A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



The chancel arch has a span of nearly twelve feet, 

 with nook-shafts having scalloped capitals, and on the 

 east face of the north respond a few stones of the spring- 

 ing of the twelfth-century arch, enough to show that it 

 had a line of zigzag and a moulded label with zigzag 

 and pellet ornament. The existing arch is pointed, 

 of two chamfered orders, perhaps of fourteenth-century 

 date. To the north of the arch is a large squint from 

 the nave. 



The nave arcades are of wood, of three bays with 

 octagonal posts and arched braces to the head beams ; 

 they afford little evidence of date, but may be of the 

 fifteenth century. They are not set out from the same 

 centre line as the chancel arch, but from one consider- 

 ably to the north of it, and the same is true of the west 

 wall of the nave, suggesting its rebuilding at the same 

 time. All the nave windows and the south door- 

 way have been retooled or renewed ; in the north aisle 

 are three of two cinquefoiled lights with square heads, 

 and in the south aisle two of the same description, but 

 with four-centred rear arches with rolls at the angles. 

 The aisles are very narrow, averaging about four feet 

 seven inches in width. 



The tower is small, its internal measurements being 

 only 5 ft. 7 in. by 5 ft. 10 in. its eastern arch being 

 the head and jambs of a window whose sill has been 

 cut down to the ground level. The window is appar- 

 ently not older than the fifteenth century, giving a 

 limit of date to the tower. In the belfry stage, 

 dating from 1901, are square-headed windows of three 

 trefoiled lights, and the west window on the ground 

 stage is a single uncusped pointed light. 



The font is of fifteenth-century style, with an 

 octagonal bowl with quatrefoiled panels. 



The most interesting monument in the church is a 

 brass on the south wall of the chancel to Michael 

 Renniger, D.D., archdeacon of Winchester and rector 

 of Crawley, who died on 26 August, 1609. He was 

 evidently exiled under Mary, but returning to England 

 when Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, was made 

 rector of Crawley M in 1 560. 



There are five bells : the treble by Robert Wells of 

 Aldbourne, 1 802 ; the second by Warner, 1 900 ; the 

 third by Wells, 1789; and the fourth and tenor by John 

 Stares, 1746. The two last have large arabesque 

 patterns on the shoulder. 



The church plate consists of an old plain silver 

 chalice and paten without date or inscription, a silver 

 chalice, paten, and glass cruet given in 1875 by mem- 

 bers of the Pern family, and a small silver-gilt chalice, 

 paten, and cruet for private communion given by 

 Arthur Percival, curate, in 1824. 



The oldest parish register gives mixed entries from 

 1649 to 1812. 



The earliest existing poor book for the parish dates 

 from 1776 to 1797, and there is another from 1797 to 

 1822. The old book of churchwardens' accounts, 

 which has lately been rescued from a book shop in 

 Reading, dates from 1766 to 1832. 



The church of ST. JAMES, HUNTON, stands to 

 the south-west of the village in a fenced-ofF space in 

 the middle of a field, between the River Test and 

 Hunton Lane. It has a chancel 1 5 ft. 6 in. by 

 8 ft. 6 in. built of flint rubble with wrought-stone 



dressings, a brick-faced nave 43 ft. 9 in. by 19 ft. 10 in., 

 with a south porch of brick, and a brick tower at 

 the west end. All the windows are in modern 

 stonework of fifteenth-century design, and the chancel 

 arch is covered with plaster, and has a four-centred 

 head dying into the walls at the springing. The 

 south doorway of the nave has brick jambs, but its 

 pointed head, worked with a hollow chamfer, looks 

 like mediaeval work, and, with a small fifteenth-cen- 

 tury piscina in the chancel, is the only architectural 

 feature which is old. There is therefore practically 

 no history to the building, and the most interesting 

 thing which it contains is the front of a raised tomb, 

 set in a recess in the north wall of the nave, and now 

 half buried beneath the floor. It is of the latter part 

 of the fifteenth century, with panels of foliage alter- 

 nating with the | f) $ monogram and with that of our 

 Lady, and is by tradition part of the tomb of Thomas 

 Hunton, prior of St. Swithun, Winchester, from 1470 

 to 1498. 



The west tower is very small, finished with brick 

 battlements, and contains one bell by I. Barley of 

 Winchester, dated 1751. 



The church plate consists of an old plain silver 

 chalice and paten, and a modern glass cruet with a 

 silver top. 



The earliest parish register contains mixed entries of 

 baptisms from 156410 1773, burials from 1564 to 

 1753, marriages from 1575 to 1 744, and burials again 

 from 1678-9 to 1702, with two or three stray 

 entries for 1717 and 1721. The next book contains 

 baptisms from 1775 to 1812. There is also a book of 

 banns from 1755 to 1810. 



The patronage of the church of 

 4DVOWSONS Crawley had always belonged to 

 the bishop of Winchester 59 until 

 the year 1860, when Bishop Wilberforce exchanged 

 it with Queen's College, Oxford, for six small livings 

 in Portsmouth and Gosport of the same aggregate 

 value. In 1896 Queen's College, Oxford, sold the 

 advowson to Mr. G. Bliss, the present patron. 



The church existed at the time of the Domesday 

 Survey; 60 in 1291 its annual value, together with 

 the chapel of Hunton, was ^2O, 61 and in 1536, 



35 iy.*t.* 



Fremund Lebrun, a rector of Crawley, was 

 appointed papal chaplain in 1259 by special pro- 

 vision. 63 



In 1325 Pontius de Tornamira, another rector, 

 was allowed to hold a canonry of Salisbury as well as 

 the living of Crawley. 84 



William de Dereham, who was rector about 1330, 

 and Nicholas de Alton, parson of Middleton, were 

 appointed in that year to survey the jewels, goods, and 

 chattels belonging to John de St. John of Basing, 

 which were to be forfeited to the crown for debt. 

 Nicholas de Alton complained that William de Dere- 

 ham had seized and ' carried to the church of Crawley ' 

 jewels and goods worth 32 i6/. 8<^., for which he, 

 Nicholas, had been charged ' as if he had them.' 

 Nicholas was discharged, and a jury was formed to 

 ascertain that William took and had the jewels, and 

 in all probability he was obliged to forfeit the same. 65 

 Within two years this same William was provided 



68 'Exul in Helvetian! migravit et inde 

 reversus Reginae a sacris Rector fuit iatius 

 Aedis.' 



69 Chart. R. 12 Edw. I, ra. 5 5 H'jkc- 



ham'i Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc), i, 134, 147, 

 238 ; Egerton MS. 2032, foL 50. 



Y.C.H. Hand, i, 4 6o. 



61 Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 2ioa. 



412 



M l-'alor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 6. 



63 Col. of Pap. Letters, i, 367. 



64 Ibid, ii, 248. 



65 Cat. of Closf, 1330-3, p. 12. 



