MEONSTOKE HUNDRED 



WARNFORD 



It seems to have been divided into two rooms on the 

 ground floor, entered by separate doors from the hall, 

 and has four narrow windows remaining in the west 

 wall of its north room, and one in the south wall of 

 the south room. At the first-floor level in the north- 

 east angle of the north room are traces of a doorway 

 opening to a staircase or perhaps a gallery at the west 

 of the hall, and the hall itself seems to have had the 

 normal arrangement of a screened passage at its western 

 or lower end, entered by doors on north and south, of 

 which the latter still remains, and the former is shown 

 on eighteenth-century plans. The columns of the 

 hall were circular, on octagonal bases, with foliate 

 capitals, and were no less than 25 ft. high, one in the 

 north range still standing entire. They probably 

 carried the roof-beams and no arches of masonry, 

 though the account from the World above-quoted 

 speaks of ' four fine columns and four arches,' and in 

 the east and west walls the small half-round responds 

 still exist. Old plans show two windows in each 

 side of the hall, but no trace remains of them now. 

 They may have been destroyed for the sake of their 

 wrought stone, and their places built up in rubble 

 when the hall was turned into a barn. In the south 

 aisle of the hall is a well, perhaps not ancient, as the 

 position is an unlikely one.* 



Riversdown, a possession of St. Cross, is a hamlet 

 on the Downs, two miles north-west of the village. 

 Bere, about two miles north of the village, until about 

 thirty years ago was held by the Major family, who 

 succeeded the Lockes, who held it for several centuries. 

 At the present day it belongs to Corpus Christi Col- 

 lege, Oxford. 



The parish contains 1,545 acres f "able ' an d, 

 1,407 acres of permanent grass, and 271 acres of 

 woods and plantations.* The soil is chiefly loam, the 

 sub-soil principally chalk. The chief crops are wheat, 

 barley, and oats. The land was formerly nearly all 

 arable, but the present proprietor has established 

 several dairies and cheese-making establishments. 

 Watercress is also cultivated extensively. The River 

 Meon affords good trout-fishing. The manufacture 

 of paper was carried on in the parish in the eighteenth 

 century. 4 The following place-names are found in 

 the sixteenth century : ' Hurst Down and Walys 

 lands,' both in Wheely ; 4 ' Parson's Platt, Rook Grove, 4 

 Sir William's Mead, Coulson's Meadow, Walsdown, 

 the Woollands, the Wynnells, and Wynnell's Coppice" ' 

 are found in a deed of the eighteenth century. 8 



Earl Brygwyn, with King Ethelred's 

 MANORS permission, granted WARNFORD or 

 UPW4RNFORD with eight hides, which 

 he possessed by right of inheritance, to Hyde Abbey, 

 Winchester.' In the reign of Edward the Confessor 

 Alward and Ketel held Warnford, which was assessed 

 at eight hides, of Hyde Abbey. At the time of the 



survey it was held of the same abbey by Hugh de 

 Port. 10 For the manors held by Hugh from the 

 abbey he owed it, according to the return of 1212, 

 the service of six knights." At the time of the sur- 

 vey the same Hugh also held Warnford, which was 

 assessed at two hides less one virgate, Ulvric and 

 Olward having held it in parage of King Edward." 

 Before the Conquest, therefore, there seem to have 

 been two manors of Warnford one held by Hyde 

 Abbey and the other by King Edward. At the time 

 of the Domesday Survey Hugh de Port held them 

 both. Naturally, therefore, they soon coalesced and 

 came to be looked upon as one manor, the property of 

 the Pore family and their descendants. 



