FAWLEY HUNDRED 



EXTON 



modern, and on the north is the organ and a modern 

 vestry. 



The nave retains its two original north windows, nar- 

 row round-headed lights widely splayed inwards, with a 

 keeled roll at the inner wall face ; at the sill level a 

 moulded string runs round the walls. The southern 

 windows have given place to square-headed fifteenth- 

 century windows of two cinquefoiled lights, and be- 

 tween them is the south doorway, with a richly 

 worked semicircular arch of three orders and trebly- 

 banded shafts with foliate capitals. The north door- 

 way is blocked, and quite plain. On the east jamb of 

 the south doorway is a sunk cross, perhaps a conse- 

 cration cross, which may have been inlaid in cement 

 or the like for effect. 



The tower arch is pointed, of one square order 

 with a chamfered string at the springing, and has 

 above it a plain round-headed doorway which once 

 gave access to the space within the original roof. At 

 the south-east angle is a projecting stair, and the 

 tower is finished with a very picturesque shingled 

 spire ; the whole of its external masonry has been 

 renewed, but the internal chalk quoining and masonry 

 is original. 



The nave roof is a well-designed piece of work, 

 with arched braces to the collars and wind-braces to 

 the purlins, and the pulpit, on a modern stone base, 

 is of early seventeenth-century date, with arabesque 

 ornament. Close to it at the north-east of the nave 

 the upper and lower doors of the fifteenth-century 

 rood stair remain, the stair being in a projecting 

 turret. All other fittings of the church are modern, 

 including a tall oak chancel screen, and the font, at 

 the west of the nave, of twelfth-century design. 



On the south wall of the chancel is a pretty monu- 

 ment, set up in 1595, to Agatha, wife of Bishop 

 Barlow of Chichester, and to two of her sons and five 

 daughters. 



There are three bells, with pits for four. The 

 treble, a late fifteenth-century bell, has an in- 

 teresting inscription, the whole of which the bell- 

 founder was unfortunately unable to get on to the 

 bell, so that it runs thus, the words being set in 



groups as shown : ' Jhfl have mercy . . . uppon 

 the sowlis of T . . . homas Stooker & . . .of 

 Septeb . . . y yere of o r lord.' The date is thus 

 crowded out. The second bell, by Roger Landon, 

 is inscribed ' Ave Maria,' with the founder's marks of 

 a lion's head, groat, cross, and shield with R.L. The 

 tenor of 1614, by a founder R. B., bears ' In God is 

 my hope.' 



The church plate is modern, consisting of a silver 

 chalice, paten, and alms dish of 1850, and a plated 

 flagon. 



There are no registers of an earlier date than the 

 seventeenth century, the first book now preserved 

 containing the baptisms from 1692 to 1754, the 

 marriages from 1694 to 1759, an ^ tne buna's from 

 1693 to 1812. The second book contains the 

 baptisms from 1754 to 1812, and the marriages for 

 the same period, there being no separate printed 

 marriage register from 1754 onwards, as is usually the 

 case. There is a book of churchwardens' accounts, 

 covering the period from 1655 to 1819, and after a 

 break of ten years they are continued to 1870. 



At the time of the Domesday Sur- 

 ADVOWSON vey there were two chapels at Easton 

 in the possession of the bishop " 

 The advowson of Easton was in the hands of the 

 bishop of Winchester until the year 1885. From 

 18858 the living was in the gift of the bishop of 

 Lichfield ; so and since 1888 the Lord Chancellor has 

 held the right of presentation. 31 



Easton was assessed in 1291 at 10*' but by 1535 

 the value of the rectory had so much increased that 

 the assessment amounted to 26 1 31 4</. 33 



The living is now a rectory, net income 344, 

 with residence and 4 acres of glebe in the gift of the 

 Lord Chancellor. 



There is a small Primitive Methodist chapel in the 

 parish. 



There is a small piece of land in 

 CHARITIES this parish called ' the Church Halves,' 

 containing about an acre, but there 

 are no documents showing how the parish became pos- 

 sessed of it. The rent is applied for church purposes. 



EXTON 



East Seaxnatune (x cent.) ; Essentune (xi cent.) ; 

 Exton (xii cent ). 



The parish of Exton covers a long sweep of high 

 ground of about 3,567 acres, of which i,2Ct8J are 

 arable land, 460^ permanent grass, 591 woodland, 

 and 6 water. 1 Part of Corhampton, including Pre- 

 shaw Park, the high ground north and west of Exton 

 village, was transferred to Exton parish in March, 

 1894,* and from this part of the parish fine 

 views can be obtained of the low-lying parishes to the 

 north, Beauworth, Kilmeston, Hinton Ampner, Che- 

 riton, and Tichborne. The south and centre of the 

 parish through which the River Meon flows is lower 

 country, and is the most fertile part of the parish, 

 where the bulk of the arable land lies, while the River 

 Meon affords good trout fishing. 



The village itself is in the extreme south of the 

 parish, immediately north of Corhampton. The three 



villages of Exton, Corhampton, and Meonstoke lie so 

 near together as almost to form one village. Exton is 

 approached most easily by a road which branches west 

 from the main road from West Meon to Droxford, 

 and runs for some way parallel with the river, beyond 

 which to the south of the village is a wide stretch of 

 low-lying marsh land. A large grey stone house, 

 formerly the manor-house, but now used only as a 

 farm, stands at the entrance to the village on the 

 north side of the road. A few yards beyond is the 

 small stone church of St. Peter and St. Paul, and 

 opposite on the south of the road are some quaint 

 thatched cottages in strange contrast with the little 

 red-brick schoolhouse which stands near the church. 

 Beyond the school, on slightly higher ground, is the 

 rectory, a handsome house in fine grounds, near which 

 are The Grove and Exton Cottage. Further south, 

 on the road which connects Exton with the main 



M V. C. H. Hand, i, 4.60. 

 s Clergy Lilt, 1885-88. 

 81 Ibid. 1888-1904. 



M Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), in. 

 83 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 10. 



319 



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

 1 Local Govt. Bd. Order, No. 16411. 



