A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



on Julia for life in 1433 with remainder to Michael 

 Skilling and his heirs. 41 John Skilling died seised 

 of a capital messuage and 5 acres of land in Spars- 

 holt, a tenement in Crawley and a tenement in 

 Westley in 1512." It is probable that to these tene- 

 ments was afterwards given the name of the manor 

 of Westley, the descent of which has been identical 

 with that of Lainston. 



The church of ST. STEPHEN, 

 CHURCHES SP4RSHOLT, has a chancel 24ft. 

 6 in. by 19 ft. 6 in. with modern 

 organ chamber and vestry on the north, nave 36 ft. 

 by 19 ft. 6 in. with north and south aisles and south 

 porch, and west tower 9 ft. square, all measurements 

 being internal. The walling is of flint rubble with 

 stone dressings, and the chancel and south aisle have 

 red-tiled roofs, while the nave and north aisle are 

 leaded, and the tower has a wooden upper story with 

 a steep shingled roof. 



The plan has developed from an aisleless nave and 

 chancel church of twelfth-century date, part of the 

 nave walls of which, including the north-west angle, 

 still exist. About the year 1200 a south aisle was 

 added to the nave, and in the fourteenth century the 

 chancel was rebuilt on a larger scale, becoming of 

 equal width with the nave. The tower is a fifteenth- 

 century addition, built against the old west wall of 

 the nave. In modern times the chancel has been 

 lengthened 8 ft. eastwards, a north aisle added to the 

 nave, and a north vestry and organ chamber to the 

 chancel, under the direction of Mr. Butterfield. 



The chancel has an east window of three cinque- 

 foiled lights with fifteenth-century tracery, moved to 

 its present position when the chancel was lengthened. 

 In the south wall is a two-light window with tracery 

 of the same date, but a new mullion, and just to the 

 east of it a blocked priest's door of the first half of the 

 fourteenth century. There are modern sedilia and a 

 credence, and in a glazed wooden case against this 

 wall a pewter coffin chalice and paten, taken from 

 the grave of a priest found in the church, and 

 probably dating from c. 1250. The chancel arch is 

 four-centred, of two continuous moulded orders, with 

 plain late fifteenth or early sixteenth-century detail, 

 but the masonry of the jambs up to 5 ft. 7 in. from 

 the floor is of quite different character from the rest, 

 and seems to be twelfth-century work moved out- 

 wards at the widening of the arch, and cut to the 

 later section. 



The nave has arcades of three bays, that on the 

 north being Butterfield's work ; the two eastern bays 

 have arches of two chamfered orders with clustered 

 columns, while the west bay has a plain arch, the 

 break between it and the other bays being caused by 

 the passage of the flue of the heating apparatus. The 

 south arcade has semicircular arches of two chamfered 

 orders, and round columns with plain capitals and 

 moulded bases, good and simple work of c. \ 200 ; 

 the nave clearstory has three three-light windows and 

 one single light on the north side, all modern, and no 

 windows on the south. 



The south aisle has an east window of two lights, 

 all modern except the fifteenth-century tracery in the 

 head, two square-headed south windows of two and 

 three lights, both modern, and a two-light west 

 window with fifteenth-century tracery and modern 



jambs. The south doorway, moved by Butterfield 

 into the west bay of the aisle, dates from 1631, 

 having a semicircular head above which is a panel 

 with the churchwardens' names and date of its inser- 

 tion, and preserves its contemporary door, a very 

 pretty piece of woodwork with square panels and 

 strapwork in low relief filling its arched head. The 

 south porch is modern, of wood on a stone base. 

 The tower is of three stages, having an eastern arch 

 with continuous mouldings like those of the chancel 

 arch, and a west window in the ground story of two 

 cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head, 

 which seems to be old work much patched with new 

 stone. At the south-west angle is a large diagonal 

 buttress, added at some time to counteract a failure 

 of the foundations, some signs of which are yet to be 

 seen on the tower. The belfry stage is of wood and 

 modern, and contains pits for five bells, though only 

 four are now in existence. The treble, third, and 

 tenor are of 1742, by Robert Catlin, and the second 

 by Thomas Mears, 1820. 



During the alterations to the church a good many 

 remains of wall paintings were found, among them 

 being a figure of St. Stephen under a mutilated stone 

 canopy. The paintings have perished, but the canopy 

 is now set over the inner face of the south doorway 

 of the nave. 



All the fittings of the church are new, except for a 

 good eighteenth-century organ screen on the north 

 side of the chancel, with pillars carrying a moulded 

 cornice. 



On the south-east angle of the south aisle is an 

 incised sundial. 



The plate consists of a communion cup and cover 

 paten of 1826, given by the Rev. William Masters, 

 vicar of Sparsholt ; a flagon of 1869, given by the 

 Rev. Edward Stewart ; an almsdish of 1 766, given 

 in that year by the Rev. Richard Barford ; a standing 

 paten of 1715, the gift of Philip Eyre; and two glass 

 cruets, silver mounted. 



The plate belonging to the ruined church of 

 Lainston is also kept here, and consists of a cup and 

 cover paten of 1628, with the monogram of the 

 maker, T.F., whose mark occurs on a number of 

 fine pieces of plate from 1 609 onwards, and a standing 

 paten or bread-holder of 1723, given in that year by 

 John Merrill. It bears the mark of the famous gold- 

 smith, Paul Lamerie. 



The registers for Sparsholt and Lainston are 

 contained in a single book, and record the baptisms 

 from 1607, marriages from 1630, and burials from 

 1628, down to 1812. During the summer of 

 1666 the village was scourged by the plague, over 

 a score of entries in the register for that year showing 

 how men, women, and children died and were 

 buried in their own gardens. The churchwardens' 

 accounts begin in 1818. 



The ruined church of ST. PETER, L4INSTON, i 

 a simple aisleless building, the north, south, and west 

 walls still standing. Enough remains to show that 

 it was of late twelfth-century date, but its windows 

 are later insertions, none of the early lights being 

 preserved. 



There was originally a separate register for Lainston 

 Church taken to London during the trial of Elizabeth 

 Chudleigh in 1776, and never recovered. 



" Feet of F. Hants, Mich, iz Hen. VI. 



446 



Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), xxviii, No. 14. 



