FAWLEY HUNDRED 



CHERITON 



carter, I $J. ; fan for dairy, id. ; wages of dairymaid, 

 i zd. u Other entries in the court rolls for the reign 

 of Elizabeth are : 'No tenants to permit their horses 

 or sheep to pasture in the low down called " le 

 Marsh " for the winter under penalty of zod. each. 

 All the tenants of Cheriton to make palings for the 

 park of Waltham as tenants, this side of Pentecost 

 under penalty of 40^. each. Tenants to make suffi- 

 cient hedges round their cornfields before the Feast of 

 St. Andrew next under the same penalty. Edmund 

 Newbury is to forfeit one messuage and one virgate of 

 land to the lord because he cut down without licence 

 20 oaks value 6s.' M 



BEAUWORTH (Beworth, Buworth xiv cent.) was 

 originally a tithing in the parish of Cheriton. The 

 earliest mention of it seems to be in the year 1265, 

 when the men of Beauworth paid z6s. 9>d. at the 

 bishop's court. 36 In 1316 Beauworth was held by 

 the bishop." In 1635 it was leased to Richard 

 Bassett, his son Richard, and his daughter Elizabeth 

 for the term of their lives for a yearly rent of 

 5 19;. S^. 38 At the sale of the bishops' lands in 

 1648 the manor and the site of the manor was sold 

 to Christopher Mercer for 6181 ;' 9 but it was 

 restored to the bishopric at the Restoration, and after 

 this there seems to be no further record concerning 

 Beauworth manor, the manorial rights of which 

 probably lapsed. Mr. Walter Long is the principal 

 landowner in the parish at the present day. 



John Gater and his wife Sarah sold the site of the 

 manor to Richard Eyre in 1767,* in whose family it 

 remained until 1816, when Henry Eyre and Edward 

 Foyle conveyed it to Thomas Westcombe." 



The church of S7'. MICHAEL, 

 CHURCHES CHERITON, built on a mound to 

 the west of the village, is in the main 

 a thirteenth-century building. It has a nave and 

 chancel of equal width, 1 9 ft. 6 in., the chancel being 

 39 ft. 6 in. long and the nave 47 ft. 3 in., but the 

 former has been lengthened in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury. The nave has arcades of three bays, and aisles 

 8 ft. wide, with a south porch and west tower, all 

 originally of thirteenth-century date, but the tower 

 and aisles have been repaired and partly rebuilt in the 

 eighteenth century and later. 



The chancel, the added eastern bay of which is 

 built on the east slope of the mound, has a four- light 

 east window with fifteenth-century tracery, and at 

 north-east and south-east two-light transomed win- 

 dows of the same date, with the difference that in the 

 north window the lights below the transom are cinque- 

 foiled, and in the south they are shouldered and have 

 rebates for wooden frames. The western part of the 

 chancel is lighted by a pair of thirteenth-century 

 lancets on each side, and there is a small priest's door 

 of the same date to the east of those on the south side. 

 The external masonry of all the thirteenth-century 

 work has been renewed. At the south-east is a tre- 

 foiled piscina with a shelf and two brackets, but no 

 drain ; it is of thirteenth-century work probably 

 moved eastward to its present position. 



The chancel has a decided lean to the north from 



the axis of the nave, probably due to an error in 

 setting out when building round an older chancel. 

 The nave preserves the width of the older and 

 probably aisleless nave to which the former chancel 

 belonged, the arcades of three bays dating from e. 1 220 

 (the date at which, it may be presumed, the aisles were 

 added). They have pointed arches of two chamfered 

 orders, and round columns with moulded capitals and 

 bases with spurs, the latter all modern except part of that 

 of the first column from the east in the north arcade. 



Both aisles have square-headed two-light east win- 

 dows of the fifteenth century, but all the others are of 

 modern date with wooden frames. 



The south porch has a thirteenth-century outer arch 

 with moulded capitals, the inner doorway having a 

 modern wood frame, and the north door of the nave 

 being of like character, but blocked with masonry. 

 On the east jamb of the outer arch of the south aisle 

 is an incised sundial, and on either side of the opening 

 are pieces of elaborately traceried fourteenth-century 

 stonework, built into the walls. 



The tower has a thirteenth-century eastern arch of 

 two square orders with a string at the springing, but 

 externally shows no mediaeval work, being faced with 

 eighteenth-century brick and flint work. It has a 

 south door of this date. The roofs of the church are 

 modern and red-tiled, that of the nave being carried 

 in one span over nave and aisles. 



The font, near the south door of the nave, is 

 modern, as are all the internal fittings, including a 

 stone pulpit. 



There are six bells by Warren recast from the old 

 ring of five, four of which were by John Stares, 1746. 



The church of ST. JAMES, BEAUWORTH, 

 built in 1838, is a rectangular room with lancet win- 

 dows, a south porch and bell turret on the west gable, 

 containing two bells by Mears, of the date of the 

 church. The fittings are of the same period, with a 

 west gallery, and a small marble bowl on a wooden 

 pedestal, doing duty as a font. 



The plate of Cheriton church consists of a silver 

 communion cup of 1621, a paten of 1698, and a 

 modern paten. At Beauworth there is a modern set 

 of electro-plate. 



The first two books of the Cheriton registers, in- 

 cluding Beauworth, contain all entries from 1577 to 

 1740, and 165610 1779, respectively. The third book 

 is the marriage register 1754-1812, and the fourth 

 that of baptisms and burials 17421822. 



A book of accounts of the overseers of the poor for 

 Beauworth, beginning in 1732, is kept at Kilmeston. 



The church of Cheriton, one of 

 ADPOWSONS the most valuable livings in the 

 diocese of Winchester, has always 

 belonged to the bishops. In 1284 the king gave up 

 to John bishop of Winchester and his successors all his 

 right in the advowson of Cheriton." As early as 

 1291 Cheriton rectory was taxed at ^40," and in 

 1535 the value had increased, and it was assessed in 

 the Valor at 66 13*. 4'. 4 * Such a living was of 

 course one of the prizes of the diocese, and was usually 

 held by men of local if not of wider celebrity ; it is 



84 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1141, No. 16. 

 M Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdlc. 87, No. 



12. 



88 Ibia. 159294, bdlc. 24. 

 8 ? Feud. Aids, ii, 330. 

 88 Close, 24 Chas. I, pt. 8, m. 41-2, 

 No. 5. 



89 Ibid. Dugdale, however, says that the 

 manor was sold to Stephen Estwiclce in 

 December, 164.8, for 748 6j. 6J., but no 

 further record of this can be found. Dug- 

 dale, Monasticaa, i, 204. He was probably 

 a trustee of the bishop's lands. 



40 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 8 Geo. III. 



3'3 



41 Ibid. Hil. 57 Geo. III. 



43 Chart. R. 12 Edw. I, No. 5. 



48 Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 211. 



44 Valor Eccl. ii, 9. 



45 Diet. Nat. Biog. xvi, 386. The 

 manor and the rectory were therefore in 

 the same hands. 



40 



