A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



property in question), entered into an agreement with 

 the parishioners to pay 4.0;. a year to the church- 

 wardens to be applied towards the repairs of the 

 church. 



There are also belonging to the church about three 

 acres of land in the parish. The annual sum of 40*., 

 together with the rents of the land, is carried to the 

 churchwardens' general accounts. 



OWSLEBURY 



Oselbury (xiv. cent.) ; Owlesbury (xiv cent.). 



The parish of Owslebury consists of 22 acres of 

 land covered with water and 5,412 acres of land 

 which rises gradually from south to north, reaching 

 the greatest height, with the exception of the rise on 

 Green Hill in the west of the parish, near the village, 

 which stands on the crest of a hill towards the north. 

 The main road from Winchester to Bishop's Waltham, 

 passing south-east through Morestead, sends off a 

 branch road directly south towards Owslebury. Rising 

 on to high ground this road then descends steeply into 

 Owslebury parish. At the bottom of the hill two or 

 three thatched cottages and the Shearer's Inn standing 

 on the right-hand side make up the outlying portion 

 of Owslebury, known as Owslebury Bottom. A few 

 yards on as the land begins to rise the road curves 

 slightly east round by the Cricketers' Inn and winds 

 up the hill, curving sharply south-west into the village. 

 Entering the village, the blacksmith's shop, a low 

 tiled picturesque building, stands on the north 

 side of the road facing wide sloping fields which 

 stretch away to the south. As the road continues 

 uphill, past two or three thatched cottages and out- 

 buildings, the old windmill, near which is a new 

 mill which supplies the pumping power for the 

 Owslebury waterworks, stands in a high field to the 

 north, marking the crest of the hill. Beyond this the 

 greater number of the cottages and houses composing 

 the village are grouped. On the south side of the 

 road are the village schools, immediately west of 

 which is the square-towered church of St. Andrew, 

 standing on high ground overlooking the valley as the 

 ground falls away to the east and south-east. Im- 

 mediately to the east over the valley lies Baybridge, 

 beyond which the high land which sweeps away to 

 Millbarrow Down rises in the distance ; to the south- 

 east, over the stretches of woodland which lie in the 

 south-east of Owslebury parish, lies the parish of 

 Upham, beyond which rises the high ground round 

 Winter's Hill House. South-west of the church is the 

 vicarage, to which a pathway from the church leads 

 across the square inclosed recreation ground of about 

 four acres. The village stocks stood at the churchyard 

 gate until recent times, but have now disappeared. As 

 the long village street continues to run south-west down 

 the slope of the hill beyond the church and vicarage, 

 several picturesque thatched cottages lie on the left, 

 while others lie on either side as at the further end of 

 the village the road forks north to Twyford and south 

 to Marwell Hall, round a small triangular green. 

 On the north side as the road forks stand two tiled 

 lichen-covered cottages, known as Yew-tree Cottages, 

 in front of which grow two large yew trees, shaped 

 like the trees of a toy Noah's Ark. Beyond these 

 cottages is the Ship Inn, a low, thatched, timber- 

 framed house, which has some good panelling within, 

 and the date 1 68 1 on the tap-room fireplace. Mar- 

 well Manor Farm, the manor farm of Owslebury parish, 

 stands on the site of the ancient palace of Marwell, 



which was probably destroyed ' in the sixteenth 

 century, after the grant to Sir Henry Seymour, 

 who already had a house in the adjoining manor of 

 Marwell Woodlock. The site is marked by a large 

 moated inclosure within which the present dwelling- 

 house stands, but such old masonry as is now to be 

 seen is said to belong rather to the college of priests 

 founded here than to the episcopal house. Beyond 

 the moat to the south is a small early sixteenth- 

 century building now used as a cottage. 



Marwell Hall, the manor-house of Marwell Wood- 

 lock, now the property and residence of Captain 

 William Standish, J.P., belongs for the most part to 

 the nineteenth century, having been almost rebuilt 

 about 1816 by Mr. William Long, on the site and 

 in the style of the former building. It retains, how- 

 ever, in its central portion, once the hall of an 

 H -shaped house, a certain amount of old work. A 

 very fine wooden chimney-piece with the Seymour 

 crest, and a stone panel of their arms now above the 

 fireplace in the entrance hall, are from the old building. 

 The house has a fine position in about seven acres of 

 well-wooded grounds, the western edge of which 

 extends along the crown of the sloping fields that rise 

 east of Hensting hamlet in the south-west of the 

 parish. Tradition asserts that the old house, built 

 probably in the early part of the sixteenth century, 

 was the scene of the marriage between Henry VIII 

 and Lady Jane Seymour, the sister of the lord of Mar- 

 well. Edward VI is also said to have visited Marwell 

 Hall, and the initials E. R. were carved in stone over 

 the porch of the old house. Tradition of another 

 kind makes Marwell Hall the scene of the well-known 

 ' Mistletoe Bough ' tragedy.* 



The hamlet of Baybridge, consisting of a small 

 group of cottages, a Primitive Methodist chapel, and 

 the farm-houses and out-buildings of Baybridge and 

 Lower Whiteflood Farms, lies about a mile, as the 

 crow flies, south-east of Owslebury village. It is 

 approached from Owslebury by a branch road leading 

 south from the road which runs north-east from the 

 village to Longwood House, and the cottages and 

 farms stand about three-quarters of a mile along the 

 branch road at the corner where it sends off a branch 

 south-west to Marwell. 



The hamlet of Hensting lies in the south-east 

 of the parish, and is approached from Owslebury 

 village by a downhill lane which branches south- 

 west from the narrow road which turns off north 

 towards Twyford by the Ship Inn at the west end 

 of the village. This lane, passing between fine 

 stretches of meadow and plough-land, comes to 

 the outbuildings and the long thatched barn of 

 Hensting Farm, behind which stands the farm- 

 house on high ground. Passing on it curves more 

 directly south between the cottages and farmyards of 

 Hensting and runs on to the high pine woods which 

 slope from the north towards Fisher's Pond, the long 

 narrow stretch of water which runs along the south 



Duthy, Sketches of Hampshire, 307. 



3 For full description of Marwell Hall see Duthy, Sketches of Hampshire, 308-14. 

 332 



