MEONSTOKE HUNDRED 



SOBERTON 



The north aisle has a fifteenth-century east window 

 of two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over, and 

 three similar windows in the north wall, between 

 the second and third of which is a thirteenth- 

 century north doorway, now opening into a vestry, 

 and having a single moulded order and a label. The 

 west window is a lancet, but has been inserted within 

 the lines of a wider window of uncertain date. At 

 the north-east of the aisle is a plain square locker, 

 and parts of two fourteenth-century coffin lids are 

 placed in the aisle. The windows in the south aisle 

 are like those in the north except that there is no 

 west window. The aisle has been refaced M except 

 the east wall, and all the window tracery of the south 

 windows is modern. The south doorway has a 

 pointed arch of two continuous hollow-chamfered 

 orders, and is probably late thirteenth-century work 

 while the south porch is modern. 



The tower is finished with a wooden stage open on 

 all sides, and covered with a low red-tiled roof. This 

 is a recent addition, the rest of the tower being of 

 flint rubble with angle buttresses, probably of fifteenth- 

 century date. The west window is a tall lancet, 

 which seems to be of the thirteenth century, and may 

 have been moved here from the west wall of the nave. 

 The tower arch is modern. 



The tower was repaired and the present red-tiled 

 roof put on the nave in 1900. The corbels of the 

 former aisle roofs are still to be seen. The pulpit 

 belongs to the latter part of the seventeenth century, 

 and is hexagonal, with modern carved panels but old 

 twisted columns standing free at the angles and carry- 

 ing an arcade under a projecting moulded cornice. In 

 the north aisle are the arms of one of the Georges, and 

 a wood-carving of Jacob wrestling with the angel, 

 German work of the seventeenth century, and inscribed 

 ' Du solt nicht mer Jacob sondern Iserael heisen.' 



On the north-east side of the first pillar of the north 

 arcade is a deeply-cut cross, as if to take a metal inlay. 



The font at the west end of the south aisle is 

 of a late twelfth-century type, with a square bowl on 



a central shaft, formerly flanked by four shafts at the 

 angles. Its material is probably Purbeck marble, but 

 it is covered by a coat of dark grey paint mottled with 

 white spots in imitation of such a marble, and its real 

 surface cannot be seen. The bowl has arcades on the 

 east and north faces, and zigzag patterns and what 

 seem to be trefoiled leaves on the west. 



There are pits for six bells, but only three remain, 

 the treble and second by Robert Catlin, 1749 ; and 

 the tenor by Pack & Chapman, 1773. 



The plate consists of a cup of 1682, with a cover 

 paten by the same maker and doubtless of the same 

 date, though without the date letter ; a modern box 

 for bread, two small flagons (1899), and a brass 

 alms dish. 



The first book of the registers begins in 1599, the 

 entries down to 1678 being copied from an older book 

 not now in existence, and ends in 1812 ; the second 

 book contains the marriages from 1754 to '812. 



There is no reference to a church 

 ADVOWSON in Meonstoke at the time of the 

 Domesday Survey, 6 ' and the earliest 

 mention of one seems to be in 1284, when Edward I 

 quitclaimed to John bishop of Winchester the advow- 

 son of the church of Meonstoke with a chapel annexed, 68 

 whereof he had recently impleaded the bishop. 69 The 

 advowson has remained in the hands of the bishop up 

 to the present day. 70 



In 1291 the church of Meonstoke, with a chapel 

 annexed/ 1 was assessed at ^33 6/. SJ. n In the reign 

 of Henry VIII the annual value of the rectory was 

 46 I3/. 4</. !S 



William of Wykeham, on 7 March, 1401-2, de- 

 puted Thomas bishop of Chrysopolis to dedicate two 

 portable altars for Thomas Lavington, rector of 

 Meonstoke. 74 



There is a Primitive Methodist chapel in the parish, 

 built in 1864. The elementary school was built in 

 rHJVTTJW! l8 4 2 for seventy children. 



This parish is entitled to benefit 

 from Collins School at Corhampton (q.v.). 



SOBERTON 



Sudbertune (xi cent.) ; Subertune and Sobertona 

 (xiii cent.) ; Subberton (xv cent.) ; Supporton and 

 Soperton (xvi cent.) ; Sauberton (xviii cent.). 



Soberton is a large parish with an area of 5,873 

 acres of land and twelve acres of land covered by 

 water, with a station at Brockbridge in the parish of 

 Droxford on the Meon Valley branch of the London 

 and South- Western Railway. Two good roads run 

 through the parish, one on the east side to Hamble- 

 don, and the other on the west to Newtown and 

 thence south to Southwick, through the West Walk 

 of the Forest of Bere. The River Meon forms the 

 western boundary of the parish, which is, on the 

 whole, low-lying, containing much marsh and heath, 

 ind many scattered copses, probably detached portions 

 of the Forest of Bere. The general rise of the ground 



is from south to north, the highest ground being in 

 the north-east, where some outlying spurs of the 

 Downs come within the parish boundaries. 



The village is in the north-west of the parish, and 

 lies along the road from Brockbridge to Southwick, 

 which here makes a sharp descent, meeting at right 

 angles a road from Grenville Hall at the bottom 

 of the hill. Soberton Towers, the residence of 

 Mrs. Bashford, which is surrounded by extensive 

 lawns and shrubberies, occupies a site on the outskirts 

 of the village to the west of the road. At the top of 

 the hill, by the White Lion Inn, a path runs off west 

 from the village street to St. Peter's church, which 

 stands some way back from the road overlooking the 

 river valley. Further down the hill are the schools, 

 built in 1875, and opposite them a row of villas. 



66 The west wall has an external facing 

 of brick. 7 V.C.Ji. Hants, i, 4523. 



68 i.e. the chapel of Soberton. 



69 Chart. R. 1 2 Edw. I, m. 5 ; Pat. 1 2 

 Edw. I, m. ii. 



" ffintan Efis. Reg. (Hants Rec. 

 Soc.), 454. and 455 ; Wykeham 1 s Reg. 

 (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 220 ; Egerton MS. 

 2032, fol. 64 ; lust. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



" i.e. the chapel of Soberton. 



257 



" Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 211. 

 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 22. 

 Wyktbum't Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 . 537- 



33 



