HAVANT PARISH AND LIBERTY 



Hamanfunta and Hafunt, x cent. ; Havehunt, 

 xi-xiii cent. ; Havonte, xiv-xv cent. ; Havant, xvi 

 cent. 



The market town of Havant is situated on the 

 approximate line of the Roman road from Clausentum 

 to Regnum, now the main road from Chichester to 

 Southampton, and is built very regularly round the 

 intersection of this road with that running north and 

 south from Hayling Island to Rowland's Castle. In 

 the south-west angle of the cross roads stands the 

 church of St. Faith, with a low central tower which 

 is nevertheless seen above all the houses near it, the 

 most interesting of which is the late sixteenth-century 



INDEX MAP 



to the 



LIBERTY OF 



half-timbered 'Old House at Home.' At a short 

 distance to the south-west of the church rises the 

 copious spring of Homewell, which never fails in 

 summer nor freezes in winter. West Street leads past 

 the church, by large parchment works and tanneries. 

 The fellmonger's trade, indeed, has prospered in 

 Havant since the seventeenth century. 1 A still older 

 industry, now extinct, was the manufacture of cloth. 

 In 1571 William Simpson, of Rye, cloth-merchant, 

 travelled to Havant in pursuit of some gainful bargain,' 



and was detained there as a suspicious character until 

 the bailiff and constable ' of the town were advertised 

 of his honesty." This trade was also centred in West 

 Street, 4 which leads through Brockhampton tithing 

 towards Bedhampton, past the Roman Catholic church 

 of St. Joseph, and the Wesleyan chapel built in 

 1888. On the borders of the two parishes stands the 

 Primitive Methodist chapel, and by a high-walled 

 garden Brockhampton Road takes the traveller past 

 the Portsmouth Waterworks through green fields 

 watered by a small stream and across a bridge past 

 more tanneries back into the town. Brockhampton 

 Mill, on the right of this road, probably stands on the 

 site of a mill valued at I5/. in the Domesday Book. 5 

 In the same Survey two mills are mentioned under 

 Havant ; these seem to have been represented later 

 by South Mill and Asshewell Mill. 6 Amongst other 

 mills in the town the most picturesque is the disused 

 one at Langstone. It stands on the harbour of that 

 name, near the causeway which connects Hayling 

 Island with the main-land, and is surrounded by a 

 few houses, some thatched and some roofed with red 

 tiles, which, together with a coastguard station, form 

 the hamlet of Langstone. There were also salterns 

 here, one of which dated from the eleventh century, 7 

 and close by across the meadows are the grounds of 

 Wade Court. The greater part of the parish is used 

 for pasture, 1,150 acres being permanent grass, while 

 only 557^ acres are employed as arable land, this 

 lying chiefly around the town, and in the north of 

 the parish there are over 750 acres of wood. 8 The 

 soil differs considerably, the subsoil near Langstone 

 being chalk while the to.vn itself is built on a bed of 

 clay, and the northern part of the parish is also of 

 Eocene formation. This northern portion has been 

 formed for civil purposes into a separate parish, known 

 as North Havant. The road northwards skirts Leigh 

 Park, in a well-wooded and well-watered country. 

 Green slopes studded with fine old trees stretch up to 

 the house which is now the residence of the lord of 

 Havant manor. Beyond it, in the distance, are the 

 trees of the ' Thicket,' the old ' Havant Chace ' of the 

 bishop of Winchester, which form the southern 

 extremity of the forest of Bere. Here at the Thicket 

 was obtained, in 1436, potters' earth. 9 When the park 

 is passed the road curves downhill, and in the hollow 

 lie a few houses, each with its garden abounding in 



1 Early in the seventeenth century 

 William Hayter and William Bayly were 

 the chief fellmongers of the town. Add. 

 Chart. 9454. 



a Probably the bailiff and constable 

 appointed in the manorial court. 



8 Hist. A/SS. Com. Rep. jtiii, App. 4, 

 p. 15. 



4 In 1614 Roger Novell, cloth-worker, 

 of Havant purchased land here. Add. 

 Chart. 9430. 



5 y.C.H.Hanto, 1,4680. In the fifteenth 

 and sixteenth centuries it consisted of two 

 mills under one roof. Close, 23 Chas. I, 

 pt, a, 1 6 ; Egerton MS. 2034, fol. 

 139*. 



122 



6 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1142, No. 15; 

 bdle. 1141, No. 14. 



' y.C.H. Hants, i, 4 68i. One of these, 

 Longcroft (Hund. of Botmere, p. 3), locates 

 to the south of WadeCourt. 



8 Board of Agric. Returns (Hants). 



'Eccl. Com. (var.), bdle. 86 (159486). 

 No. 3. 



