MICHELDEVER HUNDRED 



MICHELDEVER 



Northbrook, Southbrook, Ridgefield, and other places 

 in Micheldever, lately in the tenure of Richard 

 Stanesby the elder and Richard Stanesby the younger 

 were settled on Katherine daughter of Robert Woolley 

 on her marriage with Robert Bristow the younger.' 3 

 In 1743 Katherine Bristow, then a widow, entailed 

 her Hampshire lands on her son Robert Bristow. 74 It 

 has not been found possible to identify these lands or 

 to ascertain their later descent. 



The hospital of St. John at Winchester held 2 acres 

 of land in Weston Colley by purchase from Hugh le 

 Bere of Weston, made in June, 1270," one in 

 ' Brocfurlong ' and the other east of ' la Stapele ' and 

 abutting on ' Mitcheiles Farm.' 76 They also had 

 lands and a grange at Southbrook, of which the modern 

 Southbrook House, the residence of Mr. A. Stewart, 

 probably marks the site. This grange was purchased 

 early in the fourteenth century and was transferred to 

 Micheldever from Worthy in 1314-15." 



The church of OUR LADt has a 

 CHURCH chancel, an octagonal nave with a western 

 bay flanked on north and south by vestries, 

 and a west tower. The nave and chancel are of 

 brick, built in 1806 after a fire, and the only ancient 

 parts of the building are the west bay of the nave, 

 which has some late thirteenth-century work, and the 

 tower, which belongs to the first half of the sixteenth 

 century. 



The east window of the chancel is of fourteenth- 

 century style, replacing an early nineteenth-century 

 window. On the chancel walls are several monu- 

 ments of the Baring family ; a large white marble 

 monument on the north wall, with kneeling figures 

 of angels, commemorates the first earl of Northbrook, 

 1904, Lady Northbrook, 1884, and Thomas Baring, 

 1873. The flag of H.M.S. Captain, lost at sea in 

 1870, is hung up here. 



The octagonal nave, though poor in design, is 

 effective and well lighted ; its western arch, the jambs 

 of which have been heightened to range with the 

 octagon, is of late thirteenth-century character, with 

 half-octagonal moulded capitals, and the arches on 

 either side of the west bay of the nave (17 ft. 2 in. 

 wide), between the octagon and the tower, are of the 

 same detail. 



The tower, which measures 14 ft. 3 in. by 14 ft. 9 in. 

 within the walls, is a fine massive building, plain in 

 treatment, but giving a very good effect. It may be 

 compared with the contemporary, though rather 

 more elaborate, tower of Soberton church. It has 

 a stair in the south-west angle, and a west doorway, 

 the four-centred head of which is modern. Over it 

 is a square-headed window of three uncusped lights 

 with a transom, and the belfry windows are of the 

 same character, but with four lights filled with pierced 

 stonework, and having in the heads panels with various 

 devices in incised circles. On the west side there are 

 IHS . is . IOP . and w over a tun (a rebus) ; on the 

 south side are no letters, but a grotesque face, a three- 

 leaved flower, &c. The north and east sides have 

 blank circles. 



"" Close, 17 Ceo. II, pt. 8, m. 4. 



"* Ibid. 



" 5 Five years previous to the generally 

 accepted date of the foundation of the 

 hospital, see V.C.H, Hants, ii, 201. 



6 Harl. MS. 1761, No. 93. 



" Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. vi, App. 597. 

 It was still held by the mayor of Win- 

 chester and the master of the hospital 



The east arch of the tower is of a single chamfered 

 order on half-octagonal responds, into which the arch 

 dies withojt a capital. The thirteenth - century 

 arches in the west bay of the nave die into the wall 

 on either side of the tower arch above their springing, 

 their width being about two-thirds of their full span. 

 The font, which stands on the north side in the west 

 bay, is modern, with panelling of fifteenth-century 

 style on the bowl. Two fragments of Purbeck marble 

 from an older rectangular font with arcaded sides are 

 also preserved under the tower. 



There are six bells, of which two are dated 1703, 

 forming part of a ring of that date of five bells. Three 

 of these were recast and a new bell added in 1903. 



The plate consists of a set given by Lady North- 

 brook in 1866, a chalice, paten, flagon, and two 

 plates, and there is also a curious silver cup given by 

 Rachel Lady Russell, 1703. 



The first four books of the registers, which overlap 

 one another considerably, contain all entries between 

 1538 and 1576, 1538-1683, 1540-1721, and 1684- 

 1765. Another book contains the baptisms and 

 burials, 1766-1812, and the marriages, 1754-1812, 

 take up two more volumes. 



Micheldever church was included 

 JDfOffSON in Edward the Elder's grant of the 

 vill to the New Minster, 78 but no 

 mention is made of it in the Domesday Survey. 

 In the Taxatio of 1291 the church was assessed at 

 66 13-r. 4<z'., and the vicarage at 10 13;. 4^., 

 while attached to the church there was a pension 

 of 3 6s. %d. besides 6 Ib. of wax yearly. 79 Again 

 in 1297 protection was granted to the vicar of 

 Micheldever, 80 but it was not till 1302 that the 

 abbey had formal licence from the crown to appro- 

 priate the great tithes of the church, 81 and in April, 

 1309, the abbot and convent obtained from the pope 

 confirmation of the appropriation of Micheldever 

 church made by John of Pontoise in 1293 for the use 

 of guests and of poor and infirm people coming to the 

 monastery. 8 ' The vicar's portion was regulated by 

 Bishop Woodlock, c. 1308, the conditions being that 

 the vicar should cause the church with its chapels of 

 East and West Stratton, Northington, and Popham to 

 be served by chaplains and provide the necessary 

 books, ornaments, and vestments besides seven boys' 

 surplices. ** A dispute having arisen later in the 

 century as to whether the fruits of the chapels appen- 

 dant to Micheldever belonged to the office of abbot 

 or to the convent generally, Bishop Wykeham wrote 

 to the abbot in February, 1386-7, advising a com- 

 promise. 84 Under Hyde Abbey, Chancellor Wriothes- 

 ley held a lease of the parsonage, 85 which he sublet to 

 Edmund Clerk of Micheldever on condition that the 

 lessee should give zod. weekly in alms to ten of the 

 poorest householders there, and should keep any of 

 Wriothesley's children at the parsonage for I2</. a 

 week if he wished to send them. 86 After the surren- 

 der of Hyde Abbey the advowson of the vicarage was 

 purchased by Wriothesley with the manor. 87 Among 

 the property exchanged by Edward VI with the 



in 1539. Mins. Accts. Hants, 30-1 

 Hen. VIII, R. 135, m. 830 et seq. 

 < 8 Kemble, Cod. Dip!. 336. 

 1 Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 



80 Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, p. 275. 



81 Ibid. 1301-7, p. 48. 



M Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 51. 



88 Harl. MS. 1761, Nos. 117, 118. 



84 Wykcbam's Rig. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 ii, 390. 



85 Perhaps it was for the parsonage that 

 Wriothesley was granted twenty oaks 

 from the forest of West Bere 'for his 

 building in Micheldever' in 1534 ; L. and 

 P. Hen. Vlll, vii, I 54. 



86 Ibid, ix, App. 14. 



8 ? Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. Z2. 



5 



