BISHOP'S WALTHAM HUNDRED 



DURLEY 



PHYLPOT. Sable a bend 



of Winchester, as part of their manor of Bishop's Wal- 

 tham. The history of Durley is therefore the history 

 of Bishop's Waltham (q.v.). 



Among the tenants of the bishop in Durley, the 

 family of Wodelot or Wodelok were holding a con- 

 siderable amount of land in the fourteenth century, 7 

 and possibly it was the same estate which was in the 

 hands of Sir John Phylpot, lent., 

 in 1 508." In 1575 a moiety 

 of lands and tenements in 

 Durley was possessed by one 

 Francis Perkins, 9 who in 1586 

 conveyed the ' Manor of Dur- 

 ley ' to Francis Fortescue. 10 

 The house attached to this so- 

 called manor would be that 

 now known as Durley Manor 

 Farm. Early in the seven- 

 teenth century the estate came ermine. 

 to the family of Hersent, 11 



whence it passed by descent to John Hersent 

 Thorpe in 1778," and thence to the Heathcotes 

 of Hursley. 13 Durley Manor Farm was sold by that 

 family towards the close of the nineteenth century, 

 and is now the residence of Mr. Cross. 



It is said that Richard Cromwell's daughters, the 

 granddaughters of the Pro- 

 tector, lived for a time at 

 Durley Manor Farm." This 

 coincides perfectly with some 

 of the marriage connexions of 

 the Hersent family in the 

 seventeenth century. The con- 

 nexion with the family of 

 Barton is not very clear, but 

 it is believed that Jane, the 

 wife of Peter Hersent, was 

 the daughter of John Barton, 

 whose wife (afterwards the 

 wife of Nicholas Pescod) was 

 sister to Richard Major of Hursley. 10 If this was the 

 Richard Major of Hursley whose daughter married 

 Richard Cromwell, 16 the presence of the Misses 

 Cromwell at Durley Manor Farm would easily be 

 accounted for. 



Wintershill, partly in this parish, is sometimes 

 called a manor, the old manor house of which, 

 Durley Hall Farm, stands within the boundaries 

 of Durley. The present Wintershill Hall is in the 

 parish of Upham (q.v.). 



The church of the HOLT CROSS " 

 CHURCH has a chancel 25 ft. by 1 4 ft. 6 in., with 

 north vestry, north and south transepts 

 17 ft. 6 in. east to west, the north transept being 

 1 1 ft. deep and the south 1 2 ft. 6 in., and the nave 

 49 ft. 3 in. by 1 8 ft. 3 in., with south porch and 

 wooden bell-turret at the west. 



The south doorway of the nave, c. \ 200, is the 

 oldest detail remaining, and the nave walls are 

 probably of this date. The chancel shows evidences 



HEATHCOTE. Ermine 

 three roundels vert 'with 

 a cross or upon each. 



of thirteenth-century work, and the transepts are 

 additions of the early part of the fourteenth century. 

 Externally the church is covered with rough-cast, and 

 the roofs are red tiled, the western bell-turret being 

 boarded and its roof shingled. 



The chancel has an east window of three lights 

 with fourteenth-century tracery, but the lower part of 

 the external north jamb seems to be of thirteenth- 

 century masonry, part of an earlier window here. 

 Below the window on the outside is a dwarf but- 

 tress, which with the whole of the walling is prob- 

 ably of thirteenth-century date. In the south wall 

 is a square-headed window of two trefoiled lights, 

 f. 1340, except the heads of the lights, which are 

 modern and in the north wall is a corresponding 

 window, having on its west splay traces of a painted 

 figure holding a scroll and standing under a trefoiled 

 arch. At the south-west of the chancel is a blocked 

 doorway, probably of thirteenth-century work, and 

 the chancel arch is modern, of thirteenth-century 

 style. 



Both transepts have widely splayed single-light 

 windows on the east, that in the north transept 

 having on its north splay the painting of a ship, with 

 a man climbing up to the yard. There is a small 

 square-headed recess near this window on the south 

 side. The north transept has a north window of 

 two uncusped lights with a pierced spandrel, and the 

 south transept has a like window on the south, 

 and below it a wide arched recess, probably for a 

 tomb, and of early fourteenth-century date. There 

 is also a piscina at the south-east of this transept. 



The nave is lighted only by dormers on the north 

 and south, but has a two-light window in the west 

 wall, and below it a doorway which may be fourteenth- 

 century work ; the south doorway of the nave, as 

 already noted, is c. 1200, and has a slightly pointed 

 arch with an edge chamfer, and a label chamfered 

 above and below. There is a recess for holy water 

 east of it within the church. The roofs of chancel 

 and nave are old, of plain design, and the bell-turret 

 at the west stands on old posts coming down to the 

 floor of the church. The south porch is modern. 



The pulpit is a good specimen, octagonal with two 

 tiers of panels, the upper with arabesque ornament, 

 and the lower arcaded. Over it is an octagonal 

 tester with a panelled soffit, incribed AW ED TC 

 1630. 



The font is of late twelfth-century type, with a 

 square Purbeck marble bowl on a central and four 

 angle shafts ; on each side of the bowl are four shallow 

 round-headed arches. It stands near the south door 

 of the nave. 



There are three bells, the treble uninscribed, while 

 the other two bear the names of John and Robert 

 Cor, Aldbourne, bell-founders, and are dated 1730. 



The plate consists of a communion cup and paten 

 of 1721, given to the church in 1722, and a flagon 

 of 1841. There is also a plated almsdish. 



The first book of the registers goes from 1599 to 



7 Feet of F. Hants, Hil. n Edw. III.; 

 Feet of F. Hants, East. 2 Ric. II. 



8 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 16, 

 No. 100. 



9 Feet of F. Hants, East. 17 Eliz. 



10 Feet of F. Div. Cos. East. 28 Eliz. 



11 From information supplied by Rev. 

 E. Heathcote; Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 

 28 Geo. II. 



12 Recov. R. East. 18 Geo. Ill, rot. 

 219. 



Feet of F. Div. Cos. Hil. 23 

 Geo. Ill ; cf. Berry, Hants Genial. 82 ; 

 Feet of F. Div. Cos. Trin. 26 Geo. III. 



14 Another theory is that it was the 

 sisters of the Protector who lived here. 

 Hants N. and Q. vi, 45. 



14 The arms of the Hersents were former- 

 ly identical with those of Barton ; and the 



289 



arms of John Barton's widow were in a 

 window, now destroyed, in Durley Manor 

 Farm. It is possible that John Barton 

 once owned the place (from informa- 

 tion supplied by Rev. E. Heathcote). 



16 Jiarl, Soc. xxxviii, 434. 



W William Hazell, 1410, wills his body 

 to be buried in Capella Sanctae Crucis 

 de Durley. Will in Muniment Room of 

 Winchester College. 



37 



