BUDDLESGATE HUNDRED 



MICHELMERSH 



present schoolhouse, represents its only surviving 

 remains. 11 



In the ordinary sequence of events Littleton passed 

 into the king's hands at the Dissolution, and was 

 granted to the newly-founded dean and chapter in 

 1541," with a special stipulation that the 6s. %ti. 

 above mentioned should continue to be paid to the 

 farmer.' " 



The church of ST. MART MAGDA- 

 CHURCH LENE (originally ST. KATHER1NE) is 

 a small building with an irregularly- 

 shaped nave 26 ft. by 1 5 ft., with a north aisle, and a 

 chancel 1 8 ft. loin, by loft. 9 in. with a marked 

 northward inclination, having a modern vestry and 

 organ chamber on the north side. 



The nave walls are thin, 2 ft. at the east and 

 2 ft. 3 in. at the south, and are probably of twelfth- 

 century date. The jambs of the chancel arch belong 

 to the later years of this century, and are the oldest 

 pieces of detail now to be seen. The chancel 

 belongs to the first half of the thirteenth century, and 

 the north aisle was added during the same period, 

 and from that time till the nineteenth century no 

 additions were made to the plan. The walls are of 

 flint with stone dressings, and the roofs are red-tiled. 



The chancel has an east window of five trefoiled 

 lights under a transom, with an arched head above 

 filled with tracery dating from 1885. In the north 

 wall are no windows, but a wide modern arch to the 

 organ chamber, and on the south side is a widely 

 splayed thirteenth-century lancet and a narrower tre- 

 foiled light to the west of it. The chancel arch has 

 old jambs with a roll worked on the angles, of late 

 twelfth-century style, and is only 4 ft. 7 in. wide, 

 flanked on either side by square-headed openings. The 

 chancel arch is segmentaland modern, as are the heads 

 of the openings, and above them there is a pointed 

 modern arch. In the east wall to the south, at some 

 height from the floor, is a quatrefoiled opening blocked 

 with brickwork, which may have lighted the rood- 

 stair, but all traces of the old arrangement are 



gone, and the south-east angle of the nave has been 

 rebuilt. 



The north arcade of the nave is of two bays, with 

 pointed arches of two chamfered orders and round 

 central pillar with half-round responds ; only the 

 arches are old, the pillar and responds having been 

 renewed. In the north aisle no old details are pre- 

 served, and the pointed south doorway of the nave is 

 also modern, under a modern porch, as is the tracery 

 of the only window in the south wall, of two cinque- 

 foiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head. 



The west window, with a wide round-headed light, is 

 also modern, but has old stonework in the jambs, and 

 over it in the west gable are two pointed arches con- 

 taining two small uninscribed bells, with the date 

 1897 on the stonework. The font, near the south 

 door of the nave, is the most interesting thing in the 

 church, belonging to the last quarter of the twelfth 

 century. It is of Purbeck marble, with a square bowl 

 carved with scalloped and imbricated ornament, and 

 having a circular sinking, the angles of the upper sur- 

 face filled in with foliage. It stands on a central and 

 four angle shafts, with moulded capitals and bases. 



There are two bells without inscription. 



The plate consists of a chalice and two patens, 

 dated 1836, of plated metal, and the registers before 

 1813 are contained in a single book beginning in 



I738- 



The church of Littleton existed 

 ADPOWSON at the time of the Domesday Sur- 

 vey, as one of the nine churches 

 included in Chilcomb. 14 It evidently belonged to the 

 bishop of Winchester until granted in the twelfth 

 century by Bishop Henry de Blois to the prior and 

 convent of St. Swithun ad re/igiosos hospites suscipienJos. u 

 The church was confirmed to the prior and convent 

 by the pope in 1 20 5," and again in 1243." At the 

 Dissolution it was granted to the dean and chapter of 

 Winchester, 18 who are the patrons at the present day. 

 Its original dedication in honour of St. Katharine 

 is recorded in Wykeham's register. 1 * 



MICHELMERSH 



Muchelmaries, Michelmares, and Muchelmarays 

 (xiii cent.); Michelmarsh and Mitchelmarsh (xiv 

 cent.) ; Mychelmers (xvi cent.). 



The parish of Michelmersh is on high ground 

 which falls in the west to the Test valley. North 

 and north-east are wide stretches of woodland cover- 

 ing about 520 acres, while in the west near the more 

 fertile valley is the pasture land of about 1,114 acres 

 and the arable land of 1,847 acres. The modern 

 parish, including Braishfield, extends over an area of 

 4,178 acres, 35 of which are covered by the Test; 

 but until 1877, when Awbridge was formed into a 

 separate parish from part of Michelmersh and Romsey, 

 the whole area was 4,246 acres. 



Although the more modern and growing part of 

 the village with its shops and modern villas is in the 

 south of the parish near the brickworks, the older part 

 of the village is in the north, where several detached 



cottages and farm-houses are grouped on either side of 

 the steep narrow road that rises between high chalk 

 banks and overhanging trees from a height of about 

 looft. to 273 ft. near the church and rectory. Thus 

 from Bellropes Field opposite the rectory, from the 

 rectory garden, and from the fields round, can be seen 

 wide stretches of the surrounding country. To the 

 north is Michelmersh Wood, and beyond in the dis- 

 tance King's Somborne parish; to the south and east 

 Romsey is seen in the distance over Timsbury and 

 Braishfield ; and away to the west, beyond the glittering 

 Test, the village of Mottisfont nestles in the valley 

 with a background of hills and woodland. Michelmersh 

 House, the residence of Mrs. A. Wheable, stands back 

 from the road among well-wooded grounds a few 

 yards away from the church. A walk across the 

 field called Agincourt at the back of the rectory leads 

 to the manor farm, which is evidently the old manor- 



11 Winton. Cath. Doc. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 ii, 69. "Ibid, i, 71. 



Ibid. 76 ; Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. 9, 

 m. 5-10. 



14 V.C.H. Hants, i, 463. 



15 Winton. Efis. Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 607 ; Cal. of Pap. Letters, i, 21. 



18 Cal. of Pap. Letters, i, 21. 



*3 



V Ibid. 201. 



18 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. 9. 

 Wykcham't Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 i, 365. 



