BUDDLESGATE HUNDRED 



MILLBROOK 



with net income 366, 58 acres of glebe, and resi- 

 dence, and is still in the gift of the bishop. 



A certain John Cole was presented to the rectory 

 by James I in 1621, during the vacancy of the see, 56 

 and in 1629 the churchwardens of Romsey presented 

 John Mowle for saying that the ' bishops of Can! r- 

 bury and London ' and two others of the lord bishops 

 were no more able to argue in the Scriptures than ' one 

 old Coles of Abridge who goeth about a begging.' " 



In 1248 the prior and convent of St. Swithun 

 and the rector of Michelmersh came to an agreement 

 concerning the tithes of the mill and the meadows of 

 the prior and convent in the parish. 68 The manor- 

 farm is tithe-free at the present time. 



The living of Awbridge is a perpetual curacy, net 



yearly value .250, with residence, in the gift of the 

 bishop of Winchester. 



The living of Braishfield is a vicarage in the gift of 

 the bishop of Winchester. 



In 1679 George Reeves gave ^30 

 CHARITIES for education, and in 1711 Thomas 

 Manningham, bishop of Chichester, 

 and a former rector of the parish, gave 100 ; and 

 John Cox in 1721 gave ^40 for the same purpose. 

 These sums have been invested in the purchase of 

 179 3/. 9>J. consols, the dividends of which are ap- 

 plied under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners of 

 30 November, 1897, in granting prizes or rewards 

 not exceeding in value lo/. to children qualified by 

 attendance at a public elementary school. 



MILLBROOK 



The original parish of Millbrook, including Free- 

 mantle and Shirley, now suburbs of Southampton, 

 contained an area of 3,223 acres of land, 10 acres of 

 land covered by water, 140 by tidal water, and 140 

 of foreshore. However, by the Southampton 

 Borough Extension Act of 1895, Shirley and Free- 

 mantle, already separate ecclesiastically, the one since 

 1836, the other since 1851, were included in the 

 municipal borough, and together formed into a civil 

 parish, containing altogether 2,651 acres, of which 

 2,047 acres are land, 8 acres land covered by water, 

 and loo by tidal water, and 496 acres of foreshore. 

 Hence the modern parish of Millbrook contains only 

 986 acres of land, 2 of land covered by water, and 

 40 by tidal water, together with 1 9 1 of foreshore. 



The nucleus of the original parish of Millbrook, 

 marked by the old houses that survive among the 

 many modern along the main road from Southampton 

 which runs some yards from the foreshore towards 

 Redbridge and forms the village street, is now the 

 least important part of the district once composing the 

 parish, so entirely have Shirley and Freemantle become 

 the most populous and flourishing centres as suburbs 

 of Southampton. The gradual increase in their im- 

 portance, from a population point of view, dates from 

 the middle of the nineteenth century, with the extra- 

 ordinary growth of Southampton, owing to the open- 

 ing of the docks in 1843. The break up of the 

 greater number of Shirley estates, which were for the 

 most part sold out in building allotments to the mem- 

 bers of the Hants Freehold Land Society before 1852, 

 was followed in that year by that of the Freemantle 

 estate, which extended from Millbrook to Hill Hamlet 

 near Fourposts. Sir George Hewett sold this estate to 

 Mr. Sampson Payne, who pulled down the old hall, 

 famous for its fine room entirely laid with slabs of 

 marble, and, intersecting the park by nearly twenty good 

 roads, resold to various land societies. From this time 

 Shirley and Freemantle have been united to South- 

 ampton by a network of modern cottages and villas 

 ever on the increase, and are being more closely linked 

 by the service of electric trams extending now nearly 

 the whole way up the Shirley Road as it runs north- 

 west towards Old Shirley and Nursling. The exten- 

 sion of the building area continues west ; Blighmont 

 Park, the estate of 47 freehold acres that lies between 

 Shirley and Millbrook, within the modern parish of 



Shirley, is now for sale, and possibly will be laid out 

 for building. Moreover, Redbridge village, in the 

 extreme west of the parish, with its station on both the 

 Southampton and Andover branches of the London 

 and South- Western Railway, with its important wharf 

 and saw-mills belonging to the company, who have 

 also large stores of railway plant here, is growing 

 more especially towards the east, so that both from 

 east and west it seems that Millbrook village, protected 

 up to now by its number of good-sized houses, is about 

 to be involved in modern growth. 



As the main road comes from Southampton through 

 Fourposts hamlet and Freemantle towards Millbrook 

 village, the Southampton and Dorchester branch of the 

 London and South-Western Railway runs south of 

 the road along the foreshore with a station at Mill- 

 brook, within the bounds of the modern Shirley parish. 

 Still continuing within modern Shirley the road 

 gradually leaves the railway line and curves slightly 

 north-west, passing the Blighmont Park estate (or, 

 as it is locally known, Regent's Park), which lies 

 on the north, and the rectory and old church of 

 St. Nicholas (now disused), which stand opposite. 

 West of Blighmont Park, also on the north side 

 of the road, is the old churchyard of St. Nicholas. 

 Thence, continuing west, the road enters the modern 

 Millbrook parish at Tanner's Bridge, over the Holy- 

 brook rivulet, which runs south-west from Holybrook 

 through Old Shirley to Millbrook, forming the 

 western boundary of Shirley parish from Shirley Mill 

 about a mile north. Thence, passing between several 

 good-sized houses, among which is the manor-house 

 lying on the south nearly opposite the new church of 

 the Holy Trinity (built in 1873-80), which stands 

 on the north, the road falls north-east to the little 

 hamlet of Wimpson and north-west to Redbridge. 

 This is one of the most picturesque corners of the 

 village, as the small pond with its rough wooden rail- 

 ings lies on the left in front of the White Swan Inn. 

 The parish hall (1859) stands on the north side of the 

 road as it continues to Redbridge. Beyond the hall 

 the road enters Redbridge, and, passing the village 

 school, the railway station and several thatched half- 

 timbered cottages scattered among the many modern 

 houses, comes to the Ship Hotel, where the annual 

 court leet of the manor of Millbrook is held, a quaint 

 old house with a painted sign standing on the south 



u Cat. ofS.P. Dam. 1619-23, p. 358. 



Ibid. 1628-9, p. 587. 

 427 



48 Egerton MS. 2031, fol. 21. 



