BISHOP'S WALTHAM HUNDRED 



north-west passage. The Priory, a large red-brick 

 house at Newtown on the hill overlooking the valley, 

 was built some fifty years ago for an infirmary, the 

 land being given by Sir Arthur Helps, a great bene- 

 factor to the neighbourhood. Prince Leopold laid 

 the foundation stone in 1864, and Sir Frederick 

 Perkins presented a statue of the Prince Consort. 

 But owing to the circumstances in which Sir Arthur 

 Helps died, the building was claimed by his creditors 

 and sold as a private house. Sir Frederick Perkins 

 therefore sent to take back the statue, but the villagers 

 objected strongly, and a fray was fought which came 

 to be called the 'Battle of Bunker's Hill.' The 

 statue is now in Southampton. 



A particularly beautiful seat, in what is now the 

 parish of Curdridge, is Fairthorne Manor. Miss 

 Mitford, after visiting Cobbett here, wrote : ' ' Cob- 

 bett showed the same taste in the purchase of his 

 be'autiful farm at Botley Fairthorne. To be sure he 

 did not give the name, but I always thought it uncon- 

 sciously influenced his choice in the purchase. The 

 fields lay along the Bursledon River, 6 and might have 

 been shown to a foreigner as a specimen of the richest 

 and loveliest English scenery.' The place is also inter- 

 esting as having been the site of a Roman villa. 7 At 

 high tide barges are punted up here as far as Botley 

 Bridge. Charles II contemplated making the river 

 navigable for vessels right up to Bishop's Waltham, and 

 an Act was passed in 1664* with this intent, but 

 never carried into effect. 



The Inclosure Act for the open fields of Bishop's 

 Waltham was passed in 1759.' The inclosure of Cur- 

 dridge Common was effected under the Act of 1856,' 

 and that part of Wintershill Common which lies in 

 this parish was inclosed in 1870." 



The following place-names occur, among others, in 

 this parish : " Gyves, Playstones, Cokes Croft, Paine 

 Meade, Downers, Penny Acre. 



The manor of BISHOP'S WAL- 

 MANORS THAM formed parcel of the lands 

 of the see of Winchester from the 

 year 904, when King Edward the Elder effected an 

 exchange of lands with Denewulf, bishop of Win- 

 chester. 13 The king acquired Portchester, and granted 

 to Denewulf in return ' that part of the lands of the 

 king called by the people Waltham ; to have, hold, 

 and possess it with fields, woods, meadows, fisheries, 

 and everything belonging to the same.' The land 

 was to be held by the bishop and his successors of the 

 king and his heirs." King Edgar renewed the grant 

 shortly before the Norman Conquest. 14 The Domes- 

 day Survey states that ' the bishop himself holds Wal- 

 tham in demesne ; it has always belonged to the 

 bishopric,' assessing it at 20 hides, ' though there be 30 

 hides in number,' with a rateable value of j3o. 16 

 The bishops of Winchester continued to hold the 



Sn or WINCHESTER. 

 Gules St.Peter't keys crossed 

 with St. Paul's rword. 



BISHOP'S 

 WALTHAM 



manor among the other possessions of the see until 

 1551," when Bishop Poynet conveyed the property to 

 Paulet the lord treasurer (as representative of the 

 crown) in return for a fixed annual income. 18 The 

 king granted the manor to 

 William earl of Wiltshire the 

 following month. 19 Queen 

 Mary, however, restored it to 

 John White bishop of Win- 

 chester in 1558,' and his 

 successors continued to hold 

 the manor until the sale of 

 the bishops' lands in 1647. 

 Bishop's Waltham was then 

 purchased by one Robert 

 Reynolds for the sum of 

 7,999 14*. loja'." Rey- 

 nolds's name appears as the 



holder of a court at Waltham manor in 1653." At 

 the Restoration, Bishop's Waltham was restored to 

 the bishops of Winchester, who retained their hold 

 upon it until the Bishops' Resignation Act of 1 869 

 vested all the ' lands, tithes, hereditaments, and 

 endowments then belonging to the bishopric of 

 Winchester ' in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Com- 

 missioners. 23 



The palace of Bishop's Waltham * 4 was originally 

 built by Henry de Blois bishop of Winchester during 

 the twelfth century,* and was shortly afterwards the 

 scene of two important councils : in 1182 when the 

 barons met Henry II and granted him supplies for the 

 second crusade ; and in 1194 when Richard I held 

 a council here preparatory to his last expedition to 

 France. 151 The palace seems to have been a favourite 

 residence of the bishops, and to have been frequently 

 visited by royalty. The wills of both Henry II and 

 William of Wykeham are dated at Waltham, and 

 Wykeham spent his last days here. Cardinal Beaufort 

 in his will bequeathed to Queen Margaret of England 

 his ' blue bed of gold and damask at his palace at 

 Waltham, in the room where the Queen used to lie 

 when she was at that palace, and three suits of the 

 arras hangings in the same room.' William of 

 Waynflete also made his will and died at Bishop's 

 Waltham palace." The State Papers of the reign of 

 Henry VIII contain many references to the visits of 

 that king and of Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell to 

 Bishop's Waltham palace ; " and in 1 5 1 2 it was the 

 scene of the convention between king and emperor 

 which came to be known as the Treaty of Waltham. 88 

 Within a few years of this date Leland described the 

 palace as ' a right ample and goodly Maner Place moted 

 aboute, and a praty Brooke renning hard by it.' 19 

 Later in the sixteenth century, when the manor and 

 palace of Waltham were in the hands of the crown, 

 Edward VI described the palace as ' a fair old home, 



* Miss Mitford, Recollections of a Literary 

 Life. 



? Hamble. 



7 Hants N. and Q. vi, 46. 



Hist. AfSS. Com. Ref. x, 1799. 



9 Part. Papers, 32 Geo. II, No. 57. 



10 Par!. Blue Bks. Inclosures, 148. 



11 Ibid. 158. 



" Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), vol. i, bdle. 37, 

 No. 19; Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 78, 

 No. 24. 



18 See account of Bishop's Waltham 

 Hundred. 



> Kemble, Cod. Difl. v, 161. 



18 Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 411. 



18 V.C.H. Hants, i, 460. 



"'Add. MSS. 26093; In 1- ?<' '* 

 Edw. II. No. 103 ; Feud. Aids, ii, 335, 

 357 ; Cal. of Pat. 1381-5, p. 169. 



18 Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. 6, m. 20. 



19 Ibid. pt. 4, m. 39. 



90 Pat. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. 7, 

 m. 20. 



*'- Coll. Top. et Gen. i, 2. 



82 Court Roll of Waltham Manor, 

 penes Mrs. Pleydell-Bouverie-Campbell- 

 Wyndham. 



83 Lund. Gax. i April, 1870. 



277 



M Rev. C. Walter*, Hist, of Bishop's 

 Waltham; Rev. G. W. Minns, 'Bishop's 

 Waltham,' Waolston Weekly News, 7 July, 

 1 906 ; Canon Vaughan, ' Bishop's Wal- 

 tham,' The Treasury, April, 1904, Proc. 

 Hants Field Club, June, 1 900. 



36 Angl. Sacr. i, 299. 



* Cbron. Rog. Hovcden (Rolls Ser.), 

 iii, 250. 



88 Chandler, Life of Waynflete, 218. 



*! L. and P. Hen. fill, iii, 2440, 2364 ; 

 ix, 884. > Ibid, iii, 2455. 



Leland, Itin. (3rd ed. T. Hearne), 

 iii, 115. 



