EAST MEON HUNDRED 



EAST MEON 



church, vicarage, and schools, is 2 miles north-east of 

 the village of East Meon at the point where the 

 road to Droxford breaks off south from the main road 

 from Petersfield to Winchester. Langrish House, the 

 seat of Mr. Charles William Talbot-Ponsonby, J.P., 

 is about half a mile south from the village. At the 

 base of Barrow Hill is the tithing of Ramsdean, a 

 collection of farm-buildings and cottages with a small 

 Congregational chapel, rebuilt and enlarged in 1887 

 by voluntary contributions at a cost of 200. In 

 the tithing of Bordean, which is two miles north-west 

 of Langrish, is a picturesque early seventeenth century 

 thatched farm-house. Bordean House is on high 

 ground about half a mile from Bordean and just to 

 the south of the Petersfield road, which forms the 

 north boundary of its grounds. This is the highest 

 point on this section of the road (507 ft.), which runs 

 eastward by a steep winding descent through the 

 midst of the hangers to the village of Langrish and 

 westward to Lower Bordean. 



Hops are grown in this district. At Bordean there 

 are lime-works which have existed at least from the 

 seventeenth century. 8 At Stroud there is a brick, tile, 

 and pipe manufactory, the latter industry dating from 

 about the i6th century. 9 The parish of Langrish 

 contains approximately 1,687 acres of arable land, 

 I.434J acres of permanent grass, and 431 acres of 

 woods and plantations. 10 



E4ST MEON. Since in early 

 MANORS times no distinction was drawn be- 

 tween East and West Meon it is diffi- 

 cult to know whether the numerous pre-Conquest grants 

 of land on and near the River Meon" refer at all to 

 East Meon." The first distinctive mention of East 

 Meon comes in the middle of the eleventh century, 

 when Alwin, bishop of Winchester, who died in 1047," 

 granted both the Meons " to the monks of Winchester, 15 

 retaining, however, the management of the lands. 

 Thus Bishop Stigand held East Meon to the use of 

 the monks 16 not only after he became primate but 

 even after his deposition and to the day of his death, 

 when it was seized by William I, who was holding it 

 in 1086. " At the same time Walkelin, bishop of 

 Winchester, was holding in East Meon 6 hides and 



i virgate with the church and a mill '" probably the later 

 tithing of Meonchurch.' 9 The manor continued the 

 property of the crown till some time between 1 1 54 

 and 1 1 6 1," when Henry II granted it, together with 

 all churches belonging to it, to the church of Win- 

 chester," and this grant was confirmed by King John 

 soon after his accession." From this date the manor 

 remained with the bishop 15 until it was sold with his 

 other lands in 1648 and 1649 as a result of the Root 

 and Branch Bill." With the general restoration of 

 bishops' lands in 1 660 the manor once more came to 

 the bishop, and is at present held by the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners as his representatives. In the reign of 

 Edward III there seems to have been a dispute be- 

 tween the bishop and the men of his manor of East 

 Meon, for exemplifications of entries in Domesday 

 Book relating to ' Menes ' were made in 1342 and 

 1343 at the request of the men of the manor and of 

 Adam Orlton, bishop of Winchester, respectively.* 6 

 Again, in August, 1461, when Edward IV went on 

 progress to Hampshire, the tenants of the manor of 

 East Meon and elsewhere, ' in grete multitude and 

 nombre,' petitioned the king for relief from certain 

 services, customs, and dues which the bishop and 

 his agents were attempting to exact.* 6 According to 

 one account the tenants had seized Bishop Waynflete. 

 Edward, however, not only rescued him from the 

 hands of those seeking his life, but arrested the ring- 

 leaders,' 7 whose case was tried in the House of Lords 

 on 14 December, 1461, when judgement was given 

 for the bishop. 18 On 14 December, 1581, John 

 Watson, bishop of Winchester, leased the manor to 

 Queen Elizabeth for eighty-one years.' 9 



There is an interesting survey of the manor taken 

 on 3 1 July, 1 647,* giving the name of every farm, 

 field, tenant, and tenement, with the rent paid in 

 each case. 



