BUDDLESGATE HUNDRED 



HURSLEY 



The font is old but reworked, with a panelled bowl 

 and a square base of Purbeck marble. There are no 

 other old fittings in the church. On the south-east 

 angle of the south aisle is an incised sundial. There 

 are three bells, the treble of 1882 by Llewellin & 

 James of Bristol, and the second and tenor of 1742 

 by Robert Cor of Aldbourne. 



The plate consists of a chalice, paten, and almsdish 

 of 1796, given by William Langford, D.D. 



The earliest parish register contains mixed entries 

 from 1669 to 1713 ; the second from 1714 to 1738. 

 The third register contains baptisms and burials from 

 1738 to 1812, and marriages from 1738 to 1750; those 

 between 1752 and 1812 being in a separate register. 

 The church was in the gift of the 

 JDrOWSON bishops of Winchester until 1852," 

 in which year the patronage was 

 transferred on the next voidance of the see of Win- 

 chester to the bishops of Lichfield. 80 The living is 

 now a rectory in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, the 



patronage having been exchanged and transferred to 

 the crown in 1873." 



Dependent upon the parish church was the chapel 

 of North Houghton, which existed at the time of the 

 Domesday Survey." It was still in existence in the 

 fourteenth century, a certain Richard de Wotton, 

 described as parson of the chapel of Houghton, being 

 summoned during the episcopacy of Fox concerning 

 a plea of debt, 83 but there is no mention of it in the 

 Valor Ecdesiastlcus of 1535. Its site can still be traced 

 near North Houghton manor-house. 



While John Stratford was bishop of Winchester, 

 the parish church and churchyard of Houghton, which 

 had been polluted by the shedding of blood, were 

 reconciled by the bishop of Bath and Wells. 84 



An annual sum of z 6s. SJ. is 



CHARITIES paid from the funds of St. John's 



Hospital and Allied Charities in 



respect of the charity of George Pemerton, founded 



by deed 1637. See city of Winchester. 



HURSLEY 



Hurseleghe (xiii cent.), Hursele (xiv cent). 



The parish of Hursley, covering 6,949 acres, 1 lies 

 south-west of Winchester. The north of the parish, 

 being part of the girdle of bare chalk downs which 

 surround the city of Winchester, reaches over 500 ft. 

 near Crabwood Farm. The land falls towards the 

 centre of the parish, where the village lies on low 

 ground, but rises again to a moderate height in the 

 south. The main road from Winchester to Romsey 

 traverses the whole length of the parish, passing through 

 the hamlets of Pitt and Standon, Hursley village, and 

 Ampfield. Hursley village is one of the most picturesque 

 types of the larger Hampshire villages. Entering it 

 from Winchester, low thatched cottages are grouped on 

 the left and right. A row of pollard limes stands in 

 front of some low cottages on the east hand, and away on 

 the west, behind a low hedge, are stretches of meadow, 

 and in the distance behind a belt of trees is the church 

 spire. Farther along the road by the ' White Horse ' 

 a sharp bend up-hill to the left leads by Collins Lane 

 to Upper Sharland, and then the main road winds 

 slightly west into the centre of the village. Standing 

 well back from the road on the right is the village 

 school ; beyond is the church, and behind the church 

 the vicarage. Facing and parallel with the low stone 

 wall of the churchyard is a row of cottages, one of 

 which serves as the post office, and at the end of the 

 row is the quaint blacksmith's shop overshadowed by 

 a tall elm tree. Beyond the church, on the right, are 

 four or five cottages fronting on the street, tiled and 

 timbered with latticed windows and overhanging stories 

 belonging at latest to the seventeenth century. Lower 

 down the street and on the opposite side of the road 

 are more modern houses and cottages, and at the end 

 of the street on the left, surrounded by a high wall, is 

 Southend House, the residence of Mr. H. V. Henry. 

 Following this wall round to the left a narrow lane 

 branches from the main road and leads to Bunstead 

 and on to Silkstead, which is partly in Hursley parish. 



West of the village and almost parallel with the 



village street is Hursley Park, covering 450 acres of 

 luxuriantly wooded country well stocked with deer. 

 Hursley House, standing in the park, was built 

 in 1718-20 by Sir William Heathcote, first baronet, 

 and has been very much extended and refitted within 

 the last few years by the present owner, Sir George 

 Cooper. In the north of the park are the ruins of 

 Merdon Castle, one of the palaces of the bishops of 

 Winchester. 



The Cranbury estate, including Cranbury Park and 

 Cranbury House, a residence of Mr. Tankerville 

 Chamberlayne, M.P., lies in the south-east corner of the 

 parish. The thickly-wooded country which closes 

 around the park on the east and south continues 

 southwards to Hiltingbury Common, which is now 

 since 1894 part of Ampfield parish, but was part of 

 Hursley when Ampfield itself was a hamlet of 

 Hursley. Ampfield Wood, lying to the west, stretches 

 across from the woods which lie south of Hursley 

 Park to the border line between Ampfield and 

 Romsey parishes. 



Ampfield village is south of the wood and con- 

 sists of a number of scattered cottages brought prob- 

 ably into existence by the necessity for workers at the 

 saw-mills and the gravel-pits in Ganges Wood. St. 

 Mark's church stands on high ground north of the 

 main road, and west of the church, about halfway 

 down the hill, is the vicarage. Ampfield House, the 

 residence of Mr. David Faber, J.P., and Philpott's 

 Farm are also close on the main road, but the cottages 

 and the village school lie away to the north along a 

 branch in the road between the church and vicarage. 



The hamlet of Standon lies about half a mile north 

 of Hursley village where the main road curves to the 

 right towards Winchester. It consists of a group of 

 some picturesque half-timber thatched cottages lying 

 back for the most part behind bright cottage gardens 



Pitt hamlet nestles between two steep hills about 

 two miles north-west from Stanton. Pitt Farm is 

 on the right, and along a branch road to the left 



T> Chart. R. iz Edw. I, m. 5 ; Cat. of 

 Pat. 1301-7, p. 313 ; Wy/fcAam's Reg. 

 (Hants Rcc. Soc.), i, 76, 102, 123, 126, 



133, 232 ; Cal. Pap. Letters, 

 Egerton MS. 2034, fol. 166. 



80 Land. Gaz. 1852, p. 1578. 



81 Ibid. 1873, P- " 6 4- 



181 ; 8 " V.C.H. If ami, i, 462*. 



88 Egerton MS. 2033, fol. 104. 



" Ibid. fol. 58. 



1 Of their. 10 acre! are water. 



53 



