A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Corhampton road, is another small group of houses, 

 including the little general shop and the Shoe Inn, 

 and close by, on the right bank of the river, is the 

 old mill-house which has now fallen into picturesque 

 decay. The soil of the parish is chalk and clay, 

 subsoil gravel, chalk, and stone. The chief crops are 

 wheat, oats, and barley. 



The first mention of EXTON is ap- 

 M4NORS parently in 940, when a grant was made 

 by King Edmund to his thegn Ethelgeard 

 of 1 2 mansae at ' East Seaxnatune ' or Exton, on 

 the River Meon. 3 Between 940 and 1086 Exton 

 must have passed into the hands of the priory of 

 St. Swithun, for which it was held by the bishop of 

 Winchester as it had been in the time of King 

 Edward. Formerly it had been assessed at 1 2 hides, 

 but in 1086 at 8 hides only. Its value, it is said, had 

 fallen from 16 in the time of King Edward to li ; 

 and though by 1086 the value had only risen to 20 

 the land was subject to a tax of $o, which was a 

 burden heavier than it could bear. For twenty years 

 Lening had held 2 hides of this land and a mill 

 worth 2J. 4 



Exton was confirmed to the priory of St. Swithun 

 at Winchester in 1205, and again in 1285, and re- 

 mained to the prior and convent until the dissolution of 

 the monasteries. 6 In 1291 Exton was numbered among 

 the St. Swithun temporalities, and was assessed at 

 20 i$s. lod? After the Dissolution the manor 

 was granted in 1 542 to the dean and chapter of 

 Winchester, 7 to whom it was confirmed by James I 

 in 1605.* 



At the sale of the dean and chapter's lands in 1 649 

 the manor of Exton was bought by William Collyns 

 and Neville Larymore for 

 1,518 i6s. 8^., 9 but at the 

 Restoration it was recovered 

 by the church, and in 1682 it 

 was still a possession of the 

 cathedral church of Winches- 

 ter. The present lord of the 

 manor is Col. William Woods 

 of Warnford Park (in Bishop's 

 Waltham), who succeeded his 

 father, Mr. Henry Woods, in 

 1882. 



At the time of the Domes- 

 day Survey there were two 

 mills in Exton worth 2O/.' 

 After the Dissolution there is an entry on the 

 ministers' accounts for the farm of one water-mill 

 worth j5, n and at the sale of the dean and 

 chapter's lands in 1649 a water-grist mill was sold 

 to William Collyns and Neville Larymore." There 

 is a ruined mill in the parish at the present day. 

 A grant of free warren in their demesne lands of 

 Exton was granted to the prior and convent of 

 St. Swithun in 1301," and in 1649 a free fishing 

 in ' the river of Exton ' passed with the manor to 

 William Collyns and Neville Larymore. 1 * 



WOODS OF WARN- 

 FORD. Argent a che- 

 veron nebuly gules luith 

 drops argent between 

 three martlets sable. 



The church of ST. PETER and ST. 

 CHURCH PAUL is a small building with chancel 

 22 ft. by 1 8 ft. loin., north vestry, and 

 organ chamber, nave 56ft. 8 in. by 21 ft. 5 in., south 

 porch, and wooden bell-turret over the west end of the 

 nave. It has undergone very thorough repair, and its 

 details are for the most part modern. The chancel, 

 which dates from c. 1230, has a marked southward 

 deviation from the axis of the nave, and the latter may 

 contain work of an earlier date, though no architec- 

 tural features remain to prove it. 



In the east wall of the chancel are two large 

 lancets with a quatrefoil over, in the north wall a 

 single lancet with a wide internal splay, and in the 

 south wall two similar lancets. All have external 

 reveals, but only in the north window is any old stone- 

 work preserved. A heavy moulded string runs round 

 the interior of the chancel below the window sills, 

 and at the south-east is a double trefoiled piscina recess 

 with a modern oak shelf. The masonry of the 

 chancel arch is partly modern and partly retooled. 

 The nave has four windows on each side, the eastern 

 window on the north being a thirteenth-century 

 lancet with old stonework, while the next to it and 

 the western window on this side are similar lancets in 

 modern masonry. The remaining window of three 

 cinquefoiled lights is of the fifteenth-century style, and 

 retains a little masonry of that date. On the south 

 side the eastern window is of two lights in fifteenth- 

 century style, while the other three are single lancets ; 

 none have any old stonework. Between the second 

 and third windows on this side is the south doorway, 

 with a plain round arch of uncertain date, under a 

 modern porch, which follows the lines of the probably 

 thirteenth-century porch at Warnford. 



The west end of the nave appears to be entirely 

 modern, and the west window is a single lancet. 



The roofs and other woodwork are likewise modern, 

 together with the bell-turret, which can only be 

 reached by means of a long ladder from within the 

 church. The west end of the nave is screened off" to 

 form a vestry, and near the south door is the modern 

 octagonal font of thirteenth-century style. 



On the south wall of the chancel is the marble 

 monument of Dr. John Young, dean of Winchester, 

 who died in 1642, the date being given in a chrono- 

 gram 



VenI VenI MI lesV IVDeX VenI CIto. 



There are two bells, the treble bearing only 'fecit 1829,' 

 the founder's name being left out, while the other is 

 an interesting mediaeval bell, bearing a reversed in- 

 scription in black letters 



+ Ricardus + Ricardus Puinter + Neuport. The 

 third word is doubtful. 



The plate consists of a silver cup of 1648 and a 

 paten, and a plated paten and flagon. 



The first book of the registers contains all entries 

 from 1579 to 1720 ; the second, baptisms and burials 

 172080, and marriages to 1754 ; the third and 



8 Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 484. 



4 V.C.H. Hants, i, 466. This was evi- 

 dently not a manor, but part of the 

 demesne with which it was geldable. 

 William son of Gilbert held of the bishop 

 half a knight's fee in Exton in 1166, 

 which William de Exton formerly held 

 (Red Bk. of Excb. i, 206). 



* Cal. of Chart. R. 1257-1306, p. 288 ; 

 Dugdale, Man. i, 2 1 1 ; Cal. Pap. Letters^, 2 1 . 



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



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

 Its value at this time was 39 75. 6d. 

 yearly (Dugdale, Man. i, 217). The firm 

 of the site of the manor was assessed at 



31. 4</. 



8 Pat. 2 Jas. I, pt. 23, m. 37. 



9 Close, 1649, pt. 1 6, m. 16. 



10 y.C.H. Hants, i, 466. 



11 Dugdale, Men. i, 217. 



la Close, 1649, pt. 1 6, m. 16. 

 18 Chart. R. 29 Edw. I, m. 12. 

 14 Close, 1649, pt. 1 6, m. 16. 



320 



