A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



BLENDWORTH 



Bleneworth and Blonewrth (riii cent.) ; Bled- 

 newyth and Blenelworth (xiv cent.). 



Blendworth is a parish of scattered houses adjoining 

 Bere Forest, and contains 2,333 acres of undulating 

 land, including 1,376 acres of arable, 54.4 acres of 

 permanent grass, and 629 acres of woods and plan- 

 tations. 1 The parish is intersected by the main road 

 to Ha ant, which runs south from Horndean, and by 

 the road to Rowland's Castle, which, after skirting the 

 grounds of Blendworth Lodge and Idsworth Park, turns 

 due south, forming the eastern boundary of the parish. 



The small group of houses which represents the 

 old village of Blendworth stands on fairly high ground 

 in the north of the parish close to the disused church 

 of St. Giles, and from this point there is an extensive 

 view over the thickly-wooded country to the south. 

 The church of the Holy Trinity, erected in 1850-1, 

 stands to the west of the old village, and nearer to 

 the busy main road which passes through Horndean. 

 To the north-west is Crookley, the residence of Mr. 

 G. A. Gale, J.P. ; while to the south are Cadlington 

 House, the property of Lieut.-Colonel Sir Henry 

 Clarke-Jervoise, and at present occupied by Mrs. 

 Ashley Williams ; and Blendworth Lodge, the residence 

 of Mrs. Long, widow of the late Mr. Samuel Long. 



At Padnell, a hamlet in the south-western extremity 

 of the parish, bricks and tiles are manufactured. 

 Woodhouse Lane and Woodhouse Ashes * are in the 

 east of the parish. The elementary school for girls 

 and infants was built about 1850. The boys attend 

 Horndean School. 



The soil is of a chalky nature, the subsoil chalk. 

 The chief crops are wheat and oats. Blendworth 

 Down was inclosed in 1816. The whole of the 

 parish is within the manor of Chalton (q.v.). 



Neither of the two churches has 

 CHURCHES much architectural interest. ST.G1LES' 

 CHURCH is a little rectangular build- 

 ing with plastered walls and red-tiled roof, showing 

 no features which can be older than the eighteenth 

 century, though it may well be that the masonry of 

 the walls is mediaeval. As has been already said, it 

 is disused, and contains no old fittings. It is said 

 to have had a small chancel, which was pulled down 

 at the building of the new church, its material being 

 used up in the new work. 



The new church of the HOLT TRINITY consists 

 of chancel with north vestry, nave with south aisle and 

 south porch, and west turret with spire. It was built 

 at a cost of nearly ,3,000 in 1851, and stands in a 

 well-kept churchyard, the rectory being near it to the 

 north. The font is of alabaster, given to the church 

 in 1893, and the oak quire seats date from the pre- 

 ceding year. 



In the turret is one bell without inscription. 



The plate consists of a silver cup and cover paten, 

 a flagon given by Thomasina Francklyn in 1720, and 

 an alms-dish given by William Francklyn, who died 

 at Pembroke College, Oxford, 24 November, 1718, 



aged twenty-six. There is also a modern wine- 

 strainer. 



The first book of the registers contains baptisms 

 1586-1726, marriages I 587-1729, and burials 1586- 

 1732, and is of parchment. The second, of paper, 

 has a few burials in woollen 1678-95, but otherwise 

 contains only the parish accounts from 1702 to 1827. 

 The third book has baptisms 1726-91, marriages 

 1729-89, and burials 1733-90; and the fourti , 

 baptisms and burials from 1791 and marriages from 

 1793 to 1812.* 



The prior, prioress, and convent 

 ADFOWSON of Nuneaton presented to the rec- 

 tory of the church of BLEND- 

 WORTH until the dissolution, 4 when it passed to the 

 crown like the rectories of the churches of Clanfield 

 and Chalton. Queen Elizabeth presented Henry 

 Hooper to the parsonage in 1579.* Some time later 

 Edward, earl of Worcester, although possessing no 

 legal right to the advowson, presented Richard 

 Perkinson. 6 On the death of the latter, Toby Shaw 

 was presented to the church by the Lord Chancellor, 

 Sir Francis Bacon, whereupon the earl brought a plea 

 of 'quare impedit ' against the new rector, who relin- 

 quished his possession in the church to Launcelot 

 Andrewes, bishop of Winchester, and accepted a presen- 

 tation of the same from the earl,' to whom James I, by 

 letters patent, granted the advowson in 1618." The 

 right of the crown to the advowson was re-established 

 when Dr. Gillingham, by private agreement with 

 Godfrey Price, rector of Chalton, regained the advow- 

 son of Chalton for Charles I. 8 The advowson of 

 Blendworth then followed the advowson of Chalton 

 until the end of the eighteenth century, when it 

 passed out of the possession of Jervoise Clarke-Jervoise, 

 the bishop presenting in 1 794.' Since that time it 

 has been in private hands," Mr. M. Margesson being 

 the present patron of the living. 



The School (see article on 

 CHARITIES 'Schools,' V.C.H. Hants, ii, 396, 

 note 7). William Appleford, by 

 will proved at Winchester, 1696, left 200 to be 

 laid out in land, the income to be applied in putting 

 poor children to school. The legacy was in or 

 about 1703 laid out in the purchase of a house and 

 17 acres. The property was sold in 1880 and the 

 proceeds invested in Stock, which is now represented 

 by l,i 86 Consolidated 4 per cent. Preference Stock 

 of the Great Eastern Railway Co. with the official 

 trustees, producing 47 8/. a year, which is carried to 

 the school account. 



Church Lands Charity. The parish was formerly 

 in possession of a small piece of land known as the 

 ' Church Acre." Upon the inclosure of the common 

 lands in 1816 an allotment was made in respect 

 thereof. The land was sold in or about 1880, and 

 the proceeds were invested in 54 8/. ^d. Consols with 

 the official trustees. The annual dividends of 2 21. ^d. 

 are applied towards repairs of the church. 



1 Statistics from Board of Agriculture 

 (1905). 



2 Woodhouse in the tithing of Blend- 

 worth is mentioned in 1656 (Exch. Dep. 

 1656, Trin. No. 4). 



8 Information from the Rev. E. J. 

 Nelson, M.A., rector. 



4 Egerton MS. 2031, fol. 4 ; ibid. 

 2033, fol. 5 ; and ibid. 2034, fols. 4, 34, 

 72, and 1 60 ; Wykcham's Register (Hants 

 Rec. Soc.), i, 183. 



5 Rep. on the Salisbury MSS. (Hist. 

 MSS. Com.), ii, 248. 



8 4 



6 Exch. Bills and Answs.Hants,Chas. I, 

 No. 49. 7 Ibid. 



8 Pat. 15 Jas. I, pt. 17. 

 Cat. ofS. P. Dam. 1668-9, P- 93- It 

 was one of the two ' livings adjacent.' 

 10 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.) 

 U Ibid. 



