BISHOP'S WALTHAM HUNDRED 



ST. MARY 

 EXTRA 



ST. MARY EXTRA 



The ancient parish of St. Mary Extra, together 

 with that of Sholing, was in 1903 formed into the 

 civil parish of Itchen. 1 At the time of the last 

 Ordnance Survey St. Mary Extra comprised 2,177 

 acres, and Sholing 597 acres. The parish is bounded 

 on the west by the estuary of the Itchen and the 

 upper reaches of Southampton Water, and runs some 

 two miles inland, the levels sloping gently from a 

 height of about 130 ft. on its eastern boundary to the 

 tidal waters on the west. The coast district is 

 practically an outlying portion of Southampton, which 

 threatens to encroach still further in this direction. 

 This, together with the circumstance that much of 

 the inland county is of a barren character, makes it 

 not surprising that the proportion of agricultural land 

 to the whole is very small : there are only 322 acres 

 of arable land, 433 of permanent grass, and 70 of 

 woods and plantations.* The soil is sandy, and what 

 crops there are consist of wheat, oats, and barley. 

 The London and South Western Railway passes 

 through the parish from north-west to south-east, 

 and the road which leads to Southampton by 

 way of the Itchen Ferry follows the same general 

 direction as the railway, traversing Weston and 

 Sholing Commons. Both these commons were 

 included in the Inclosure Act of 1814 for South 

 Stoneham and St. Mary Extra." Weston Com- 

 mon is a piece of waste land surrounded by 

 groups of red-brick houses, one of which, known as 

 Newtown (i.e. New Netley) is close to the railway. 

 Another little group, in a hollow of the common, is 

 called Botany Bay. Behind Botany Bay is Sholing. 

 Continuing westward along the Southampton road, 

 Itchen lies on the north, and Woolston on the south. 

 The continuation of the road is the double ferry 

 known as the ' Floating Bridge' (opened 1836) which 

 connects these places with Southampton, of which 

 they are practically suburbs. In the seventeenth, 

 eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries, Itchen was 

 a little fishing village, and up to the end of the 

 eighteenth century the fishermen kept the festival of 

 St. Peter by carrying an image of the saint in 

 procession through the village. The inhabitants are 

 said to have been always very peculiar, and chary in 

 their dealings with natives of other parts of the 

 country. They used to be notorious smugglers, but 

 have so far changed with the times as to be now 

 famous as yachtsmen. The modern growth of Wool- 

 ston dates from the opening of the Portsmouth road 

 in 1834, and from the establishment of a ship-building 

 yard in 1876. The tanning trade once carried on 

 here is now extinct. 'The Paddock,' the residence 

 of Lady Longmore, occupies the site of the former 

 'Wcolston House,' which, originally a farm-house, 

 was enlarged and beautified in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury and pulled down in the early part of the 

 nineteenth. The chief historical interest connected 

 with Itchen is the building of Jesus Chapel on 

 Ridgway Heath in the seventeenth century. The 

 enterprise was a private one, the result of the efforts 

 of Captain Richard Smith of Pear Tree, governor of 



Calshot Castle, who urged the necessity of a church 

 nearer than that of St. Mary, Southampton, from 

 which the inhabitants of St. Mary Extra were separated 

 by 'the great river Itchen, where the passage is very 

 broad and often dangerous.' Licence to build a 

 chapel was granted on 23 February, 1617, and the 

 chapel was consecrated 17 September, 1620, by 

 Lancelot Andrewes, bishop of Winchester, the form 

 of service then used being that which has formed the 

 basis of all consecration services since used in the 

 Church of England.* 



The heath called Ridgway Heath at the time of 

 the consecration included the present ' Pear Tree 

 Green.' The pear tree which later gave its name 

 to the Green was already planted, though at what 

 date is unknown. It is still standing, and in 1850 

 Mrs. Preston Hulton of Barnfield caused a young 

 pear to be planted by its side, that the name might 

 be perpetuated. 



Turning southward down a wooded lane which 

 runs at right angles to the Portsmouth road, and 

 passing Mayfield, the resi- 

 dence of Lord Radstock, on 

 the right hand, the little vil- 

 lage of Weston is reached, the 

 spot being remarkably rural 

 and secluded considering its 

 vicinity. Before reaching the 

 village the road passes under 

 two arches, both built by 

 Mr. William Chamberlayne 

 early in the last century, one 

 of them in commemoration 

 of the battle of Waterloo. 

 In 1810 Mr. Chamberlayne 

 also erected an obelisk as 



WALDIGRAVK, Lord 

 Radstock. Party argent 

 and gules with the dif- 

 ference of a creicent table. 



a memorial to Charles James Fox. On Mr. Cham- 

 berlayne's death in 1829, that portion of the 

 Weston Grove estate on which the obelisk stood 

 was included in the land which passed to Mr. 

 Wright, of Oak Bank, Itchen, who built May- 

 field upon it in 1856. Mr. Wright's son, a captain 

 in the 4th Dragoon Guards, buried two favourite 

 horses near the obelisk and had their names engraved 

 upon it. Lord Radstock, however, who purchased 

 Mayfield in 1883, has had these removed. The 

 present Weston Grove estate extends from Mayfield 

 to the coast, and is the residence of Mr. T. W. 

 Chamberlayne. The house was built in 1801. The 

 small village of Weston itself consists of a few 

 thatched cottages and some newer-looking houses 

 nearer the coast. The moss-covered building, now 

 a Sunday School, was used for divine service between 

 1855 and 1865, when the present church was 

 consecrated. Both buildings were the gift of the 

 Rev. P. Hulton. ' The Cliff' overlooking Southamp- 

 ton Water was built by the Rev. G. W. Minns 

 in 1882, there being then no vicarage attached to 

 the benefice. On the coast is a curious old hut, 

 entirely roofed with matted seaweed and said to 

 be of considerable antiquity. 5 Altogether Weston 



1 L.G.B. Order, 44465. 



8 Statistics from Bd. of Agric. 1905. 



' Part. Blue Bk. Inclosure Awards, 156. 



4 Rev. T. L. O. Davies, ' Historical 

 Notes,' published in the Southampton 

 Times* 



2 97 



5 Papers and Proc. Hants Field Club, 

 '(3). 



38 



