FAWLEY HUNDRED 



WIELD 



of Mr. Gaythorne Wood of Thedden Grange, 

 Alton, who in his turn sold it to Mr. Barnes Wim- 

 bush, from whom it was bought in 1900 by Count 

 D. Beaumont Gurowski, the present lord of the manor. 18 



There is a mill mentioned among the appurtenances 

 of the manor in 1286" and in I569, 30 which 

 probably gave its name to Windmill Hill in the 

 north-west of the parish. There was a park at Wield 

 from an early date. In 1279 complaint was made 

 that certain persons had broken into the park of the 

 bishop of Winchester, hunted therein and carried 

 away deer." Among the entries in the Ministers' 

 Accounts for Wield for 1323 is 'Payment made by 

 the park-keeper of ^s. each for 6 carts during the 

 winter.' " Beyond these references no record of the 

 park can be found. 



The church of 53". JAMES has a 

 CHURCH chancel 20 ft. 4 in. by 1 4 ft., and nave 

 34ft. 8 in. by 19 ft. 8 in., with a bell- 

 turret at the west. There was formerly a western 

 tower, but this was destroyed in 1812, when the 

 turret was set up, which contains a single bell. 



Externally the building is covered with rough-cast, 

 and has red-tiled roofs. The nave walls are of twelfth- 

 century date, probably c. 1150, and those of the 

 chancel, though showing no twelfth-century features, 

 are probably co-eval with them. The chancel has a 

 modern three-light east window of geometrical style, 

 the north and south walls being blank ; and the 

 chancel arch is semicircular, of two orders, slightly 

 chamfered on the west face, with a chamfered string 

 at the springing, which is continued up to the angles 

 of the nave. On either side of the arch, which is 

 5 ft. 8 in. wide, large openings have been cut through 

 the wall. 



The nave has two windows on each side, but none 

 at the west ; all are apparently the original twelfth- 

 century windows, altered and enlarged in the fifteenth 

 century, single trefoiled or cinquefoiled lights being 

 inserted in three of them, and in the fourth, that at 

 the south-east, two trefoiled lights. There is a blocked 

 south doorway, which, like the chancel arch, is of the 

 twelfth century, its semicircular head with a label 

 showing on the outside. The entrance to the church 

 is by a west doorway with a square head, dating from 

 1812. The roof timbers are old, with a modern 

 painted wooden ceiling fitted to them ; and at the 

 west of the nave is a wooden gallery, also modern. 

 The fittings are also modern, and very good of their 

 kind ; a second altar has been set up at the north-east 

 of the nave, and very well furnished. The font, at 

 the west of the nave, is of Purbeck marble, with a 

 shallow square arcaded bowl on a central and four 

 angle shafts, of late twelfth-century date ; it was dug 

 up in a garden in the Close at Winchester, and lately 

 given to Wield church. 



Below the north-east window of the nave is a tre- 

 foiled fourteenth-century recess, connected with the 

 nave altar whose successor has lately been set up here, 

 but the chancel shows no remains of piscina or sedilia, 

 their place being occupied by the large monument of 

 William Waloppe, 1617, whose alabaster effigy, with 



that of his third wife, lies on a panelled tomb of 

 alabaster under a canopy on which are cherubs hold- 

 ing emblems of mortality. Above the effigies in the 

 recess beneath the canopy are the arms of Wallop 

 quartering Fisher of Chilton Candover. 



The plate consists of a communion cup of 1 569 

 with a modern foot, and a very interesting pre-Refor- 

 mation paten, c. 1 500, and very like that at Bishop's 

 Sutton, with a silver-gilt edge, and engraved i H s 

 in the centre. It has, however, at some time been 

 beaten inside out, so that the hexagonal central 

 depression has been flattened and the i H s is now on 

 the underside. 



The registers are also of more than ordinary inter- 

 est, the original small paper book of 1538 being 

 preserved. To each year a heading is written, giving 

 the regnal year also, and in the time of Edward VI 

 the full royal titles. There is a gap from 1552 to 

 1560, but from 1560 to 1562 the same form of 

 heading is retained, the entries to this date being in 

 Latin. From 1562 onwards the heading is dropped, 

 and English used till 1597, when Latin occurs again, 

 the entries of baptisms, &c., being from this time 

 kept separate. The baptisms are entered in two sec- 

 tions, 15971663 and 165595 ; the burials in one, 

 1597-1648 ; and the marriages likewise, 1597-1678. 

 The book also contains a register of briefs, 1707-13. 

 The second book, likewise of paper, is supplementary 

 to the first, containing baptisms 156898, marriages 

 1563-98, and burials 1561-97. 



In a wood at some distance from the village is the 

 site of a destroyed house, known as the Castle. It 

 was probably a house of the Wallop family, but 

 nothing of it now remains, its masonry having been, 

 according to local report, carried off for building 

 material in the village. 



At the time of the Domesday 

 ADVOWSON Survey there is no mention of a 

 church in Wield," and the earliest 

 mention seems to be in the year 1280, when the pre- 

 sentation to the church was in the hands of the king 

 during a vacancy of the see of Winchester.** 



In 1 306 the priory of Newark (co. Surrey) acquired 

 the advowson of the church of Wield,* 5 by grant of 

 John, bishop of Winchester, and this grant was con- 

 firmed by letters patent. 



The advowson remained in the hands of the prior 

 and convent until the Dissolution, when the rectory 

 was valued at 4 6s. SJ. K 



From this time until about the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century the advowson follows the descent 

 of the manor. From 1817 until the present day 

 presentations to the living have been made by the earls 

 of Portsmouth," whose ancestors, the Wallops, had 

 held the rectorial tithes of Wield since I586. 38 



In 1872 Miss Jane Ewen by her 

 CHARITIES will proved this date left 100, the 

 interest to be paid yearly to the poor 

 of Lower Wield, under the direction of the incum- 

 bent. The legacy (less duty) was invested in 

 97 o/. 9</. consols with the official trustees. The 

 dividends are distributed in coal to the cottagers. 



28 Information supplied by Count Beau- 

 mont Gurowski. 



* Inq. p.m. 15 Edw. I, No. 15. 

 Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 1 1 Elir. 

 81 Pat. 7 Edw. I, m. 5. 



ra Mins. Accts. bdle. 1142, No. 19. 

 88 V.C.H. Hants, i, 463. 

 " Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 20. 

 84 Inq. a.q.d. 34 Edw. I, No. 115 ; Pat. 

 34 Edw. I, m. 13. 



86 yahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 33. 

 s ? Clerical Guide, Clergy List, 1817- 

 1906. 

 88 Recov, R. Trin. 28 Eliz. m. 63. 



347 



