FAWLEY HUNDRED 



AVINGTON 



park goes very near the water, and adds, ' We saw 

 thousands of wild ducks in the pond or sitting round 

 on the green edges of it, while, on one side of the 

 pond, the hares and pheasants were moving about 

 upon a gravel-walk on the side of a very fine planta- 

 tion.' ' The house itself is a fine red-brick mansion, 

 and was used as a residence by Charles II when his 

 palace at Winchester was being built. The stone 

 pillars of the original hall still remain, and form the 

 supports of the modern conservatory. 



Past the eastern gates the road across the park turns 

 north-west near by Pits' farm, and passing the schools, 

 which lie well back from the road on the right, and 

 curving sharply down hill by two or three cottages 

 which lie behind a low hedge on the left, becomes the 

 main village street. Thus the small thinly-populated 

 village nestles almost in the centre of the park, and 

 seems to be closely dependent on Avington House, 

 bringing back a semblance of old manorial life. A 

 few simple cottages and the original and now dilapi- 

 dated small square graveyard are on the southern side 

 of the road. A high wall of the park, hiding Avington 

 House from sight, runs along the opposite side of the 

 road as far as the church, which lies well back behind a 

 narrow modern graveyard. The rectory, a square white 

 building, stands immediately south-east of the church. 

 The road continues through the parkland, branching 

 both north to cross the lake by a rustic bridge and lead on 

 to Itchen Abbas, and north-west through a long stretch 

 of the park to the saw-mills, which stand at the head 

 of Avington lake, and from thence south to Ovington. 

 South of the park the centre of the parish is covered 

 with thick woodland, Hampage Wood and Little 

 Hampage Wood, of which mention is made as far 

 back as the year 1 306, when licence was granted to 

 the prior and convent of St. Swithun, who then held 

 the manor, to inclose their wood called ' Hemepynge 

 Wood in Avington parish,' saving the right of the 

 rector to drive his cattle into it. 4 



A legend also connects Hampage Wood with a 

 still earlier date. When Winchester Cathedral was 

 being built, Bishop Walkelin being in need of timber 

 asked William the Conqueror for the gift of as much 

 timber as he could carry away from Hampage Wood 

 in four days and nights. The king consented, and 

 the bishop, having collected all the woodmen from 

 the surrounding country, managed to clear the wood 

 with the exception of the one tree under which 

 St. Augustine was said to have preached. The 

 hollow shell of a tree, kept together by iron bands 

 and protected by an iron fence, still stands in the 

 wood, and is known locally as Hampage or Gospel 

 Oak. 



In the southern part of the parish is a picturesque 

 dell called Temple Valley, the lower end of which is 

 thickly wooded ; while to the south of the valley lies 

 Cheesefoot Head, from which fine views of the 

 country can be obtained, Winchester lying away to 

 the north-west, the Itchen valley to the north, and to 



the south and east undulating down country and 

 dark woodland. The soil is loam and chalk ; the 

 subsoil clay . The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley 

 and turnips. 



The earliest mention of AVINGTON 

 MANORS seems to be in the year 961, when King 

 Edgar granted land here to the monas- 

 tery of St. Peter and St. Paul at Winchester, 5 after- 

 wards called St. Swithun's Priory. 6 



At the time of the Domesday Survey it was held 

 by the bishop 7 in demesne, and the assessment had 

 risen from 6 in the time of King Edward to 10." 

 Avington was confirmed in 1205, and again in 1285,' 

 to the prior and monks of St. Swithun's and remained 

 in their hands until the time of the Dissolution. 10 



In 1291 Avington was numbered among the 

 St. Swithun's temporalities, and was valued at 



9 IS'- 11 



It was valued at 22 Ji. 8d. in 1535, and was in 

 the hands of William Basing, cook and keeper of the 

 priory granary." 



After the dissolution of St. Swithun's Priory Aving- 

 ton was granted to the dean and chapter of Win- 

 chester." It was one of the five manors which were 

 charged with the maintenance of six students in 

 theology at Oxford and six at Cambridge ; and which 

 the king compelled the dean and chapter to surrender 



It was thereupon 



CLIRKE. Azure a 

 cheveron between three 

 sivans argent. 



in 1545" (vide West Meon). 

 granted, together with Ham- 

 page Wood, to Edmund Clerke 

 and his wife Margaret, to be 

 held in chief for the fortieth 

 part of one knight's fee. 15 

 Edmund Clerke died seised of 

 it in I586, 16 leaving a son and 

 heir Thomas, who died in 

 1617, when the estate passed 

 to his son Henry." It was 

 conveyed by Henry, probably 

 for the purpose of a settle- 

 ment, to Sir Nathaniel Napper 

 in i634. 18 Some time, how- 

 ever, before 1689 the manor was purchased by George 

 Brydges, M.P. for Winchester, who in that year was 

 granted an exemption from having officers or soldiers 

 quartered on his manor-house of Avington, and from 

 having his horses impressed. 19 



In 1 702 it was in the possession of George Rodney 

 Brydges," and remained with the Brydges family, 

 who in the eighteenth century became dukes of 

 Chandos, until the death of James Brydges, duke of 

 Chandos, without male heirs in 1789, when the male 

 line of the Chandos family being extinct, Avington 

 and other estates passed from Ann Eliza, daughter of 

 the last duke of Chandos, to the Grenville family, on 

 her marriage with Richard Grenville marquis of 

 Buckingham, who assumed the name of Brydges, and 

 was created duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 

 1822." 



8 Cobbett, Rural Rides, 335. 



4 Inq. p.m. 34. Edw. I, No. 117. 



5 Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 291 ; Add. MSS. 

 15350, fol. 114. 



6 V.C.H. Hants, ii, 108. 



" There was apparently no distinction 

 in early time between the lands of the 

 bishop and the lands of the monastery (see 

 y.C.H. Hants, ii, 108). 



V.C.H. Hants, i, 464. 



9 Cat, of Chart. R. 1257-1300, p. 288. 



10 Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 21 ; Dugdale, 

 Man. i, 211. 



11 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 213. 

 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), vi, 8. In 



1346 Nicholas de Wodelock held one- 

 eighth of one fee in Avington which had 

 been held before by Richard de Warener 

 (Feud. Aids [Rec. Com.], ii, 334). 



18 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. 9, m. 34-40 ; 

 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvi, 417. 



307 



14 Wmton Catb. Docs. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 i, 171. 



15 Pat. 38 Hen. VIII, pt. 7, m. 29. 



16 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Eliz. No. 167. 

 V Ibid. 15 Jas. I, vol. 367, No. 37. 

 18 Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 9 Chas. I. 

 " Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1689-90, pp. 32, 



36. 



> Stowe, Add. MSS. 845, fol. 91. 



21 Burke, Extinct and Dormant Peerages. 



M Information supplied by Lady Shelley. 



