FAWLEY HUNDRED 



MORESTEAD 



ton in 1333." Two years later Nicholas de Hanyton 

 was granted a licence to alienate this land in mort- 

 main to the prior and convent of St. Swithun at 

 Winchester, 28 who retained it until the dissolution of 

 the monasteries. 29 In 1541 it was granted to Sir 

 William Sidney, 30 and subsequently it seems to have 

 become amalgamated with his other lands, as there is 

 no further separate record of it. 



The church of ST. ANDREW has a 

 CHURCH chancel z 2 ft. by 13 ft. 8 in., and a nave 

 45 ft. by 1 7 ft., with north transept and 

 aisle, a north-west vestry and south porch, and wooden 

 bell-turret. The whole building was modernized and 

 enlarged in 1833, the nave being lengthened at the 

 time, a west tower destroyed, and the south doorway 

 of the nave blocked up. 



Though so completely modernized the building 

 probably preserves the dimensions of its twelfth- 

 century nave and chancel (the lengthening of the nave 

 excepted), the oldest work now existing being the 

 north arcade of the nave, c. 1160, of two bays with 

 semicircular arches of a single order chamfered on the 

 angles, square scalloped capitals, and round columns 

 with moulded bases, the whole liberally whitewashed 

 over. The chancel has a modern east window with 

 net tracery, and fourteenth-century trefoiled lights in 

 the north and south walls, the chancel arch being 

 modern, as are all other features of the nave. The 

 vestry and north transept are also modern, but the 

 north aisle retains its original width of 5 ft. 7 in. 

 The font, near the south door, which is to the west of 

 the older blocked doorway, is also modern, and near it 

 is the poor-box on a curious stone bracket, a corbel of 

 three engaged shafts with foliage more like fourteenth- 

 century French work than anything English ; it appears 

 to be ancient, and was formerly an image bracket, on 

 the north side of the east window of the chancel. 



There are three bells, the treble by Samuel Knight, 

 1705, the second and tenor being of 1655 and 1660 

 respectively. 



The plate consists of a communion cup of 1563, 

 with an incised band of ornament on the bowl and 

 another on the foot, and a flat paten, probably of 

 local make, with the date 1680 upon it. The church 

 also possesses a brass cross of Abyssinian workmanship 

 from King Theodore's chapel at Magdala. 



The first book of the registers begins in 1560, the 

 baptisms continuing till 1732, the marriages till 1723, 

 and the burials till 1702. The second book runs 

 from 1732 to 1779, and the third from 1780 to 1812, 

 while the fourth is the printed marriage register 1754 

 1812. 



At the time of the Domesday Sur- 

 4DVOWSON vey there were three churches at 

 Alresford," and as Medsted was 

 probably included in Alresford, possibly one of these 

 churches became later the parish church of Medsted. 

 Until quite recently the church of Medsted was 

 attached to that of Old Alresford, and the advowson 

 has therefore followed the descent of Alresford, and 

 was from earliest times in the hands of the bishop 

 of Winchester. 



A few years ago the churches were separated, and 

 since then the living of Medsted has been in the gift 

 of the Lord Chancellor. 



At the present day the living is a rectory with 

 7 acres of glebe and residence. 



In 1875 Henry Joyce Mulcock, by 

 CHARITIES will proved this date, left 500 to be 

 invested and income applied in the 

 distribution of articles in kind among the poor, the 

 charity to be called ' The Parish of Medsted Trust 

 Fund.' The legacy was invested in 528 15*. con- 

 sols, with the official trustees. 



MORESTEAD 



The small parish of Morestead, covering an area 

 of 1,701 acres, is on high ground south-east of Win- 

 chester, the Roman road from Bishop's Waltham to 

 Winchester forming the northern part of its western 

 boundary. The village lies on comparatively low 

 ground in the south-west of the parish at the 

 junction of the Roman road to Winchester, which 

 forms the main village street, with a narrow lane 

 running across the fields from Twyford, which here 

 crosses the main road and continues a north-westerly 

 course, as Fawley Lane, over Fawley Down to meet 

 the main road from Petersfield to Winchester, just 

 outside the boundaries of Morestead parish. The 

 few cottages that comprise the village, with Complin's 

 Farm, Burgers' Farm, and the church and rectory, lie 

 south of the junction, the church, near which is a 

 reputed Roman well, lying to the east of the main 

 road. South-east of the church is the rectory sur- 

 rounded by a beautiful old-world garden. On either 

 side the land rises from the village, Morestead Down 

 sweeping away north-east of the Roman road, which 

 cuts its way north between the down and a thick belt 



of hedgerow. Again to the south-west is Hazely 

 Down, while north and east are Fawley Down and 

 Longwood Warren, where there is a rabbit warren of 

 some local fame. Patches of woodland, St. John's 

 Copse, Grove Copse, and Old Down Copse, mingle 

 with the open country to the south between the 

 village and Old Down Farm, which lies in the furthest 

 south-west corner of the parish. Immediately south 

 of the village, on a branch road leading to Owslebury, 

 is Morestead Farm, south again of which is More- 

 stead House, the property of Mr. R. Eden Richardson, 

 whose large game farm supplies many of the neigh- 

 bouring estates with birds. To the south-west is a 

 fine house 'The Firs,' the residence of Mr. Joseph 

 Storey Curtis, who owns a large training stable and to 

 whom the lately-inclosed ' No Man's Land,' consist- 

 ing of about five acres in the extreme south of the 

 parish, belongs. 



The soil being loam on chalk is very poor, and 

 although there are 515 acres of arable land as com- 

 pared with 340 of permanent grass and 35 of wood- 

 land, much of the arable land is now being rapidly 



f Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 7 Edw. Ill ; 

 ibid. Mich. 



* Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 30. 



*> Misc. Bks. 389, 94, fol. 92 ; Chapter 

 House Bks. z6 Hen. VIII, A, bdle. 6, 

 No. i. 



329 



80 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. I, m. 32. 

 U y.C.H. Hants, i, 459. 



42 



