EAST MEON HUNDRED 



STEEP 



inscription 'The gift of Robert Love 1733.' Robert 

 was succeeded by his nephew Richard, whose daughter 

 and sole heiress Susannah married Francis Beckford." 

 From the latter's son and heir Francis Love-Beckford 

 Basing Park passed by sale to Joseph Martineau, on 

 whose death in 1863 it was sold to Mr. William 

 Nicholson, the present owner. 



The church of ST. PETER-4T- 

 CHURCHES HIGH-CROSS dates from 1862, 

 three bays of the nave arcade of the 

 old church which was at Froxfield Green being 

 re-used in it. It has a chancel of two bays with 

 an organ chamber on the north, a nave with north 

 aisle and south-west tower, the ground story of 

 which serves as an entrance porch. Three pillars 

 in the north arcade are of late twelfth-century date, 

 with round shafts and scalloped capitals, but their 

 bases and all the rest of the arcade are modern. 

 In the vestry at the west end of the north aisle is an 

 eighteenth-century altar table, but no other fittings 

 from the old church have been preserved. 



In the tower are six bells, the treble and tenor of 



1880, the others of 1890, by Mears & Stainbank. 

 The little church of St. Peter on the Green, which 

 stands on the site of the old church, was built in 

 1887, and contains no old work. 



The plate consists of a silver communion cup and 

 cover paten, a paten given by Robert Love of Basing, 

 1712,3 cup and flagon given by Josephine Martineau 

 in 1 862, and a paten given by A. Z. Hosegood, 1893. 

 There are also two pewter almsdishes and one of brass. 



The registers begin in 1 545, the first book ending 

 in 1676, while the second contains baptisms 1693 

 1716, marriages 16771707, and burials 16771716. 

 The third has baptisms 1717-87, marriages 1718-54, 

 and burials 1694-1787. The fourth is the marriage 

 register, 1754-93, the fifth has baptisms and burials 

 1788-1812, and the sixth marriages 1793-1812. 



The living of Froxfield was a 

 4DVOWSON vicarage annexed to the vicarage of 

 East Meon" until n March, 1881, 

 in which year by an Order in Council the patronage 

 was transferred to Mr. William Nicholson, of Basing 

 Park, 16 with whom it still remains. 



STEEP 



La Stuppe, La Stiepe, and Stupe xiv cent. ; Steepe 

 xvii cent. 



The parish of Steep formerly included a strip of 

 land called Ambersham in the county of Sussex situ- 

 ated near Midhurst and Petworth, but under the 

 Acts 2 and 3 Will. IV, cap. 64, and 7 and 8 Vic. cap. 

 6 1 , Ambersham was detached from Steep and became 

 part of Sussex. 1 For ecclesiastical purposes it was 

 divided into two portions, North Ambersham and 

 South Ambersham, the former being annexed to 

 Fernhurst and the latter to Easebourne. South 

 Ambersham contains 1,497 acres of land and 7 acres 

 of land covered by water, while North Ambersham has 

 1,169 acres. The parish of Steep contains over 700 

 inhabitants, and occupies the rising ground north-east 

 of Petersfield, its western boundary running along the 

 brow of the high table-land and including within it 

 the steep wooded eastern slopes of Stoner Hill and 

 Wheatham Hill. The parish is watered by a small 

 stream which rises not far from Ashford Lodge and 

 flows thence east to Steep Marsh, and a second stream 

 rising at the foot of Wheatham Hill follows the north 

 and east boundaries of the parish, joining the first 

 stream close to the village of Sheet. Two main roads 

 run through the parish, that from Petersfield to Farn- 

 ham on the east and the Petersfield and Ropley road 

 on the south-west, the latter winding up the steep 

 slopes of Stoner Hill with a skilfully engineered 

 gradient through beautiful hanging beechwoods. It 

 was laid out by private enterprise early in the last 

 century in the expectation of a grant of the tolls on 

 it, but this being refused by the government the 

 promoters lost heavily by their undertaking. There 

 is no regular village, the houses being scattered here 

 and there over the parish, but the principal group 

 lies along the road from Sheet, which crosses the main 

 Petersfield and Ropley road on the lower slopes of 



18 Berry, Hants Gen. 266. 



Stoner Hill. Here are several shops and some modern 

 villas which are increasing in number, owing no doubt 

 to the close proximity of Petersfield. All Saints' 

 church stands on the south side of this road about 

 half a mile east of its junction with the main road, on 

 a site from which the ground falls steeply to the south 

 and east, the vicarage lying below it on the east, while 

 on the north are the voluntary schools built in 

 1 87 5, 'and the almshouses erected and endowed by 

 Mr. William Eames in 1882. On the eastern boundary 

 of the churchyard is an old red-brick house with a 

 picturesque chimney-stack, dating in part from the 

 latter half of the sixteenth century, and the churchyard 

 contains two very fine yew-trees, that on the south of 

 the church being specially notable, even in a district 

 where nearly every parish can show a large tree of the 

 kind, confidently claiming for it the conventional 

 thousand years of growth. There are several good 

 modern houses standing in their own grounds in the 

 parish, the most important being Ashford Lodge on 

 low ground near Stoner Hill, the property of Miss 

 Hawker ; Stonerwood, a large brick house in about 

 the centre of the parish to the west of the Ropley 

 road, built about thirty years ago by the Rev. J. 

 Tasswell and sold at his death ten years ago to Mr. J. 

 Waller; Coldhayes in the north of the parish, a large 

 handsome stone house built about twenty-five years 

 ago by the late Rev. George Horsley-Palmer, a 

 brother of the late Lord Selborne, the architect being 

 the late Mr. Waterhouse, R.A., and at present occu- 

 pied by Mrs. Horsley-Palmer ; Collyers, a large brick 

 house built about twenty years since by the late 

 Colonel Ughtred Shuttleworth, and now owned by 

 his widow and occupied by Major Adam Bogle ; 

 Dunnanie, a modern stucco house owned by Mrs. 

 Shuttleworth ; Island, a large brick house built four 

 years ago and owned and occupied by Mrs. Falconer; 



1 There are men still living in Amber- parish church for marriages. The rate- 



14 Wmton. Efis. Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), tham who remember the quit-rents being payers of Ambersham maintained about 

 82, 83, 103, io4;Exch. Dep. 34 Chas. II, paid into the court of the bishop of Win- a fifth part of the churchyard wall at 



Chester. Up to 1842 the inhabitants of 

 Ambersham brought their dead to Steep 



East. No. 2. 



15 Land. Gax. u Mar. 1881, p. 1138. 



for burial, and also came to Steep as their at a cost of ,150. 



77 



Steep. 



3 The old schools were built in 1843 



