A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, make up the rest 

 of the parish. Teg Down Farm is on the south side of 

 Teg Down on the right-hand side of the old Roman 

 road from Winchester to Old Sarum. The soil of the 

 parish is chalk and loam with a subsoil of chalk and 

 produces ordinary crops of wheat, barley, and oats. 



WEEKE was included in the grant made 

 MANOR by King Kinegils to the church of Win- 

 chester when he endowed it with land 

 within a seven-mile circle of the city. 3 It was held 

 by the prior and convent not as a separate manor, but 

 as part of the manor of Barton. 4 Hence in the in- 

 ventory of the estates of the prior and convent made 

 in the sixteenth century the rents and farm of Spars- 

 holt, Weeke, and Fullflood were given as parcel of the 

 manor of Barton at 32 19^. (id., while the fines, 

 tallages, and perquisites of court of the same were 

 rendered at 205.* There was also a special rent of 

 33/. ifd., called 'Downe Silver,' from Weeke. 6 In 

 1541 the manor of Barton with other possessions 

 of the dissolved house was granted with all its depend- 

 ent manors to the dean and chapter of Winchester,' 

 who since that time have been lords of Weeke and the 

 owners of 889 acres, 2 roods, and 5 perches of land 

 in the parish. 8 In a list of the possessions of the dean 

 and chapter made in 1682, Sparsholt and Weeke 

 were bracketed together and their returns given as 

 one sum, but no longer as part of the manor of Barton. 8 

 The church of OUR LADY is a small 

 CHURCH, building of very simple character, the 

 oldest part dating from the end of the 

 twelfth century. It consists of a chancel and nave, 

 with a modern vestry on the north of the chancel, and 

 a south porch and west bell-turret to the nave. The 

 roofs are red tiled and the walls covered with rough- 

 cast. The chancel is 14 ft. 6 in. in length, and the nave 

 32 ft. 7 in., both being of the same width, 13 ft. The 

 chancel has been rebuilt, probably in the fifteenth 

 century, outside the lines of the former chancel, and 

 has an east window of that date of three cinquefoiled 

 lights under a square head with a four-centred rear arch. 

 In the south wall are two square-headed two-light win- 

 dows rebated for wooden frames, and in the north wall 

 a small trefoiled recess of thirteenth-century date, and a 

 modern door to the vestry. 



The chancel arch is pointed, of two chamfered 

 orders with square abaci at the springing, the angles 

 of the upper member and of the jambs being cut back, 

 probably at a comparatively modern date. 



The nave is lighted by four small square-headed 

 -windows, two on the north and two on the south, 

 which may be eighteenth-century insertions, and has a 

 west window of three lights of similar character. The 

 south doorway has a plain semicircular head with square 

 abaci, and, with the chancel arch, belongs to the earliest 

 work now to be seen in the church. It is to be noted 

 that the tooling of the masonry in the doorway is of 

 the normal diagonal type, that in the chancel arch is 

 vertical and perhaps slightly later in date. 



The timbers of the chancel roof are modern, and 

 the nave has a canted plaster ceiling. At the west end 

 is a gallery framed to the wooden posts of the bell- 



turret, and reached by a stair on the south side. The 

 font stands at the west end of the nave, and has an 

 octagonal bowl on a round stem ; it shows no traces of 

 antiquity, having been entirely retooled. There are a 

 few pieces of fifteenth-century glass in the east window, 

 but otherwise the fittings of the church are modern. 

 On the north wall of the nave, opposite the south 

 doorway, is a slab of Purbeck marble with an inscrip- 

 tion plate and a figure of St. Christopher in latten 

 above it. On the plate is engraved this inscription: 



Here lieth Willm Compton & Annes hi wife y whiche 

 Willm decessid y e xxi day of may! ye ycre of cure 

 lord mcccclxxxxviij. Also this be 3" dedis y' f said 

 Willm hath down to this Church" of Wike y' is to say 

 frest dedycacion of y church xl s & to make new bellis 

 to y* am church x" also gave to y e halloyeng of y" 

 grettest bell vj viij d & for y testimonyall of the dedi- 

 cacion of y" sam church vj s viij d on whos soules Ihn 

 have mercy Amen. 



The St. Christopher above the inscription is perhaps 

 a substitute for the usual painting on the wall opposite 

 the principal doorway, so often found in mediaeval 

 churches. 



In the north wall of the chancel is a stone slab 

 inscribed, 



Here lyeth Mr. Docter Harpesfeeld parson here 1550. Apri. iii. 



and in front of the altar are slabs to the Goodwin 

 family. Thomas Goodwin, 1776, is commemorated 

 by a monument in the south wall of the nave. 



There are three bells, the second and tenor by Ellis 

 and Henry Knight, 1673, and the treble a mediaeval 

 bell, probably one of those to whose casting William 

 Compton gave ten pounds, inscribed, ' Sancte Laurent! 

 ora pro nobis.' It bears three marks, a cross paty, a 

 w reversed, and a Latin cross on a shield. It is by 

 William Hasylwode of London. 



The plate consists of a communion cup and 

 paten, a flagon and a standing paten. The cup 

 is dated 1705, but the paten, which is of silver 

 parcel-gilt, is a piece of the very greatest rarity 

 and interest, being one of a very small group of 

 early patens c. \ 200, of which others have been found 

 at Canterbury and Chichester. It has an Agnus Dei 

 engraved in a central circular sinking, inclosed in a 

 larger octofoil depression, with engraved foliage of 

 late Romanesque type in the spandrels, and on the 

 outer rim is an inscription, ' Cuncta creo vvirtute rego 

 pietate reformo.' 



The first book of the registers contains all entries 

 from 1573 to 1 645, and the second baptisms and burials 

 from 1675 to 1769, and marriages from 1674 to 

 1753. The third continues the baptisms and burials 

 to 1812, and the fourth is the printed marriage 

 register from 1754 to 1812. 



Weeke was a chapelry dependent 

 ADVOWSON on the parish church of St. Mary of 

 the Valleys near Winchester 10 until 

 early in the fifteenth century, when Henry Beaufort, 

 bishop of Winchester, united the church and chapel 

 to the parish church of St. Anastasius without the 

 walls of the city of Winchester. 11 Towards the end 



8 Wharton, Angl. Sac. i, 288. 



4 Obedientary R. of Sf. S-withun (Hants 

 Rec. Soc.), 224. The profits from Weeke 

 are included under the entry for the 

 manor of Barton. 



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

 i, 86. 



Ibid. 



^ Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt 9, m. 5-10. 



8 F. J. Baigent, Hist, of Parish Church of 

 ffceke. In 1857 and 1859 much of the 

 dean and chapter's property in Weeke was 

 made freehold, as the dean and chapter 

 bought up the leasehold interests. 



452 



9 Hainan Cath. Doc. (Hants Rec. Soc ), 

 ii, 182. 



10 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 210; 

 Inq. Non. (Rec. Com.), 107 ; Winton Epi*. 

 Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 495. 



11 F. J. Baigent, Hist, of Parish Church 

 offtake. 



