A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



CATHERINGTON 



Kateringeton (xii cent.) ; Katerinton (xiii cent.) ; 

 Catrington (xv cent.) ; Katherington, Katteryngton, 

 and Kethrington (xvi cent.). 



Catherington is a large parish covering an area of 

 5,279 acres. The village lies almost in the centre of 

 the parish, on the brow of the hill round the base 

 of which runs the main road from Clanfield to Love- 

 dean. The houses are almost entirely grouped on 

 the east of the road, with fields opposite. In the 

 middle of the village is a pretty rose-covered farm- 

 house, and beyond it the house known as St. Cathe- 

 rine's, for long the property of the Barnes family, and 

 at present the residence of Mr. Albert William Still 

 Barnes, J.P. Nearly opposite is the quaint Farmer 

 Inn, and the smithy stands a little way further up the 

 hill. Almost at the top is the vicarage, and opposite 

 it to the east is the church of St. Katherine, standing 

 well back at some little distance from the road. 

 From the east end of the churchyard, where two fine 

 yew trees stand, the ground falls quickly toward the 

 valley in which the Portsmouth road runs, and there 

 is a fine view of Windmill Hill and the country to 

 the east and south. The road running northwards 

 from the village makes a steep descent to join the 

 road to Clanfield. Hinton Daubnay, the property 

 of Mr. Hyde Salmon Whalley-Tooker, commands 

 an extensive view, standing on high ground in a fine 

 park about a mile west of the village. The house is 

 modern, the old house of the Hydes having been 

 pulled down in 1880. According to tradition it was 

 here that the marriage between James duke of York 

 (afterwards James II) and Anne Hyde took place. 

 Also belonging to the Hinton Daubnay estate is a 

 smaller house called Hinton Manor, which is at pre- 

 sent let to Captain Bayly. After passing Hinton 

 Daubnay the road degenerates into a mere zigzag 

 track over the downs, and finally comes out on the 

 main road from Clanfield to Hambledon by the Bat 

 and Ball Inn, the home of the famous Hambledon 

 Cricket Club. Shrover Hall, the residence of Sir 

 William Pink, is in the west of the parish on the road 

 to Barn Green. In the south of the village is Cather- 

 ington House, the seat of Mr. Francis John Douglas. 

 It was built by the first Viscount Hood towards the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, and is several times 

 mentioned in his correspondence. 1 Queen Caroline 

 was entertained here previous to her trial. Yoells is 

 a tithing situated a mile south of the village. East- 

 land Gate, Longwood, and Wecock, which is described 

 as 'a place called Wycock ' in 1591, are two miles 

 further on. 



The village of Horndean, the most populous and 

 rapidly growing part of the parish, lies to the east 

 where the main road from London to Portsmouth 

 meets the road from Havant. The smithy and the 

 national school for boys, built in 1860, are on the 

 road which turns off north-west at the top of the hill 

 towards Catherington. The workhouse for the district 



is in Horndean, and Messrs. George Gale & Co., 

 Ltd., have a large brewery here. The Portsdown 

 and Horndean Light Railway, opened in 1903, starts 

 from Horndean and runs along the east side of the 

 road through beautiful and well-wooded country. 

 On the east there are woods and commons stretching 

 to Waterlooville : Hazleton Wood, Blendworth 

 Common, and the Queen's Inclosure, and beyond 

 them can be seen the well-wooded stretches of Havant 

 Thicket and Stanstead Forest. Merchistoun Hall, 

 formerly the residence of Admiral Napier,' is on the 

 outskirts of Horndean, west of the road to Ports- 

 mouth. Beyond the hall a narrow road runs off west 

 to the village of Catherington. About half a mile 

 south is Keydell House, the residence of Lieut.-Gen. 

 Sir Drury Curzon Drury-Lowe, the well-wooded 

 grounds of which are skirted by a road which runs 

 off west to Lovedean, a fair-sized hamlet about 

 one and a quarter miles south-west of the village of 

 Catherington. There is a smithy here, and at the 

 corner of the road leading to Hinton Daubnay is a 

 thatched cottage used as a general shop. 



Cow Plain is a hamlet situated on the main road 

 to Portsmouth about two miles south of Horndean. 

 There is a general shop here, an inn called 'The 

 Spotted Cow,' and many modern houses. South of 

 Cow Plain and in the extreme south-west of the 

 parish, Hart Plain House formerly stood in grounds 

 extending to the Portsmouth road. The lodge still 

 stands, but the estate called the Hart Plain Estate has 

 been cut up into building-plots. Streets of new 

 houses are already built, and many more roads are 

 marked out. The Forest of Bere is partly within this 

 parish. The soil varies from loam and chalk to stiff" 

 clay. The subsoil is chalk and clay. The chief 

 crops are wheat, barley, and oats. The parish con- 

 tains 2,287 acres of arable land, 1,478^ acres of 

 permanent grass, and 554^ acres of wood and pasture.* 

 Catherington Common, Catherington Down, Wecock 

 Common, and Horndean Down were inclosed in 

 1816. The following are place-names found in the 

 sixteenth century : Whyttames, Cockcrofte,* Lye- 

 woods, a tree called Shambleayshe, a road called Mill- 

 way, East Heath, a covert or bushy place called Hasell 

 Deane, 6 Emerys, Little and Great Asheteedes, the 

 Style Garden, 6 Durley Grove, Dencrofte, Shortridge, 

 Stonridge, Tibs Purrocke, The Upper Crimpe, Lam- 

 pitt's Close, and Handells. 7 



CATHERINGTON alias T1VE 

 MANORS HEADS, (Fyfehydes in Kateryngton xv 

 cent. ; Kathrington alias Kathrington 

 Fyfhed xvi cent.; Catherington aRas Fiveheads xviii 

 cent.) is probably included under the heading of 

 ' Ceptune ' in the Domesday Book. It seems to have 

 formed part of the great manor of Chalton until the 

 time of Robert de Belesme earl of Shrewsbury and 

 Arundel, lord of Chalton from 1098 to 1102. Its 

 subsequent history, however, for a short time after 



1 In a letter to the duke of Rutland 

 in 1784 he calls it 'his little farm at 

 Catherington, near Petersfield'(///jf. MSS. 

 Com. Rep. xiv, App. pt. i, 1 34). 



a He purchased it from Colonel Con- 

 way towards the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, and changed its name from The 



Grove to that of his birth-place, Merchis- 

 toun Hall, in Stirlingshire. 



8 Statistics from the Board of Agricul- 

 ture (1905). 



4 Pat. 1 6 Eliz. pt. 8, m. 27. 



6 Special Com. 33 Eliz. No. 2039 ; 



94 



Exch. Bills and Answs. Eliz. Hants. 

 No. 81. 



Pat. 18 Eliz. pt. 7, m. 18-22. 



' Close, 19 Jas. I, pt. 33, No. 36. 

 There is still a Stoneridge Farm in the 

 north of the parish near the Bat and Ball 

 Inn. 



