FAWLEY HUNDRED 



EASTON 



EASTON 



Eston, Estune (xii cent.) ; Istune (xiv cent.). 

 The parish of Easton lies to the north-east of Win- 

 chester, and covers 2,172 acres of undulating country 

 falling in the north to the valley of the Itchen, which 

 flows through the low country in the north of the 

 parish and forms the boundary between Easton and 

 Martyr Worthy. Of the whole area 19 acres are 

 water, 1,976^ are arable land, 671 J are permanent 

 grass, and 94 woodland and plantation. 1 The 

 south-west of the parish consists wholly of farmland 

 and open fields ; Larkwhistle Farm and Pitt Barn 

 are in the south-east, but the village itself lies 

 in the north of the parish where the land falls 

 away to the Itchen valley. The hilly road from 

 Winchester approaching from the south between low 

 quickset hedges commands a wide view to the north 

 over the Itchen valley to King's Worthy and Abbot's 

 Worthy, Worthy Park standing up in fine relief 

 against a dark background of woodland. After a last 

 steady rise uphill the road descends into the village and 

 curving to the east be- 

 comes the main village 

 street. Here at the 

 entrance to the village 

 a road turns north to- 

 wards the river, be- 

 tween a group of low, 

 old-fashioned cottages, 

 and the obtrusive newly 

 built inn ' The Cricke- 

 ter's Arms.' From this 

 a narrow branch road 

 turns uphill to the west, 

 leading past the manor 

 farm, which is on high 

 ground to the south, 

 to the church, which 

 stands on the lower side 

 of the road as the 

 ground sweeps down to 

 the river. West of the 



church is the small school, built in 1840, and still 

 further west is the rectory. Beyond this the road 

 becomes a rough path across the fields. The main 

 village street turns east past a line of thatched cot- 

 tages which stand on the south side of the road 

 behind a low brick lichen-covered wall, and again 

 past other thatched and timbered cottages until it 

 turns sharply down hill to the left to the quaint 

 Chestnut Horse Inn with its tiled lichen-covered roof 

 and hanging sign. From here until the end of the 

 village is reached the road turns east again, leading 

 past groups of thatched deep-roofed cottages, with 

 here and there more modern buildings, between 

 which, on the left, glimpses can be caught of the 

 water meadows traversed by the Itchen, and of 

 Martyr Worthy church and village, which lie on the 

 slope of the hill rising from the opposite side of the 

 valley. 



The soil is chalk and loam ; the subsoil chalk. 

 The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, and turnips. 



The earliest recorded mention of 

 MANORS E4STON seems to be in 871 when 

 Alfred bishop of Winchester granted 

 8 hides of land at Easton on the River Itchen to 

 Cuthred the Dux and his wife Wulfrith for three 

 lives. 1 " Thus from early times Easton was in the 

 hands of the bishops of Winchester, and the right of 

 the bishopric to it seems to have been confirmed by a 

 grant made by King Edgar to his kinsman Brihthelm 

 bishop of Winchester in 961 of 7^ mansae at Easton 

 on the River Itchen.' 



At the time of the Domesday Survey the bishop 

 held Easton in demesne as he had done in the time 

 of Edward the Confessor from him. Turstin held 

 5 2 acres of the demesne which had been held before 

 by Aelfeth ; Geoffrey held 3 hides of this manor 

 which Brictric had held from the bishop in parage 

 in King Edward's reign ; and Alwin held I hide and 



THE CHESTNUT HORSE INN, EASTON 



i virgate which he had held in the time of King 

 Edward.' 



It appears from a bull of Innocent III that Easton 

 was granted and confirmed to the prior and monks 

 of St. Swithun's, Winchester, in 1 205,* who held it of 

 the bishop by the service of one-third of a knight's 

 fee, 5 and by a charter of 1284, confirmed in the fol- 

 lowing year by Edward I, John bishop of Winches- 

 ter gave up for himself and his successors all rights in 

 the manor, saving his rights of overlordship, to the 

 prior and convent, 6 who had already acquired land 

 in Easton by grant of James Hansard in 1243-' 

 Easton manor was included among the temporalities 

 belonging to St. Swithun's in 1291, and was assessed 

 at 38 12*. 4J</. 8 Licence was granted to the prior 

 and convent by Edward II to acquire further land 

 and rent to the value of 50, and in 1330 and in part 

 satisfaction of this right 6 acres of land in Easton 



1 Statistics of Bd. of Agric. (1905). 

 Lands outside the parish are included in this 

 return. Ia Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 162. 



" Ibid, iii, 303. 



8 V. C. H. Hants, i, 4.60. 

 4 Dugdale, Man. i, 211; Cal. Paf. 

 Letters, i, 21. 



s Coram Rege R. No. 86, m. 7. 



3'7 



6 Chart. R. 13 Edw. I, No. 98. 

 ' Feet of F. Hants, 27 Hen. Ill, No. 

 281. 



s Pofi Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 213. 



