A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



OLD ALRESFORD 



The parish of Old Alresford covers a long sweep of 

 rolling country of about 3,671 acres, 1 generally rising 

 from south to north, from a height of 200 ft. above 

 the sea level in the south near the valley of the River 

 Alre and the village of Old Alresford, to a height of 

 600 ft. in the north-east near Woodridden Wood. 

 The arable and pasture land is for the most part in 

 the west of the parish ; the woodland, Upper and 

 Lower Lanham Copse and Woodridden Wood, lying 

 away to the north. About two miles south-east of 

 Old Alresford, in the parish of Bishop's Sutton, the 

 River Alre ' beginnith of a great Numbre of fair 

 Sylver Springes,' which ' resorting to a Botom make 

 a great brode Lak, communely caullid Alsford Pond.' ' 

 This pond, the reservoir from which the Itchen 

 is for the most part supplied, was formed by Bishop 

 Godfrey de Lucy towards the end of the twelfth 

 century in order to render the River Itchen navigable 

 from Alresford to Winchester as well as from Win- 

 chester to Southampton (see under New Alresford). 

 Entering the parish from New Alresford, immediately 

 north of the pond, Old Alresford Park stretches to 

 the east, in the north-west of 

 which stands Old Alresford 

 House, best known to fame 

 from its connexion with Ad- 

 miral George Brydges Lord 

 Rodney (171992), who con- 

 siderably enlarged and im- 

 proved the original house 

 during his residence. It is a 

 large white brick mansion 

 finely situated with its grounds 

 gradually sloping down to 

 the lake. Colonel Richard 

 Norton, ' idle Dick Norton," 



the farmer of the manor of Old Alresford, resided 

 at Old Alresford House during the Common- 

 wealth, and Oliver Cromwell paid several visits 

 to him there. In the most westerly corner of the 

 park, seeming almost to be within its boundaries, 

 is the church of St. Mary surrounded by a church- 

 yard. A large eighteenth-century house of red brick, 

 north of the church, was till recently the rectory. It 

 has lately been sold, and is now known as Old 

 Alresford Place. The present rectory is a white 

 building standing east of Old Alresford Place and 

 opposite Upton House. The main block of houses, 

 however, is some yards higher up the road, 

 which rises slightly as it goes north. Here are the 

 smithy, the village green an irregularly-shaped plot of 

 grass, the post office, an iron foundry, and the national 

 school, built in 1846 by the Onslow family. There is 

 also a group of almshouses, built to house three desti- 

 tute couples in 1852 by the Misses Onslow in memory 

 of their mother. Some yards still further north is an 

 industrial home (Primitive Methodist), which was in 

 existence by the middle of the nineteenth century. 



RODNEY, Lord Rod- 

 ney. Or three eagles 

 purple. 



Manor Farm lies west of the village, and still further 

 west, near the Itchen Stoke border line, it Fob Down 

 Farm. About a quarter of a mile east of the village, 

 reached by Kiln Lane, which cuts across the fields cast 

 and west, is Upton Hamlet, consisting of a few scattered 

 farm buildings, and including Upton Farm and Upton 

 House. The latter was occupied by a younger branch 

 of the Onslow family during the early nineteenth 

 century, but is now occupied by Mr. J. F. Christie, J.P. 



Armsworth tithing covers the north-west corner of 

 Old Alresford parish. It consists of Annsworth House, 

 the seat of Mr. Thomas Alderman Houghton, J.P., 

 and two or three cottages within Annsworth Park. 

 The house is a modern building, standing a short dis- 

 tance to the west of the site of an older house, of 

 which nothing but some outbuildings of comparatively 

 modern date remains. An upper room in these build- 

 ings has for more than seventy years been used as a 

 chapel, served from Old Alresford, and in it is an altar 

 table of 1620, with a movable top and carved baluster 

 legs, formerly in Old Alresford church. In the pre- 

 sent house is preserved a very interesting fourteenth- 

 century pix of copper gilt, found on the estate at a 

 spot called Wield Row, and a set of silver coins of 

 Mary, Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, also found 

 here. 



As in New Alresford the principal industry is water- 

 cress growing, the best beds lying up stream beside 

 the Bighton road. 



The soil is mainly gravel on the lower levels round 

 the streams ; but higher up it is loam on chalk. The 

 chief crops are wheat, oats, and turnips. 



Parts of the parish of Old Alresford (Nythen 

 Common) were inclosed in 1 8012.* 



The tithe map is with the parish clerk. The 

 tithes were commuted in 1843 for 747. 



The following place-names occur in early records : 

 Gooseland 4 (xv cent.), Fysshewareclose, Glen Pytts, s 

 and Yardmanligh 6 (xvi cent.), and Pieway, Pingleston 

 Lane, The Nythyn, 7 Bishopp's Meade, and The 

 Cadefeild 8 (xvii cent.). 



The manor of OLD ALRESFORD was 



M4NOR included in the grant of the 40 mansae 



at Alresford made by Kinewald, king of 



the West Saxons, to the church at Winchester. Its 



history is given under Alresford Liberty 9 (q.v.). 



A sixteenth-century perambulation of the manor, 

 preserved at the Public Record Office, 10 shows what a 

 large area it covered. ' Beginning at the bridge of 

 New Alresford at the end of the great weir, and thence 

 west where the stream runs to the southern angle of 

 Fobdowne, thence north to the angle of the manor of 

 Abbottystone near a fulling-mill there, thence east to 

 Harymsworgate," and thence north to Bugner 

 Corner" and thence to the park of Welde, and round 

 the park east to the common of Weld, thence to 

 Dedhob, 13 'from Dedhob to Weldbayle, thence . . . 

 to Bentworth Holt, thence to Howpenn Corner . . . 



1 Containing 2,276 J acres of arable land, 

 827 acres of permanent grass, and 314 

 acres of woods and plantations (Statistics 

 from Bd. of Agric. 1905). 



2 Leland, Itin. (ed. Hearne), iii, 88. 



8 Loc. and Pers. Acts of Parl. 42 

 Ceo. Ill, cap. 29, and 43 Geo. Ill, cap. 67. 



4 Eccl. Com. various, bdle. 57, No. 

 1594603. 



Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 136, No. I. 

 Ibid. bdle. 85, No. 3. 

 1 Ibid. bdle. 115, No. 10. 



8 Close, 24 Chas. I, pt. 3, m. 16. 



9 Dugdale, Man. i, 210. 



34 



"Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 136, 

 No. i. 



11 Armsworth, a tithing in the parish 

 of Old Alresford. 



13 Bogmoor Hill in Godsfield. 



18 Deadhob Copse in the south of Wield 

 parish. 



