MEONSTOKE HUNDRED 



WARNFORD 



WOODS of Warnford. 

 Argent a cheveron nebuly 

 gules 'with drops argent 

 between three martlets 

 table. 



earl of Clanricarde, who sold it some time afterwards to 

 Mr. W. Abbott. From the latter it passed by purchase 

 to Mr. Edward Rose Tunno, 46 who died seised of the 

 manor in 1863, his heir being his kinsman Mr. Charles 

 Sartoris, who sold it two years later to Mr. Henry 

 Woods, for many years member of Parliament for 

 Wigan. On his death the 

 manor passed to his son and 

 heir Colonel William Woods, 

 J.P., the present lord. 



WHEELT (Weleg, xii 

 cent. ; Weoleghe and Weleye, 

 xiv cent. ; Wulhaye, Wylh.iy, 

 Welleigh and Wellehigh, xvi 

 cent.). The land of Warn- 

 ford called Wheely was 

 granted to the prior and 

 convent of Montacute (co. 

 Somers.) early in the twelfth 

 century by Henry de Port 

 when lord of the manor of 



Warnford," and seems to have developed into a small 

 manor by the fourteenth century. 48 In the reign of 

 Henry VIII the prior and convent were seised of 

 2 \s. rents from certain lands in Wheely by 

 Warnford. 49 Some time after the dissolution of 

 the priory in 154.5, Henry VIII granted a mes- 

 suage and lands in Wheely to William Gorfen, 

 lord of the manor of Warnford.* Since then 

 Wheely has formed part of the manor of Warn- 

 ford." It is at the present day represented by 

 Wheely Down and Wheely Farm. 



Early in the thirteenth 



CH4NTRT L4NDS century William de St. John, 

 when lord of the manor of 



Warnford, granted a virgate of land with a messuage 

 and other appurtenances which Owen held of him in 

 the vill of Warnford to the prior and convent of 

 Boxgrove (co. Suss.) in free alms. 6U A few years 

 later, the prior and convent, in return for two marks 

 of silver, granted the land to William son of Theobald 

 de Warnford to be held by the rent of a mark of 

 silver, a further condition being that he and his heirs 

 should whenever necessary find suitable lodging for 

 the prior and his men, together with sufficient litter 

 and forage." In the reign of Henry VIII the prior 

 and convent were seised of I3/. ^d. rents from a 

 tenement and a virgate of land in Warnford called 

 Chantry Lands." Some time after the dissolution of 

 the priory, viz., in 1545, Henry VIII granted them 

 to William Gorfen, lord of the manor of Warnford, 64 

 since when they have descended with the manor of 

 Warnford. 



There were three mills in the parish at the time of 

 the Domesday Survey." In the reign of Edward VI 

 two water-mills are mentioned in connexion with the 



manor, 40 whereas only one is included in the extent 

 of the manor made on the death of Thomas Kyngeston 

 in 1506." 



In 1752 a water-mill and a paper-mill be- 

 longed to the manor, 68 and they were still stand- 

 ing in i826. 69 A group of cottages called Paper 

 Mills possibly marks the site of the paper-mill, 

 while the other was worked by the large mill-pool 

 mentioned in the description. 



The church of WARNFORD, of 

 CHURCH unknown dedication, has a nave and 

 chancel of equal width and without any 

 structural division, 72 ft. long by 28 ft. wide, with 

 south porch, and west tower 17 ft. 3 in. square, all 

 measurements being internal. The tower walls being 

 a little less than 4 ft. thick, its external dimensions 

 are about 25 ft. each way. 



On the east face of the tower are the marks of 

 abutment of a narrower nave, about 22 ft. wide over 

 all, with an internal span of 17 ft. Part of the 

 weather moulding of its roof still exists, and the 

 bonding of the quoins of its internal angles is to be 

 seen in the tower wall. The foundations of its north 

 and south walls have been traced in the course of 

 some recent repairs for about 40 ft. without finding 

 any sign of an east wall or a narrower chancel. Its 

 walls were 2 ft. 6 in. thick, and though there is no 

 absolute evidence to prove that it is older than the 

 tower, it is probable that the tower was added to it 

 about 1175-80. 



Over the south doorway of the present nave, 

 and over the place of its now destroyed north 

 doorway, are inscriptions recording the rebuilding 

 of the church by Adam de Port, who held Warn- 

 ford from 1171 to his death in I2I3, 60 and it seems 

 that he must have built the tower soon after his 

 coming into possession and have rebuilt the nave in 

 the last years of his life. The tower was designed to 

 go with the narrow nave, its ashlar-faced masonry 

 extending up to its walls on north and south, and 

 they probably co-existed for some twenty-five years. 

 Then the present nave and chancel were built round 

 the old church, their west wall overlapping the tower 

 and being bonded to its eastern buttresses, and the 

 stone weather mould of the new roof was let into the 

 east wall of the tower and in part is still to be seen. 

 The walls of the nave have been heightened and the 

 pitch of the roof lowered at a comparatively modern 

 date, and the east wall of the tower has been partly 

 rebuilt in brickwork, destroying the upper parts of the 

 old weather moulds. 



The church has a three-light east window with 

 pretty tracery of fourteenth-century style, set in a 

 wide, round arched recess, the jambs of which may be 

 of thirteenth-century date, and perhaps inclosed a 

 group of three lancets. In the north wall are five 



48 There is a monument to his memory 

 in Warnford church. 



4 7 Bruton and Montacute Cartularies, 

 (Somers. Rec. Soc.), 126. His gift was 

 confirmed by King Stephen (ibid. 122), 

 King Henry II (ibid. 124), his son John 

 de Port (ibid. 156), Adam de Port son of 

 John de Port (ibid. 157), William de St. 

 John son of Adam de Port (ibid. 157), 

 and finally by Sir John de St. John 

 son of Sir John de St. John in 1316 

 (ibid. 169). 



48 In the Ministers' Accounts of 18 

 Edw. II, the exits of the lands and tene- 



ments of the prior of Montacute in the 

 manor of Wheely are accounted for (Mins. 

 Accts. Hants, 18 Edw. II, bdle. 1126, 

 No. 19). 



49 Mins. Accts. Somers. 30 & 31 Hen. 

 VIII, No. 128, m. 33. 



50 Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. I, m. 48. 



" Ibid. 5 Edw. VI, pt. I, m. 16 ; Feet 

 of F. Hants, Mich. 5 Edw. VI, and Trin. 

 6 Edw. VI i Feet, of F. Div. Cos. Mich. 

 4 Edw. VI. 



61a Cott. MS. Claud. A. vi, fol. 32. His 

 gift was confirmed by the archbishop of 

 Canterbury in 1223 (ibid. fol. 62). 



271 



" Ibid. fol. 136. 



68 Mins. Accts. Sussex 28 & 29 Hen. 

 VIII, No. 109, m. 5. 



Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. I, m. 48. 



V.C.H. Hants, i, 471 and 481. 



Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. I, m. 16. 



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

 No. 6. 



Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 26 Geo. II. 



Ibid. East. 6 Geo. IV. 



80 The story of his banishment in 1172 

 is a mistake arising from a confusion with 

 him of an Adam de Port of Hereford- 

 shire. 



