BUDDLESGATE HUNDRED 



CHILBOLTON 



CHILBOLTON 



Chelbaltone (xii cent.). 



Long undulating lines of hilly country sweeping 

 down towards the north and west to the valley of the 

 Test make up the 3,122 acres of land which are in- 

 cluded in the parish of Chilbolton, while the Test 

 supplies the 1 2 acres of water. It is not surprising 

 that the village lies on the edge of the valley close by 

 the Test, where the first settlers made their encamp- 

 ment, valuing the Test as their water supply and the 

 Downs as their pasture land. 



The main road from Winchester to Andover, going 

 in a north-westerly direction, leaves Barton Stacey on 

 the east and winds uphill to the west of the low hedge 

 that forms the north-eastern boundary line of Chil- 

 bolton. Close by Newton Cottages, which are actually 

 in Newton Stacey parish though they seem locally in 

 Chilbolton, a narrow lane branches to the west from 

 the main road and passing by Gravel Hill Farm on 

 the left turns abruptly north-west into the village. 

 In the centre where the road broadens stands a large 

 oak tree planted on the twenty-first birthday of 

 Bishop Richard Durnford, whose father was rector of 

 Chilbolton. It is surrounded by a wooden seat and 

 a triangular grass plot. A turn to the right leads to 

 the rectory, which is a picturesque red-brick house 

 with hipped red-tiled roofs, |-j -shaped in plan. 

 Originally an early seventeenth-century building, it 

 was much altered and refitted at the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century, and has much good panelling of 

 the latter date, and a little of the former. At the 

 back of the house is a fine avenue of about forty lime 

 trees. Below the rectory is the village school, built 

 in 1 844 on the site of the original school, on a tene- 

 ment which the lords of the manor gave ' to the 

 rectory of Chilbolton for ever for the purpose of a 

 school' in 1837.' Opposite the rectory is the church 

 of St. Mary standing in a long and rather narrow 

 churchyard, and behind the church is Manor Farm or 

 House, close to the Test and on the site of the original 

 manor-house. The houses of the village lie south-west 

 of the church and rectory, being scattered along a strag- 

 gling village street. There are now groups of modern 

 cottages, but except for these and two or three large 

 houses built of red brick, the village might belong to 

 the sixteenth or seventeenth century with its low-roofed, 

 tiled, thatched, and half-timbered cottages, their beauty 

 heightened during the autumn months by masses of 

 bright-coloured creepers. The River Test, separating 

 the parish from Wherwell, forms its northern and 

 western boundary line and runs almost parallel with 

 the village street. Hence while the Downs stretch 

 away behind the houses on the south-east of the village, 

 the Test valley is on the north-west, and beyond it are 

 the Wherwell hills. Chilbolton Common lies to the 

 west between the village and the river. There is a 

 difference in the soil marking the same change from 

 hill to valley. The Downs on the south and east are 



mostly chalk with a chalk subsoil, but near the river the 

 soil becomes more of a mixture of chalk and gravel, and 

 even the subsoil is in some places gravel. Root crops, 

 are the most plentiful on this soil, though wheat and 

 barley are also grown. 



CHILBOLTON was granted by King 

 M4NOR Athelstan to the church of Winchester, 1 

 and was said at the time of the Domes- 

 day Survey to have always belonged to the minster 

 (in monasterio)? Five hides and 3 vi gate; of it were 

 then held by the bishop for the mon/.s, while I hide 

 was held of him by Richard Sturmy. 4 In the days 

 of Edward the Confessor the 5 -hide manor of the 

 church had been assessed at 10 hides, while the 

 I hide held by Richard Sturmy had been assessed at 

 three and had been held of the bishop by a certain 

 Ordwald. The latter was probably the 'certain 

 steward ' of one entry who ' could not betake himself 

 anywhere ' and who held two of the hides by villein 

 tenure (quasi villanus). Chilbolton was confirmed to 

 the prior and convent in the general confirmation of 

 their manors made by the pope in 1 206 and again 

 in 1 243,* and Edward I gave them free warren in 

 their demesne lands in Chilbolton in 1 300.' 



Robert de Berton and Matilda his wife received 

 licence in 1332 to grant to the prior and convent 

 one messuage and a carucate of land in Chilbolton, 

 and it seems possible that this may have been the 

 land which Richard Sturmy had held at the time 

 of Domesday. In connexion with this transaction 

 there is an entry on the Receiver's Roll of 1334 of 

 an annual payment of 10 to Robert de la Berthone 

 ' pro terris et tenementis ab eo perquisitis in manerio 

 de Chilboltone.' ' Evidently the manor was valuable 

 chiefly for sheep-farming, since the Receiver's Roll of 

 1334 shows that while the rents from the manor 

 were only worth tos. yearly, the receipts for wool 

 reached $J <)s. Il</. 8 Also it was evidently one of 

 the manors where the prior went hunting. It is 

 especially mentioned in an entry on the Receiver's 

 Roll of the same year giving expenses for fish, flesh, 

 and various other provisions, including salt meat for 

 the expeditions made during that year.' 



With the surrender of the priory in 1539 the 

 manor passed into the king's hands to be granted in 

 1 54 1' to the dean and chapter of Winchester. 

 They in the usual way leased out the manor for a 

 set term of years at an annual rent of about ^23, and 

 then seem to have cared little more about the man- 

 agement of the estate except to see that the rent was 

 paid. A lease made in 1622 for twenty-one years 

 to Edward Tutt of Chilbolton of the ' site of the 

 manor place of Chilbolton ' with the appurtenances 

 includes all the customary services of the tenants, a 

 parcel of ground called ' Nytherne,' a mead called 

 Titcombe, 11 and a cottage called ' Shepheard's Coote.' 

 During the period of the Commonwealth, when deans 



1 Chilbolton Parish Register, tub anno. 

 The school was enlarged in 1874, 1878, 

 and 1894. 



2 Dugdale, Man. i, 2 1 o ; Kemble, Codex 

 Difl. v, 215. 



s V.C.H. Hants, i, 464. 



4 Ibid. 494. 



5 Cal. of Pap. Letters, i, 21, JO I. 



6 Chart. R. 29 Edw. I, No. 94, 

 m. 12. 



I Oked. R. of St. Swithun (Hants Rec. 

 Soc.), Z3 3 . 



8 Ibid. 1 1 8. The Compotus Rolls for 

 the manor in Winchester Cathedral Li- 

 brary also show this very plainly. 



8 Ibid. 236. 



10 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. 9, m. 5-10. 



II This name occurs in the earliest Com- 

 potus Rolls from 1384, and continues 

 through them all. In 1384 is the entry 



403 



of i id. de pastura in Titecumbe." At a 

 later date, in 1497, is an entry of zs. for 

 rent arising out of a meadow containing by 

 estimation 2 acres called 'Tytcombe* and 

 held by John Titcumbe of the lord of the 

 manor. The modern survival is Test- 

 combe Cottage, which nestles at the foot 

 of West Down in the valley of the Test, 

 and close to the western border line of 

 the parish. 



