A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



TITCHFIELD 



Ticefelle (xi cent.) ; Tichefelde (xiii and xiv cent.). 



The parish of Titchfield, containing 4,826 acres, 

 of which 45 are covered by water, is situated to the 

 south-west of the county, about 2 miles from the 

 Solent. There are 1,491 acres of arable land, 1,239 

 of pasture, and 8 1 1 of woodland. 1 The ancient parish 

 was of wide extent, its foreshore stretching 7 miles 

 from the River Hamble to Stokes Bay, while it included 

 Swanwick, Crofton, Lee, Stubbington, Hook, Funtley, 

 Chark, Posbrook, Bromwich, Segenworth, and Meon. 

 Of these, Crofton, with Stubbington and Lee-on-the- 

 Solent, Hook with Warsash, and Sarisbury with 

 Swanwick were formed into civil parishes under the 

 Local Government Act of 1894; Sarisbury with 

 Swanwick, Crofton, and Hook with Warsash having 



of the square, and the rectory is close to it on the 

 south. To the north the town extends along the 

 Fareham road, and at the north-west the houses 

 follow the road which runs northward to the ruins of 

 Place House. The River Meon forms the eastern 

 limit of the town, and though now a small stream, 

 was formerly a tidal harbour, for in the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century Titchfield was a port, and 

 the site of the wharves can still be traced in the tan- 

 yard close to the church. The third earl of South- 

 ampton, however, wished to reclaim the large 

 stretch of sea-marsh lying between the town and 

 the haven, and for that purpose built a sea-wall across 

 the river mouth, which was completed in June, 1 6 1 1 . 

 In the parish registers this is noted as the ' shutting 



PLACE HOUSE, TITCHFIELD (from an Ancient Map) 



been previously constituted ecclesiastical parishes in 

 1837, 1871, and 1872, respectively. 



The parish stretches about seven miles up the Meon 

 valley, and has one mile of foreshore called Titchfield 

 Haven on the Solent. The town itself is grouped round 

 a central market-place, with streets leading from it on 

 the north, south, and east. There are no buildings of 

 any particular architectural merit, but the square is 

 picturesque, and the Bugle Inn, with its bay windows, 

 gives character to it. The stocks once stood here in 

 front of the inn, and the market-house and cage, once 

 in the square, are now set up in Barry's Charity Yard 

 to the north-west. The market-house is a wooden 

 building with an open lower story, part of which, 

 inclosed with brickwork and lined with oak, was the 

 cage. The fire engine used to be kept behind it. 

 The church stands a short distance to the south-west 



out of Titchfield haven by one Richard Talbottes 

 Industrie under God's permissione.' The main road 

 from Southampton to Fareham passes through the 

 town, and the London and South-Western Railway 

 crosses the parish from east to west, the nearest station 

 being Fareham, about two miles distant. To the north 

 are the ruins of Place House, being the buildings of 

 the Premonstratensian Abbey converted into a mansion 

 by Thomas Wriothesley, first earl of Southampton, 

 and where his son Henry entertained both Edward VI 

 and Elizabeth. In 1625 Charles I brought his bride 

 to Titchfield immediately after their marriage, 11 while 

 the State Papers for 1675 contain many allusions to 

 the king's visit to Titchfield in that year, where he 

 dined with Edward Noel, afterwards lord-lieutenant 

 of Hampshire.' In November, 1688, when the 

 Dutch invasion was imminent, 'Lord Gainsborough's 



1 Statistics from lid. of Agric. 1905. 



la Diet. Nat. Siog. v, 429. 

 22O 



8 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1675-6, pp. 195-8. 



