BISHOP'S WALTHAM HUNDRED 



BURSLEDON 



BURSLEDON 



Brixenden (xii cent.) ; Burstlesden (xiv cent.) ; 

 Bristelden (xvi cent.). 



The parish of Bursledon is a beautiful little tract of 

 country, 1,100 acres in extent, on the right bank of 

 the Hamble River, which is here tidal. The north- 

 west boundary of the parish touches the eastern side 

 of Netley Hill, on a southern spur of which stands an 

 old ivy-covered windmill which serves as a landmark 

 for miles round. On the upper slopes of Netley Hill 

 is a tract of moorland covered with bracken and 

 heather ; thence the country slopes rapidly down to 

 the sea, and is thickly wooded to the water's edge. 

 The main road from Fareham to Southampton, 

 crossing the river by a wooden bridge immediately to 

 the north of Bursledon village, strikes across the parish 

 in a north-westerly direction, cutting it into two 

 nearly equal portions. The bridge was built by private 

 enterprise about 1783, and is subject to a toll. 

 With the exception of this road, communication in 

 Bursledon parish is by winding lanes overhung with 

 trees. The London and South-Western Railway 

 line from Netley to Fareham enters the parish at the 

 south-west, and running north-east has a station on 

 the river bank below the village, crossing the Hamble 

 by a bridge a little above the toll bridge. 



The village of Bursledon stands on steeply-rising 

 wooded ground on the east bank of the river, which 

 here turns sharply to the south-east and again to the 

 south-west. The steepness of the path and the com- 

 bination of woods and tidal water recall a Devonshire 

 sea-side village. At the north end of the village 

 stands the church, called by the villagers ' Jerusalem,' 

 from its position above them. Immediately below it, 

 set against the steep bank on the river's edge, is a 

 group of houses known as the Salterns, in distinc- 

 tion from the upper village, which is called Old 

 Bursledon. Between the church and the southern 

 part of the village, where the vicarage stands, is Elm 

 Lodge, the residence of Capt. Shawe-Storey, in well- 

 wooded grounds. South-west of the village, where 

 the ground falls again to a tributary stream of the 

 Hamble, is another group of houses called Hungerford. 

 About a mile inland, higher up the course of the same 

 stream, and just below the point where it is crossed 

 by the Southampton road, lies the much larger village 

 of Lowford or New Bursledon, a red-brick suburb 

 raised within the last twenty years. 



From its position midway between the inland 

 forests and the harbour of Southampton Water, 

 Bursledon was a natural ship-building centre in the 

 days of wooden warships. 1 The narrowness of the 

 creek moreover at this point diminished the danger of 

 attacks from French privateers. It is said that two 

 eighty-gun ships were built at Bursledon in the time 

 of William IV,' and certainly Mr. Philemon Ewer 

 had a private ship-building yard here early in the 

 eighteenth century. Among other ships he built the 

 Anson, of sixty guns, called after Admiral Anson, after- 

 wards baron of Soberton. Mr. Ewer's monument. 



on which there is a model of the battleship of the 

 period, is in Bursledon parish church. At the latter 

 end of the same century Mr. Henry Parsons em- 

 ployed shipwrights at Bursledon, launching among other 

 ships the Elephant (seventy-four guns), in which Nel- 

 son sailed to the battle of Copenhagen. The ships 

 used to be launched on the top of high-water, and 

 towed round to Portsmouth Harbour, where they 

 were sheathed in copper. The ship-building trade 

 has long ago vanished, but traces of the old docks may 

 still be seen close to the present railway station. The 

 inhabitants are now chiefly engaged in strawberry- 

 growing. Other crops are wheat, oats, and barley. 

 There are 292 acres of arable land in the parish, 341 

 of permanent grass, and eighty-one of woods and 

 plantations.* The soil is light and sandy. 



The common lands in Bursledon, known as ' the 

 waste lands of Bishop's Waltham Manor,' were inclosed 

 in 1857.* 



There was no separate manor of 

 MANORS BURSLEDON, but the lands formed 



part of the ancient manor of Bishop's 

 Waltham (q.v.). From the year 1235 onwards the 

 name occurs regularly as one of the tithings of Bishop's 

 Waltham on the Court Rolls of that manor. 4 In 1328 

 John Milyr, parson of the church of Eversley, conveyed 

 to John Screeche and Ellen his wife one messuage, 

 twenty acres of wood, zot. rent, and half a carucate 

 of land, in Bonewode, Titchfield, Bursledon, and Bot- 

 ley, with remainder to William le Wayte and his 

 heirs. 8 William le Wayte was holding this piece of 

 land in 1339.' In 1541 Walter Chandler conveyed 

 a tenement in Bursledon to Sir Thomas Wriothesley,* 

 who had been possessed of the lands of Titchfield 

 Abbey in this county since 1537.' 



The church of ST. LEONARD, 

 CHURCH BURSLEDON, has a chancel with south 



organ chamber and vestry, north and 

 south transepts, and nave with wooden west porch 

 and bell-turret. Its later history has been that in 

 1833 two transepts were built, and in 1888 they 

 were replaced by those now existing, the organ cham- 

 ber and vestry being added at the same time, and the 

 nave lengthened westward about 8 ft. The west 

 porch and bell turret are also of this date, and the 

 whole building was repaired and the roofs covered 

 with red tiles. The architect was Mr. J. D. Sedding. 

 The chancel walls and parts of the nave are there- 

 fore the only ancient portions of the church, and they 

 appear to date from f. 1230. The east window of 

 the chancel is of three lights in fifteenth-century 

 style, but only the jambs are old, and on them are 

 traces of painting. In the north wall is a small 

 thirteenth-century lancet, discovered in 1888 ; the 

 head has been renewed. The chancel arch is also of 

 the thirteenth century, of two chamfered orders, with 

 alternate voussoirs of dark and light stone, and was 

 taken down and reset at a higher level in 1888. The 

 inner order springs from moulded corbels with short 



1 From the Naval and Military Record, 

 1 6 April, 1808, as quoted in Bunlcdon 

 Parish Mag. for 1905. 



1 1 Companion in a Tour round South- 

 ampton '2nd ed. 1801). 



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

 4 Parliamentary Blue Books, Inclosure 

 Awards, 150. 



6 Eccl. Com. Court R. bdle. 77, No. 6. 

 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. I Edw. III. 



283 



^ Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 13 Edw. III. 



8 Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 33 Hen. 

 VIII. 



' Feet of F. Div. Cos. Mich. 29 Hen. 

 VIII. 



