of the manor was held 

 there as late as 1 706." 



In 1399 William de Wykeham let out at farm for 

 a hundred years to Winchester College for a fixed 

 money rent various tenements in Ropley, and this 

 lease was confirmed by the king in 14.03.** 



Divers free tenants also held lands in Ropley of 

 the bishop at various times. In 1332 Thomas de 

 Wandlesworth of Winchester granted a messuage, 

 2 virgates of land, and 60 acres of wood in Ropley to 

 William de Wandlesworth of Winchester and Agnes 

 his wife to hold for their lives of Thomas and his 

 heirs by the annual rent of a rose." The same 

 Thomas in 1356 was seised of a messuage, los. rent, 

 80 acres of arable land, and 20 acres of wood in 

 Ropley within the liberty of the bishop of Win- 

 chester.' 5 In 1361 a certain Thomas de Alresford 



a Probably so-named from the family 

 of Gilbert, who lived in the parish for 

 centuries. Here it an early eighteenth- 

 century house with good brickwork de- 

 tails, known as the ' Alberts,' a name oc- 

 curring in sixteenth-century court rolls ; 

 see below. 



* Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. 

 bdle. 8, No. 22. 



Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 136, No. I. 



4 Statistics from Board of Agriculture 

 (1905). 



6 Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 120, No. i. 



7 Ibid. bdle. 136, No. I. 



8 Pat. 4 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 15. 



9 Feud, jiids, ii, 315. 



10 Duchy of Lane. Rentals and Surv. 

 bdle. 8, No. 22. 



11 Chart. R. 12 Edw. I, m. 5. 

 11 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 10. No. 

 189. 



18 Egerton MS. 2031, fol. 122*. 



14 Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 5 Edw. III. 



15 De Bane. R. Hil. 7 Hen. V, m. 

 414. 



16 Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 43 Edw. III. 



17 Viz. 2 messuages, i toft, 3 carucates 

 of land, 2 acres of meadow, 32 acres of 

 pasture, 63 acres of wood, 10 rent, and 

 the rent of a pound of cummin. 



18 Pat. 15 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 9. 



19 Viz. 6 tofts, 4j virgates, 40 acres of 

 land, 1 6 acres of pourpresture, and 35 

 acres of wood. 



40 Inq. a.q.d. file 432, No. 4. 



11 In 1413 Nicholas Gervays, the 



56 



brother of Andrew Gervays, released all 

 the right he had in the manor to John 

 Morys the warden of Winchester College 

 (Feet of F. Hants, East. I Henry V). 

 Six years later John Gervays, the son and 

 heir of William Gervays, another of 

 Andrew's brothers, made an attempt to 

 regain possession of the manor on the 

 ground of the settlement made by Robert 

 le Botiller in 1332, but his attempt does 

 not seem to have met with any suc- 

 cess (De Bane. R. Hil. 7 Hen. V, m. 



Stowe MS. 845, fol. 59. 

 ffl Pat. 4 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 15. 

 M Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 5 Edw. III. 

 25 Inq. p.m. 30 Edw. Ill (ist Nos.), 

 No. 61. 



