A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



and chapters, canons and prebends, were abolished, 

 and their land confiscated, the manor of Chilbolton, 

 with the fishing, hawking, hunting, and fowling in 

 the same, was sold to John Lisle by the commis- 

 sioners appointed by the Long Parliament." With 

 the Restoration the dean and chapter lands were 

 restored, but in 1 86 1 the manor of Chilbolton was 

 vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who are 

 now lords of the manor in place of the dean and 

 chapter. 



The prior and convent had ordinary manorial 

 rights in the manor of Chilbolton, and the Court Rolls 

 and Compotus Rolls preserved in Winchester Cathedral 

 Library u show how there, as elsewhere, they care- 

 fully guarded their rights. 



The mill at Chilbolton existed at Domesday, and 

 was then worth 1 5/. Rent from and repairs of this 

 mill are entered duly throughout the Compotus 

 Rolls. Thus in the earliest, that for 1384, there is 

 a note of no rent for that year ; in 1444 John Hale 

 paid 6os. rent for the farm of the mill. As examples 

 of the repairs done are accounts in 1475 and 1497. 

 In the former year ' le courbe molendini ' was re- 

 newed, I 5 Ib. of iron were bought for lengthening 

 ' le spyndell ' of the mill and ' le necke ' of the same 

 'spyndell' was renewed. In 1495 new 'Flodgates' 

 were made for the mill, the materials for which alone 

 cost 28;. \d. 



From the first the lords of the manor had right of 

 multure. In the late leases of the mill with the 

 manor in the seventeenth century the dean and 

 chapter especially reserved for their tenants the right 

 to grind their corn at the lord's mill. The rent of 

 the mill was worth $ 6s. %d. in l62Z. 14 



A dove-house was also one of the other valuable 

 possessions of the prior and convent in the manor, 

 and loo pair of doves seem to have been the average 

 ' ferm ' from the same. The old dove-house, with its 

 tiled roof and its interior walls composed of line upon 

 line of chalk blocks at regular intervals, still exists. 



The fishery of the manor has also played an im- 

 portant part in its history. The farm of ' the fishery 

 at Titcombe ' is given throughout the Compotus Rolls 

 at rents varying upwards from lot., that given in 

 1384. According to the custom of the manor right 

 of fishing in the lord's water with a rod and net 

 called a shoe net from Testcombe Bridge (Titcombe) 

 to Butcher's mead, and incident thereto a right of 

 way along the river bank between these points, was 

 always enjoyed by the copyhold tenants of the manor. 

 Under the Inclosure Award of 1838 all these rights 

 of fishery, with full liberty of ingress and egress for 

 purposes of fishing, were reserved to the copyhold 

 tenants. Incident to this was the cause cilebre of 

 1890, in which the owners and occupiers of ancient 

 copyhold tenements, then enfranchised, failed to make 

 good their title to these rights, since it was held they 

 could not be claimed by prescription, and had ceased 

 on the enfranchisement of the copyholds. 14 " 



The church of ST. MARY is built of 

 CHURCH flint rubble with chalk and Isle of Wight 

 stone dressings, and has red-tiled roofs 

 to nave and chancel, while the tower is of wood on a 

 stone base, with a red-tiled spire. The church 

 stands at the east end of the village, being approached 



through a small wooden gate leading to the south 

 porch, and consists of a chancel 31 ft. 6 in. by 18 ft., 

 with a modern vestry on the north ; a nave 38 ft. 8 in. 

 by 20 ft. 4 in. ; north and south aisles lift. 2 in. 

 and 8 ft. 3 in. wide respectively ; and a south-west 

 tower. 



The nave preserves its twelfth-century length and 

 width, and a good deal of walling of that date ; but 

 the chancel seems to have been entirely rebuilt in the 

 first quarter of the thirteenth century, and enlarged 

 in both dimensions, being now only 27 in. narrower 

 than the nave, and 7 ft. shorter. The aisles were 

 added to the nave early in the fourteenth century, 

 and there is nothing to show that any earlier aisles 

 existed. The only detail of the twelfth-century work 

 is a window set high in the wall at the south-west of 

 the nave, having a plain round head built in plastered 

 rubble. Its outer face is built up and cannot be seen, 

 so that any question as to its exact date must remain 

 doubtful, but its sill is no less than 1 5 ft. from the 

 floor level, a fact which in itself suggests an early date. 

 The rough walling, 2 ft. 6 in. thick, contemporary 

 with this window, is clearly to be seen above the nave 

 arcades, having been underbuilt in the usual fashion. 



The chancel has three modern lancet windows at 

 the east, a reproduction of the original arrangement, 

 of which traces were found during repairs. The 

 three original lancets had been replaced by a fifteenth- 

 century window, and it in turn by a wooden frame. 

 In the north wall of the chancel are two lancet win- 

 dows, the sill of the eastern of the two being higher 

 in the wall than that of the other, and in the south 

 wall is a like arrangement. The heads of all four 

 windows have been renewed, but the rear arches are 

 original, and show traces of colour. West of the north 

 window is a modern arch to the north vestry and 

 organ chamber, while in a similar position in the 

 south wall of the chancel is a plain priest's door, and 

 to the west of it a square-headed fifteenth-century 

 window of two cinquefoiled lights. In the north wall 

 of the vestry is set a fifteenth-century two-light win- 

 dow, with a recess below it containing various archi- 

 tectural fragments found in the course of repairs. 



The chancel arch and nave arcades of two bays are 

 of very poor and plain detail, with pointed arches of 

 two chamfered orders, octagonal pillars, and moulded 

 capitals. The bases of the nave arcades point to a 

 date at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and 

 it is possible that all the work may be of this date, 

 though the poverty of its detail suggests a much later 

 period. Remains of painting, no doubt a Doom, were 

 formerly to be seen over the chancel arch, but have 

 now entirely disappeared. 



The north aisle has an early fourteenth-century 

 east window, of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil 

 in the head, and there is another window of like 

 detail in the north wall. West of it is a plain pointed 

 doorway, and beyond it a single trefoiled light, the 

 west window of the aisle being of the same description. 



The east window of the south aisle is of the same 

 design as that of the north aisle, cxctit that the open- 

 ing in the head has no cusps, and this detail also 

 occurs in the easternmost window in the south wall. 

 The south door is 4 ft. 7 in. wide, with a moulded 

 arch of fourteenth-century date, and modern jambs, 



12 Close, 1650, pt. 4, No. 37. 

 18 Seen by permission of the librarian, 

 Rev. F. T. Madge. 



14 From lease made in that year to Ed- 

 ward Tutt. 



"a L aw R e p. Chan. Div. 1890, xlv, 

 8-126, Tilbury i>. Silva. 