' The manor-house called the Court House,' in 

 which the courts-leet and the courts-baron of the 

 manor were held, remains practically unchanged 

 from that day. It was described then as ' being 

 strongly built with stone, having a large hall, a large 

 parlour, a dining-room, a kitchen, a buttery, a larder, 

 a day-house, a kill, three lodging-chambers, a corn- 



8 At a court held 24 September, 1649, 

 a certain William Musgrave was fined 6J. 

 for emptying his lime-pits and throwing 

 his skins into the water, whereby he had 

 greatly offended his neighbours (Eccl. 

 Com. Ct. R. bdle. 99, No. 9). 



9 In 1571 John Robynnet obtained a 

 grant of a parcel of land of the lord's 

 waste, lying in the north part of the 

 Stroud, and with it licence to dig up mud 

 and clay and make bricks and tiles on the 

 said parcel, the custom of the manor not- 

 withstanding (Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. in, 

 No. ,). 



10 Statistics from Board of Agriculture 

 (1905). 



11 The earliest mention of Meon seems 

 to be A.D. 790, when King Beortric 

 granted land in ' Hissaburn ' to Prince 

 Hemele in exchange for land on the River 

 ' Meonea ' which he had bought from 

 King Kinewulf (Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 359). 

 See also Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 514 j ii, 378, 

 and iii, 175, 477, and 654 ; and Kemble, 

 Codex Difhm. 314, 553, 1031, 1067, 

 1107, and 1190. 



12 The probability is that they do not, 

 since they are all royal grants, and as early 

 as the reign of Edward the Confessor the 



manor was held by the bishop of Win- 

 chester. 



13 Dugdale, Mm. i, 195. 



14 East and West Meon. 



15 Dugdale, Man. i, 210. 

 y.C.H. Hants, i, 452*. 

 !? Ibid. 



18 Ibid, i, 461*. 



19 Meonchurch was that part of the 

 parish lying directly round the church as 

 distinct from the tithing of Meon manor 

 which lay more to the south. 



20 It could not have been later, because 

 Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, a 

 witness to the charter, died in 1161. 



21 Add. Chart. 28658. 



M Chart. R. i John, m. 29. In his con- 

 firmation John refers to a charter of his 

 brother Richard, which seems to be no 

 longer extant. 



83 Pat. 12 Edw. I, m. n; Red Bk. of 

 Exch. i, cxxix ; Rot. Orig. (Rec. Soc.), i, 

 48 ; Feud. Aids, ii, 3 1 9 ; Close, 1 4 Hen. VI, 

 m. 18. 



44 In 1648 the Court House and other 

 premises in East Meon were sold to Na- 

 thaniel Hallowes (Clo> -, 24 Chas. I, pt. 2, 

 m. 24). In the same year Richard Dan- 

 nald purchased South Farm with the lands 



65 



appertaining to it in East Meon (Close, 

 24 Chas. I, pt. 8, m. 1 9). In the follow- 

 ing year East Meon manor, East Meon 

 park, Church farm, the Shutt mills, 

 and other premises were sold to Francis 

 Allein (Close, 1 649, pt. 40, No. 24). 



25 Pat. 1 6 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 35, and 

 17 Edw. ill, pt. I, m. 23. 



86 They petitioned for relief from the 

 payment in hens and corn called ' church- 

 etts,' tithing-pence, and pannage. They also 

 complained that the court of the bishop 

 was being held within the site of the par- 

 sonage of East Meon, and not within the 

 site of the manor of East Meon, and 

 asserted that the tenants within the ord- 

 ship of East Meon were freeholders and 

 not copyholders (Part. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 

 476). 



Three Fifteenth-Century Chron. (Camd. 

 Soc.), 174. 



19 Par!. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 475 and 

 476. 



29 Add. MS. 21497, fol. 390. 



90 This survey was formerly owned by 

 the Bakers of Ashford, in the parish of 

 Steep, and is at present in the possession 

 of Mr. John Silvester of the Slade, Frox- 

 field. 



