PORTSDOWN HUNDRED 



WIDLEY 



WIDLEY 



Wydelig (xii-xiii cent.) ; Wydele (xiv cent.) ; 

 Widley (xvi cent.). 



In 1881 Widley was a small parish about five 

 miles north of Portsmouth. It was about two miles 

 in breadth and a mile in length, and contained 

 1,109 acres of land. In 1894, however, it was 

 amalgamated with Wymering and formed into the 

 present parish of Cosham. 1 



Widley is now a small secluded hamlet to which 

 the most direct approach from Cosham and Wymering 

 is by a track down the northern slope of Portsdown, 

 at the back of the Alexandra Hospital. Its only 

 buildings, beyond a few cottages, are the little church 

 of St. Mary Magdalen and a farmhouse close to it on 

 the west, called the Mill Farm. A little to the north 

 of the church a tributary of the Wallington, which 

 rises in Purbrook Park, runs north-west towards South- 

 wick, Purbrook Heath House and Broomfield House 

 lying to the north of its course. 



The soil is loamy, the subsoil chalk ; the chief 

 crops are wheat, oats, and barley. The common 

 lands in Widley were inclosed in 1811-12.' 



At the time of the Domesday Survey 

 MANOR Geoffrey held Cosham under Hugh dc 

 Port ; Bricsmar had held it from King 

 Edward as an alod ; it was assessed at two hides. 3 

 These two hides evidently became later the MANOR 

 OF WIDLEY, which was held in the fourteenth cen- 

 tury of the St. Johns, the descendants of the Ports, and 

 was closely connected with Cosham and Wymering. 



The earls of Albemarle held Widley in the thir- 

 teenth century as under-tenants; William de Fortibus, 

 earl of Albemarle, died seised of the manor in 1260,* 

 leaving five children, four of whom died young. 

 The youngest and only surviving child Avelina 

 married Edmund earl of Lancaster, 4 and on her 

 death without issue in 1274 tne manor passed to 

 Isabel countess of Albemarle, widow of William de 

 Fortibus. 6 She died without children in 1293, and 

 the manor reverted to the St. Johns as overlords. 7 



The Scures family evidently succeeded the Albe- 

 marles in Widley, and in the reign of Henry III Lord 

 William de Clynton and Eva his wife, the daughter and 

 heir of Roger de Scures, gave five acres of land to the 

 chapel of Widley. 8 



John de Scures, probably the nephew of Eva de 

 Clynton nee Scures, held Widley in 131 6,' and was 

 probably the same John de Scures who was holding one 

 fourth of a knight's fee in the manor in I346; 10 between 

 this date and 1 428 Widley must have passed from John 

 de Scures to the Uvedale family. In 1428 and 1431 

 John Uvedale held the fourth part of one knight's fee 



UVIDALI. Argent * 

 crou moline gules. 



in Widley, which had formerly been held by John de 

 Scures," and the family must have continued to hold 

 Widley; for Dorothy, widow of William Uvedale, great- 

 grandson of John Uvedale, died seised of the manor 

 in 1 53 1, and from her it passed to Arthur her son 

 and heir. 12 Arthur Uvedale 

 was succeeded by his son 

 William, who died in 1569," 

 and was followed by his son 

 William, who married Mary 

 daughter of Sir Richard Nor- 

 ton. 14 The Uvedales were 

 deprived of two-thirds of their 

 lands for recusancy in 1605, 

 and Widley was granted among 

 other manors to Henry Wri- 

 othesley." By 1607," how- 

 ever, they had recovered their 

 lands, and in 1616 Sir William Uvedale senior 

 died, and Widley passed to his son William. 1 ' This 

 William conveyed the manor to Sir Francis Neale and 

 Edward Woodward in 1618 evidently for the purpose 

 of a settlement." After this date, however, there 

 seems to be no record of the manor of Widley until 

 the year 1 766, when it was in the possession of John 

 Suffeild Brown and Roger Griffith and was conveyed 

 by them to William Woodrow. 1 ' The manor was 

 still in the hands of the Woodrow family and their 

 connexions by marriage, the Maidments, in 1823 ; 

 but after that date the manor was sold to Mr. This- 

 tlethwayte, in whose family it remains at the 

 present day." 



A fair, for three days from I 5th July, with a court 

 of pie powder, in the manor of Widley, was granted 

 to Richard Turner in 1715." This fair was still 

 among the appurtenances of the manor in 1823," but 

 in 1862 an order was issued that the fair called 

 Portsdown Fair, held under charter in the manor of 

 Widley, was to cease henceforward.' 3 There was a 

 windmill in Widley in 1823," but there is no trace of 

 it at the present day except in the name Mill Farm. 



The church of ST. MART MAGDA- 

 CHURCH LEN was entirely rebuilt in 1849, in an 

 imitation of twelfth-century style, and has 

 an apsidal chancel and a nave with north aisle and 

 south porch, and a bell-cot for one bell on the west 

 gable of the nave 



Nothing of the old church has been preserved 

 except a small font with a slender bowl on which is 

 IS 1690. It is built into the north wall of the 

 chancel to serve as a credence, three faces of the 

 bowl being exposed, on one of which is the date 



1 Local Govt. Bd. Order. 



Local and Personal Acts of Parl. 52 

 Geo. Ill, 1811-12, cap. 40. 



r.C.H. Hants, i, 486. 



4 Inq. p.m. 44 Hen. Ill, No. 26. 



Coll. Tap. et Gen. vi, 264 ; Poulson's 

 HoIJernrs:, i, 35. 



Ibid. Ibid. 



Add. MSS. 33282, fol. 33. About 

 the middle of the thirteenth century 

 Emeric de Savoy held * Wydelig' for one 

 knight'i fee from Lady Eva dc Clynton 

 (Testa dc Nrvill [Rec. Com.], 230). 



9 Feud. Aidi, ii, 3 20. 



10 Ibid, ii, 335. 



11 Ibid, ii, 356. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 23 Hen. VIII 

 (Scr. 2), No. 3. 



18 Ibid. 12 Eliz. (Ser. ii), No. 103. 



14 Berry, Hants Genealogies, 75. 



15 Pat. i Jas. I, pt. 3, m. 3. 



16 In this year Sir William Uvedale 

 senior and Mary his wife, William Uvedale, 

 James and Richard Uvedale, conveyed 

 Widley to Sir Robert Carye and Sir 

 Richard Norton, M <ry's father, evidently 



as a settlement ; Feet of F. Div. Cos. 

 Hil. 5 Jas. I. 



V W. & L. Inq. p.m. 14 Jas. I, bdle. 

 55, No. 123. 



18 Feet of F. Div. Cos. Trin. 1 5 Jas. I. 



19 Ibid. Hants, Hil. 7 Geo. III. 



*> Ibid. Hil. 7 Geo. HI ; ibid. Trin. 44 

 Geo. Ill ; ibid. Hil. I Geo. IV ; ibid. 

 Trin. 4 Geo. IV. 



21 Pat. 2 Geo. I, pt. 5, m. 29. 



M Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 4 Geo. IV. 



M Land. Gax. nth July, 1862, p. 3480. 



M Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 4 Geo. IV. 



