A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



CHALTON 



Ceptune (xi cent.) ; Chalghton and Chaulghton 

 (xii cent.) ; Chaulton, Chauton, Chaueton, and 

 Chawton (xiii cent.) ; Schalston, Charlton, Chalkton, 

 and Chalughton (xiv cent.) ; Challeton (xv cent.). 



Chalton is a small parish with an area of 1,749 

 acres, 1 shut in on nearly every side by lofty downs. 

 Consequently the roads to the village are extremely 

 rough, and it is probably owing to this that the parish 

 seems so desolate and remote. The population in 

 1 88 1 was 208, while in 1901 it was only 202, and 

 from the general appearance it seems likely that it 

 will probably decrease still more. Sir Frederick 

 Madden, in his Hampshire Collections, especially 

 mentions Chalton as being one of the least productive 

 parishes of the county. The village is most easily 

 approached by a little road called Chalton Lane, 

 which runs off south-east from the main road from 

 Petersfield to Portsmouth, and rapidly descends 

 the northern slopes of Chalton Down. The village 

 itself is situated on the western slopes of a down, and 



THE RED LION INN, CHALTON 



is seen in the distance nestling among trees with the 

 church tower showing above. Old Farm stands at 

 the outskirts of the village, and from it the road 

 ascends steeply to a little green where it is met by roads 

 from Ditcham and Rowland's Castle. It is round this 

 little green that the village mostly lies. Here stands 

 the old hostelry 'The Red Lion,' a picturesque half- 

 timbered and thatched building, parts of which are 

 said to be at least 500 years old. Opposite to it is the 

 old grey church with its square ivy-covered tower, and 

 next to the church is the rectory, which is a mediaeval 

 building to which an eighteenth-century front has 

 been added. A window, altered to a doorway in the 

 sixteenth century, is to be seen on the ground floor. 

 The schools are situated along South Lane, as the road 

 is called which leads south to Finchdean and Rowland's 

 Castle. Much of the timber used in the building of 

 the cottages in the village is old oak ship timber, 

 sometimes showing the form of the bows of a ship, 

 acquired no doubt from wrecks on the south coast or 



brought from Portsmouth. There is a fine view at 

 the back of the church from the Ditcham road, which 

 looks out on the south towards the heights of Chalton 

 Downs, on the north to the widely-stretching Ditcham 

 Woods, and on the west towards Windmill Hill, while 

 the road which joins the main Portsmouth road 

 appears as a perpendicular white streak. 



Chalton windmill, which stands on the summit of 

 Windmill Hill, and has now fallen into decay, is 

 mentioned as early as 1289, when it was worth 40^. 

 per annum,* and is included in subsequent extents of 

 the manor. Only a few place-names survive in 

 Chalton. Netherley Farm Buildings, west of South 

 Lane, mark the site of copyhold land called ' Ne- 

 theley,' parcel of the manor of Chalton in the 

 seventeenth century. 8 A certain William Trigge died 

 in 1563 seised of a messuage called St. Andrew's 

 Chapel in Chalton,' but there does not seem to be 

 any trace of it now. The name John Wodecroft 

 occurs in a dispute on the bishop's register in 1397. 

 He probably lived at Wood- 

 croft, which is at the present 

 time a hamlet of Chalton at the 

 foot of the Down near the rail- 

 way on the way to Ditcham. 



Windmill Down, the Peak and 

 Chalton Down were inclosed by 

 authority of an Act of 1812. 

 The soil is light, the sub-soil 

 chalk. The chief crops are 

 wheat, barley, and oats. 



Idsworth is a parochial chap- 

 elry on the borders of Sussex, in 

 the midst of beautiful country, 

 steep wooded hills alternating 

 with rich park-land, where game 

 of every description abounds. In 

 shape it is long and narrow, 

 being about five miles in length 

 and not more than a mile broad 

 at its widest point. Rowland's Castle, situated 

 in the south, is the most populous part, and is 

 rapidly growing, no doubt owing to the existence 

 of its railway station, opened in 1859, on the Ports- 

 mouth branch of the London and South Western 

 Railway. In the centre of the village is a wide 

 green, around the north side of which are grouped 

 various cottages, inns, and shops, constituting the 

 older part of the village. On the west side is the 

 Congregational chapel, originally erected in 1881. 

 Along the south side runs a very tall old brick wall 

 inclosing the grounds of Deerleap, the residence of 

 Admiral George William Douglass O'Callaghan, C.B., 

 J.P. In these grounds, between the house and the 

 factory of the Rowland's Castle Brick and Tile Com- 

 pany, 4 there are the remains of a ruin covered with 

 ivy, said to be all that is left of what was once ' Row- 

 land's Castle.' There are but few references to this 

 castle in documents preserved in the British Museum 

 and the Record Office. It appears from Harleian 



1 The acreage of Chalton is divided as 

 follows : 733 acres of arable land, 576 

 acres of permanent grass, and 146 acres 

 of woods and plantations (Statistics from 

 Board of Agriculture, 1905). 



a Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. I, No. 17. 

 Exch. Dep. 22 Jas. I, Mich. No. 29, 

 >nd 8 Chas. I, Mich. No. 9. 



102 



4 Eh. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), file 1004, 

 No. 3. 



There arc two brick and tile factories 

 in the village. 



