BISHOP'S SUTTON HUNDRED 



ROPLEY 



died seised of a messuage, a carucate of land and 

 rents in Ropley which he held of the bishop of 

 Winchester." 



SHETE FARM (La Syete, La Schyte, and La 

 Shete xiii cent. ; Shete Ferme xvi cent.). Some time 

 between 1250 and 1260 Ralph son of William de 

 Wez granted to John Sanztere all his land of ' La 

 Syete ' which he had in the manor of ' Sultone, 

 Roppele, La Syete, and Hedleghe ' in exchange for 

 all the land which John had in the vill of Over- 

 ton, 30 marks, 4 quarters of wheat, 4 quarters 

 of barley, 4 quarters of oats, 4 bacon pigs, and 

 2 robes for himself and his wife." In 1 266 John 

 granted this tenement to the prior and canons of 

 Selborne in frankalmoign to hold of the bishop of 

 Winchester by the annual payment of a mark and 

 suit at his court of Bishop's Sutton twice a year. 28 

 This grant was confirmed by the bishop the same 

 year." Towards the close of the thirteenth century, 

 the question was raised as to whether the prior and 

 convent were lawfully seised of this tenement. An 

 inquiry was held and it was ascertained that the prior 

 and his predecessors had been seised of it long before 

 the Statute of Mortmain ' with just title and not by 

 any fraud of parties or collusion.' A fine was accord- 

 ingly levied whereby Richard de Wytheneye and 

 Alice his wife quitclaimed from themselves and the 

 heirs of Alice * a messuage and a carucate of land in 

 Ropley to the priory." This tenement remained the 

 property of the priory till 1485, when it was trans- 

 ferred with the rest of its possessions to Magdalen 

 College, Oxford. In a perambulation of the parish 

 made in the reign of Edward VI the following is 

 given as the property of the college : A capital 

 messuage called ' Shete Ferme,' a wood called Bromes 

 and crofts called Rodebeche, Homefield, Hatchgate- 

 field, and Pokefield, lying to the north of Lyeway." 

 There is still a Broom Copse near Lyeway, but the 

 farm itself seems to have disappeared, although Mag- 

 dalen College still owns property in the parish. 



The church of ST. PETER, ROP- 

 CHURCH LET consists of chancel 21 ft. by 

 14 ft. 3 in. with north and south chapels, 

 and nave 44ft. by 19 ft. with north aisle, south-east 

 tower, and south porch. The oldest parts of the build- 

 ing belong approximately to the middle of the twelfth 

 century, the church of that date having had an aisleless 

 nave and chancel with a transept chapel at the south- 

 east of the nave, and probably another like it at the 

 north-east. The plan was very like that of Colemore 

 church, but on a larger scale. The only architectural 

 detail of this date is the small west doorway of the tower, 

 but parts of the south and west walls of the nave and 

 tower and of the east wall of the chancel are original 

 work. The walling is of flint rubble with dressings 

 of chalk and a brown sandstone. A south chapel was 

 added to the chancel in the latter part of the thirteenth 

 century, and probably about the same time (or per- 

 haps somewhat earlier) the north transept chapel was 

 lengthened westward, and made to open to the nave 

 by an arcade of two bays with a round central column. 

 It is not clear at what date the existing wooden south- 

 east tower was built within the south-east transept 

 chapel, but this may have been a fourteenth-century 

 alteration. In the early part of the nineteenth cen- 



tury a north chapel was added to the chancel, and in 

 1896 the north transept chapel was lengthened west- 

 ward and became a north aisle of equal length with 

 the nave, its east and west walls being pulled down 

 and a new north arcade of four bays built, the old 

 arcade of two bays being destroyed. At the same 

 time the west wall of the nave was heightened in 

 gable form, having previously ended with a level top, 

 the west end of the nave roof being hipped. 



The chancel has an east window of three cinque- 

 foiled lights with fifteenth-century tracery under a four- 

 centred head, the jambs being perhaps older and cut 

 back to suit the inserted tracery. On the north and 

 south of the chancel are arcades of two bays with 

 pointed arches of two chamfered orders and an octa- 

 gonal central pillar with moulded capital and base, 

 the arches dying into the walls without responds at 

 east and west. The south arcade is of late thirteenth- 

 century date, while the north is a modern copy of it. 

 The twelfth-century chancel had quoins in its internal 

 angles, as may still be seen in the east wall where the 

 south wall has been cut away for the arcades. 



The south chapel has a three-light east window with 

 net tracery, the stonework being modern, and in the 

 south wall a single trefoiled light, below which are 

 a small piscina and a locker. West of the south 

 window is a round-headed doorway, in modern stone- 

 work, and to the north of the east window are traces 

 of two small thirteenth-century lights, one above the 

 other. Under the east window are remains of two 

 stone brackets for the images over the altar which once 

 stood here. 



The chancel arch is modern, and with the north 

 arcade of four bays dates from 1896, and all the 

 windows of the north chapel and aisle are likewise 

 modern. On the south side of the nave is a pointed 

 arch opening to a vestry under the south-east tower, 

 and west of it a square-headed sixteenth-century win- 

 dow of two trefoiled lights. The south doorway of 

 the nave is of the fifteenth century, with a four-centred 

 arch under a square hood-mould with carved foliage 

 in the spandrels. It doubtless replaces the original 

 south doorway, and opposite it on the north side of 

 the nave, before the building of the aisle, was a blocked 

 north doorway. The west window of the nave is of 

 three lights with modern tracery, but the jambs are 

 old. The south porch is of timber and plaster, and 

 in its north-east corner is an octagonal corbel for a 

 holy-water stone. 



The tower is a good specimen of timber framing, 

 covered with weather-tiling in the upper part where 

 it rises above the masonry and roof, and finished with 

 a low-pitched pointed roof. Its lower stories are 

 lighted by modern windows on the south, one above 

 the other, but with a common round-headed rear- 

 arch, the masonry of which seems to be old. The 

 west doorway, near the south-west angle, has a plain 

 round head and a chamfered string at the springing. 



The roofs and fittings of the church are entirely 

 modern, but in the vestry is a seventeenth-century 

 communion table, and the font, at the west end of 

 the north aisle, is of the fifteenth century, with a 

 plain octagonal bowl and short panelled stem, and on 

 the chamfer at the base of the bowl plain shields 

 alternating with paterae of foliage. 



* Inq. p.m. 34 Edw. Ill, pt. i,No. 7. 

 V Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 (Ser. i), 40. Ibid. 58. w Ibid. 



80 Alice was probably the daughter and 

 ir of John Sanztere. 



81 Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 



57 



(Ser. i), 76 ; Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 

 19 Edw. I. 

 > Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 136, No. 1 1. 



8 