The manor of Warnford remained in the family of 

 Port until the thirteenth century, when William son 

 of Adam de Port and Mabel de Aureval, heiress 

 through her mother of Roger de St. John, took the 

 name of St. John." It continued in the St. John 

 family until the year 1355," when Edmund son and 

 heir of Hugh de St. John dying a minor, it fell to 

 the share of his sister Isabel, wife of Sir Luke de 

 Poynings. 15 On her death in 1393 the manor passed 

 to her son Sir Thomas de Poynings, 16 who died seised 

 of it in 1429," when it was assigned to his grand- 

 daughter Alice, who married first John Orell, and 

 secondly Sir Thomas Kyngeston. 18 In 1439 the 

 manor was granted by Alice to Thomas Gloucestre 

 and Thomas Batell (possibly related to John Batell, 

 the husband of Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Alice) 

 for their lives, with remainder to her son Thomas, 

 then aged three and a half, in fee-tail, with contingent 

 remainder to her daughters Elizabeth, Eleanor, and 

 Margaret. 19 Thomas Batell died in 1457, Thomas 

 Gloucestre the co-lessee having pre-deceased him. 20 

 The manor then reverted to Thomas Kyngeston, who 

 died seised in 1 506, his heir being his kinsman John 

 Kyngeston, aged sixteen." John died in 1514, and 

 was succeeded by his brother Nicholas," on whose 

 death, without issue, two years later, the manor passed 

 to his sister Mary, the wife of Thomas Lisle, 8 * whose 

 only son Francis died without issue. Mary died 

 seised of the manor in 1539, and on the death of her 

 husband^ three years later, the property which she had 

 inherited from her brothers, and they in their turn 

 from Thomas Kyngeston, was divided among the 

 descendants of the two sisters of Mary's father, John 

 Kyngeston, who died in 1497, viz. (i) William Gor- 

 fen, son and heir of Margaret Gorfen sister of John ; 

 (2) Margery, wife of John Cope and daughter of 

 Katherine Malory sister of John ; and (3) Katherine 

 wife of Thomas Andrewes, and Margaret wife of 

 Thomas Boughton, daughters of Dorothy Malory 

 daughter of Katherine Malory." By an indenture of 

 partition (24 June, 1543) the manor and the ad- 

 vowson of the church of Warnford were assigned to 



8 Much of this account it from informa- 

 tion kindly given by Mr. N. C. H. Nisbett, 

 to whom also the plan is due. 



8 Statistics from the Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



4 Close, 28 Geo. II, pt. 12, m. II and 



12. 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 94, 

 No. 51. 



6 This is the name of a grove in the 

 north of the parish. 



7 Winnell's Copse is in the south of the 

 parish. 



8 Close, 28 Geo. II, pt. 12, m. II and 

 12. 9 Dugdale, Mon, ii, 4.36. 



"> y.C.H. Hants, i, 471 a. 



11 Tata de Nevill (Rcc. Com.), 239. 



13 y.C.H. Hants, 1,4812. 



18 The Genealogist, xvi, 1-13. 



14 Inq. p.m. 3 Edw. I, No. 88 ; Feud. 

 Aids, ii, 307, 336 i Inq. p.m. 3 Edw. Ill 

 (istNos.), No. 67; ii Edw. III(istNos.), 

 No. 49 ; Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 29. 



15 Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. Ill (ist Nos.), 

 No. 55. " Ibid. 17 Ric. II, No. 45. 



W Ibid. 7 Hen. VI, No. 69. His 

 only son Hugh had died in 1426, leaving 

 three daughters and co-heirs, Joan, Con- 

 stance, and Alice. 



269 



18 Feud. Aids, ii, 372; Inq. p.m. 17 

 Hen. VI, No. 22. 



19 Inq. p.m. 17 Hen. VI, No. 22. 

 M Ibid. 35 Hen. VI, No. 4. 



21 Exch. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), file 961, 

 No. 6. 



M Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 29, No. 

 42. 



38 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 30, 

 No. 44 ; Memo. R. L.T.R. East. 30 

 Hen. VIII, rot. 1 2. 



M Exch. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), file 991, 

 No. 13; Memo. R. L.T.R. Hil. 35 

 Hen. VIII, rot. 32. 



