A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



trust as an allotment for the labouring poor of 

 the parish subject to a clear yearly rent-charge 



By the same award 4 acres were allotted, as a place about 6 a year, and the grazing of the recreation 

 for exercise and recreation for the inhabitants of the ground is let for 3 a year. 



parish and neighbourhood. The allotments for the 

 poor are let to parishioners in plots varying from 20 

 to 40 poles at the rate of l per acre, producing 



WARNFORD 



Upwarneford (xi cent.) ; Warnesford (xiv cent.) ; 

 Wanford (xvii cent.). 



The parish of Warnford, covering about 3,178 

 acres, lies south of Kilmeston and Hinton Ampner, 

 north-east of Exton, and west of West Meon, and falls 

 naturally into two parts : the comparatively low-lying 

 land bordering the River Meon on the south and east 

 through which runs the main road from West Meon 

 to Droxford, and the down-country on either side, 

 Wheely Down and Beacon Hill reaching the heights 



RUINED BUILDING IN 

 WARNFORD PARK 



ip s y ly ap J *f s 



Scale of ?eer 

 mjU i3*cenfury [ ] modern 



DoorRmbol 

 Ittxrfloorkvd 



- 



^Column a&nding ^^ KAK orty 



H &, I I 



line of partition 



ISKfKfcMn 



r Base only 



6 



Q-wen 



from the road, lies a little to the south of the village. 

 Warnford House at the present day is of little archi- 

 tectural interest. The west wing is probably of some 

 antiquity, and the site has been occupied for a con- 

 siderable time, as the older house whose ruins stand 

 in the park to the east of the church was already a 

 ruin in the time of James I, as witnessed by Norden's 

 map of Hampshire of 1 6 1 o. The park, through which 

 the river runs, is very well timbered. There is an 

 amusing account of it in the World (afterwards the 

 Morning Post) of 29 Stp- 

 tember, 1789, when 

 Henry, twelfth Lord 

 Clanricarde, lived here, 

 mentioning the buildings 

 in the gardens 'the 

 Gothic building, with the 

 bath under it of Lady 

 Mary ; the Hermitage 

 (always a miserable bauble), 

 the wax figure in it with 

 the apology for the Church 

 of England in its hand, 

 are bad works the late lord 

 had to answer for.' After 

 giving some advice to the 

 then lord as to necessary 

 improvements in the mat- 

 towamoftx IIIIUIW ter of landscape garden- 



of 500 ft. and 6596. respectively. A road to Win- 

 chester branches off from the main road at the south 

 end of the village, climbing up from about 2 50 ft. 

 above the sea-level to about 550 ft. by Wind Farm in 

 the extreme western angle of the parish. From here 

 a fine view opens out of the low-lying parishes to the 

 north Beauworth, Kilmeston, Hinton Ampner, and 

 Cheriton. 



The village of Warnford lies in the east of the 

 parish, mainly along the road leading from West 

 Meon to Droxford, which follows the line of the 

 River Meon, crossing it close to the gates of Warn- 

 ford Park. A little way up the stream from the bridge 

 is the site of the mill, with a large mill-pool above it, 

 and the inn and the small group of houses which form 

 the village stand close by, mostly on the north side of 

 the road. On the south the river runs through 

 Warnford Park, the house and church on the east 

 bank being quite hidden from the road by the trees 

 with which not only the park, but the whole neigh- 

 bourhood of the village, abounds. The rectory, a 

 large white house standing on high ground well back 



LMoim doxvay 



3 oft. 



ing, including the spread- 



ing of some gravel, 'cost 

 what it wlll> or at least 



some sand,' the account 

 continues : ' The water 

 is the best feature of the 

 place, very well coloured, 

 wide. There are twelve 



half a mile long, 



acres of mowing, the kitchen garden is bad, the 



greenhouse and hothouse are small and new, and they 



will not be old who live by them, if there is not care, 



for the situation seems to want what makes men ague- 



proof.' 



The church is in the park, surrounded and hidden 

 by trees, a little south of the house, and to the east of 

 it are the ruins of the old house of the St. Johns, now 

 commonly called King John's House. In seventeenth 

 and eighteenth-century documents it is called merely 

 The Old House, as distinct from the present mansion, 

 which is usually styled The Place House or Belmont. 1 

 It is a building of quite exceptional interest, being 

 part of a substantial house off. 1230, and consists of 

 a hall 5 2 ft. long by 48 ft. wide, divided by columns 

 into a central span 25 ft. wide, and north and south 

 aisles. At the east end are no remains of adjoining 

 buildings, but at the west is a block originally of two 

 stories, of the same width as the hall, and 1 8 ft. long. 



28 Geo. II, pt. 



1 Close, 7 Will, and Mary, pt. 12, m. 5-7 

 12, m. 10-12 ; 5 Geo. Ill, pt. 15, m. 39-42, 



268 



