FAWLEY HUNDRED 



CHERITON 



CHERITON 



Cherytone (xii cent.) ; Churton Chyritone (xvi 

 cent.). 



The 3,264 acres of land comprised in the parish 

 of Cheriton are made up of high down country 

 sloping in every direction towards the village, which 

 lies in a river valley almost in the centre of the parish. 



Cheriton Wood lies away to the north-west of the 

 parish, while stretching west of the wood is the wide 

 plain on which the Battle of Cheriton was fought on 

 29 March, 1644 the battle which, as Clarendon says, 

 ' broke all the measures and altered the whole scheme 

 of the king's counsels.' ' The Royalists under Hopton 

 were quartered at New Alresford, whither Waller 

 was advancing from East Meon. Leaving Alresford, 

 Hopton marched south and met Waller on the plain 

 near Lamborough Field. ' The king's horse never 

 behaved themselves so ill as that day,' writes 

 Clarendon, and though the foot ' behaved gallantly,' 

 and withstood not only the attack of Waller's foot 

 but also ' two or three charges from the horse with 

 notable courage and without being broken,' yet 

 as evening drew near Hopton was forced to retire 

 to Reading. 



The village of Cheriton, described by Cobbett in 

 his Rural Rides as ' a little hard iron village where all 

 seems to be as old as the hills that surround it," is 

 at the present day one of the best cared for and most 

 progressive villages in the district. 



The main road from Winchester to Petersfield 

 runs through to the south of the parish and a 

 lane branching off a few yards past Hockley House 

 leads in a north-easterly direction to the village. As 

 it approaches down-hill, a small unobtrusive house 

 lying back on the south side of the road is known as 

 the Flower Pots Inn. Beyond this are two or three 

 groups of thatched cottages facing south-west, while 

 along the north side of the road runs the high wall of 

 the rectory garden. At the end of this wall at the 

 bottom of the hill the road turns sharply north past 

 the gates of the rectory into the middle of the 

 village. Immediately in the foreground is the village 

 green, through which flows a tributary of the Itchen, 

 running a north-westerly course through the parish, 

 intersecting the village with many branches and 

 crossed by several light bridges. In the centre of the 

 green and on either side are several old thatched and 

 tiled cottages, some half-timbered, for the most part 

 picturesquely grouped behind narrow well-cultivated 

 gardens. North-west of the green a narrow wooden 

 bridge leads over one of the small streams to an open 

 field, across which a well-trodden pathway runs south 

 to the low white gate of the churchyard and to the 

 low square-towered church of St. Michael, which 

 stands here immediately west of the village. The 

 rectory, a fine red-brick house dating from the early 

 years of the eighteenth century, stands close to the 

 church on the south. On the east side of the village 

 is a Congregational chapel, built in 1862, near by 

 which are the Board Schools, built in 1876. 



Leaving the green and the river and the cottages 



around it, close by the inn which bears the sign of 

 the Prince of Wales' Feathers, and calls itself the 

 Hampshire Hunt Inn, the main village street con- 

 tinues in a circuitous north-easterly direction running 

 east of the river, between picturesque low-thatched 

 cottages, the Bricklayers' Inn, and two or three obtrusive 

 modern villas, to that part of the village which is 

 known as North End, and from here continues north 

 through Tichborne parish to New Alresford. As the 

 road leaves the parish Cheriton Mill, with the Mill 

 Cross, stands away on the river to the east. 



South of the green and village, the village street 

 curves slightly to the south-east to meet the main road 

 from Winchester to Petersfield on Lane End Down, 

 over which the main road descends to an outlying 

 portion of Cheriton known as Lane End hamlet, 

 which is also approached from Cheriton by a narrow 

 lane through the water meadows. 



Here the watercress industry is in full progress, 

 since the river with its luxuriously growing water- 

 cress beds makes a detour between and behind the 

 several cottages grouped here on its way north-west 

 to Cheriton. Immediately beyond Lane End hamlet 

 the road enters Hinton Ampner parish and so passes 

 on east towards Petersfield. 



The soil of the whole parish is chalk and clay, 

 with a subsoil of chalk, producing wheat and oats and 

 green crops. Of the total acreage 1, 660 acres are 

 given up to arable land, 470 are permanent grass, and 

 3 70 woodland. 1 Of the woodland Shorley Copse in 

 the south-east of the parish covers the widest stretch 

 of country, and close to the wood are the Shoriey 

 Pottery Works, which afford a special source of em- 

 ployment for some of the villagers. 



The following place-names occur in 1 605 : Shore- 

 drane, Holifield, and Charkers 5 ; in 1611, ' Tor- 

 shawe'; 4 in 1620-24, ' Somerfield ';* ' n 1648-51, 

 The Breach, Cowdown Close, Eastwood, Brook- 

 furlong, Burrow Land, and Londonway ' ; in 1 704 

 1 2, Sheeremead, Kemen Coppice, and Ruffolds. 7 



Beauworth, now a civil ecclesiastical parish, was 

 formerly the south-eastern corner of Cheriton parish, 

 and was separated from Cheriton by Order in Council 

 of 4 February, 1879." In 1888 a detached portion 

 of Kilmeston was added to Beauworth,* the whole area 

 now being 1,508 acres. It covers a sweep of high 

 country reaching some 530 ft. above the ordnance 

 datum near the Fox and Hounds Inn on Millbarrow 

 Down. 



From here can be seen fine views of the surround- 

 ing district, and it is not surprising that the land 

 is being developed for building purposes. Several new 

 houses have already been built and many plots of 

 ground have been marked out for sale. 



A narrow road leads down from Millbarrow 

 Down towards the village, which lies in the north ot 

 the parish, shut off from Cheriton by thick woodland 

 country. At the entrance to the village is the smithy, 

 beyond which is the white manor-house, now un- 

 tenanted, standing in fine grounds. The manor 



1 Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, iii, 

 338. 



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



8 Eccl. Com. Ct. R. 158821. bdle. 136, 

 No. z. 



4 Ibid. 158030, bdle. 115, No. 8. 

 s Ibid. 158826, bdlc. 137, No. 2. 



3" 



6 Ibid. 155760, bdlc. 99, No. 8. 

 ~ Ibid. 158878, bdle. 143, No. 5. 



8 Ord. in Council. 



9 Local Govt. Bd. Order, No. 22375. 



