MICHELDEVER HUNDRED 



POPHAM 



allowance of one brother granted to her for life." 

 These lands were granted after the dissolution of 

 the priory to Sir William Berkeley, ' the king's 

 servant,' and then included a field called ' Northclose,' 

 in the immediate occupation of the prior, together 

 with other lands in Northington in the tenure of 

 John Tucker. 48 



The church of ST. JOHN THE 

 CHURCH EVANGELIST is a fine modern build- 

 ing by T. G. Jackson, R.A., standing 

 well on a site which has a considerable fall to the 

 east. It is of flint with stone dressings, and has a 

 chancel with an octagonal east end, a nave with south 

 porch, and a tall western tower with pinnacles and 

 battlements. It is of fifteenth-century style, the 

 treatment of the upper parts of the tower and the 

 parapets in chequer work of flint and stone being 

 very effective. The site of the old church is to the 

 north-east, a little lower on the hill-side, marked by 

 the tombstones of the old churchyard and a cross on 

 the place where the church stood. 



There are three old bells by William Cor, 1700, 

 John Clarke, 1611, and John Wallis, 1602. 



The plate of Northington and Swarraton dis- 

 appeared in 1 8 50 during a fire at the parish clerk's 



cottage, and the present plate is entirely modern. 

 There are, however, two old pewter flagons with 

 hinged lids which belong to the joint parishes. 



The oldest register commences in 1579, but the 

 first book is merely a collection of entries without 

 order of date.* 9 There are also churchwardens' books 

 dating from 1769.* 



For many years Northington was 

 ADrOlf'SON a chapelry attached to Micheldever 

 vicarage. A chapel was in existence 

 at the time of the appropriation of Micheldever to 

 Hyde Abbey, i.e. in I3o8,'and was not separated 

 from that church till 1 847, when it was annexed to 

 the vicarage of Swarraton. 68 



The elementary school, which lies in the village, 

 was founded in 1 864. 



George Harding, by will proved 

 CHARITIES 1879, left 200 to be invested 

 and income applied in the dis- 

 tribution of bread among the poor of this parish 

 and Swarraton. The legacy was invested in 

 20$ 7/. io</. consols (with the official trustees). 

 The dividends amounting to z 5/. 8</. were in 1905 

 applied in the distribution of 1 1 2 half gallons of flour 

 and in 112 half gallons of bread to fifty-six families. 



POPHAM 



Popeham (xi cent.). 



The small parish of Popham, containing only 

 1,440 acres, lies north of Micheldever and East 

 Stratton on high ground, which rises to nearly 600 ft. 

 above the ordnance datum in the west of the 

 parish. 



The main road from Winchester to London passing 

 west of the grounds of Stratton Park rises steadily as 

 it enters Popham parish between thick hedges and 

 wide stretching meadow and arable land, past the 

 vicarage and schools, 1 which lie east of the road half- 

 way up the hill, onwards to the simple grey stone 

 church at the top of the hill. The several farms, 

 farm buildings, and few outlying cottages which com- 

 pose the main part of the village, lie just over the 

 brow of the hill, immediately north and east of the 

 church. Here to the west of the road is West Farm, 

 a rambling old house with a front garden full of close 

 clipped yew hedges of all shapes and sizes. To the 

 east is the Manor Farm, through the yards of which 

 runs the old Roman road * from Winchester to Sil- 

 chester, which leaving the modern road as it curves 

 slightly to the west near the vicarage runs directly 

 north to meet the modern road again by the Wheat- 

 sheaf Inn at the cross roads near North Waltham. 



The soil of the whole parish is clay and chalk, the 

 subsoil chalk. Hence the ordinary crops, wheat, oats, 

 and turnips, are grown on the 975^ acres of arable 

 land, and the population is mostly engaged in agricul- 

 ture ; 22 3 acres are given up to permanent grass. 



Of the 184 acres of woodland the chief copses are 

 those in the north and Hellier's Copse in the east, 

 near Dummer. 



There is no inclosure award. 



POPHAM, which was granted with 

 MANOR Micheldever to the New Minster,' was 

 held of the abbey before the Conquest by 

 a freeman who was nevertheless unable to ' withdraw 

 himself.' * It was among the lands held of the abbey 

 by Hugh de Port in 1086. In the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries the St. Johns, heirs of the de 

 Ports, succeeded as tenants under Hyde, but before 

 the fifteenth century their rights had lapsed, while the 

 actual tenants of the manor held it directly of the 

 abbey. One of these tenants was Thurstan, clerk 

 to William de Pont de 1'Arche, evidently the same 

 Thurstan who was sheriff of Hampshire in 1155. 

 He obtained confirmation from the Empress Maud 

 of all his land of Popham which he had held at 

 the death of Henry I, and all his holdings within 

 and without Winchester as he had had them on 

 the day when Maud was received into the city, i.e. 

 in 1141, during her triumphal progress after the 

 capture of Stephen. 5 Henry II confirmed his 

 mother's charter to Thurstan, and in 1157 granted 

 him the privilege of keeping hounds to hunt hares 

 and wolves. 6 During the next century the Braiboeufs 

 of Cranborne and Robert de Pont de 1'Arche and his 

 successor, Sir Thomas West, knt., 7 were tenants 

 intermediate between the St. Johns and the actual 



Feet of F. Hants, 33 Hen. Ill, 32. 

 L. and P. Henry Vlll, xix (i), 812 



(94)- 



49 It is printed in full in Eyre's Hist, 

 cfS'warraton and Northington. 



50 Ibid. 65. 



51 Harl. 1761, fol. 117. 



M Sumner's Conspectus of Dioc. ffinton, 

 1854, p. 24. 



1 The school was built in 1860 and is 



attended also by the children from Wood- 

 mancott. 



3 The remains of two Roman villas 

 have been discovered near Popham, 

 though not actually within the pariah 

 boundary, one in College Wood in Wood- 

 mancott, just without the southern 

 boundary, and the other near the Wheat- 

 sheaf Inn, in North Waltham, near the 

 northern boundary. V.C.H. Hants, i, 306. 



397 



8 In Edward the Elder's ' Golden 

 Charter' to the abbey, mention is made of 

 Popham with eight hides 'et dominium.' 

 Kemble, Codex Difl. 336. 



4 V.CJi. Hants, i, 469*. 



6 Cal.Pat. 1377-81, p. no. 



Ibid. 



1 Harl. 1761, fol. 174 ; Cott. Domit. 

 A. xiv, 237. 



