THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST. 



arch, and otherwise kept in repair. It is a carved 

 wooden structure, and was covered up with lath and 

 plaster, until discovered by the present vicar. This, 

 he thought, was done during the Civil War to protect 

 it from Cromwell's soldiers, who held Odiham, which 

 had been a Royalist town, with a strong hand. At 

 the Restoration the people put up the Royal coat-of- 

 arms in the church to express their joy. Mr. Shore 

 gave some particulars as to the purpose of these rood 

 lofts, a general order for pulling down or altering 

 which was issued on October 10, 1561. They were 

 used for reading part of the service and for placing 

 the rood or figure of the Crucifixion and the images 

 of the saints ; friars, too, were sometimes up on them 

 during the services. The rood lofts were commonly 

 adorned with a row of figures of the saints, and an 

 extract from an old ballad was read in illustration of 

 this : 



" Oh hold thy peace I pray thee, 



The house was passing trim, 



To hear the friars singing 



As \ve did enter in, 



And then to see the rood loft 



So bravely set with saints," cS=c. 



The Rev. G. W. Minns, who has given some atten- 

 tion to this subject, spoke of rood lofts in Norfolk and 

 on the continent. At St. Fiacre, in Brittany, he had 

 seen the saints as described in the ballad. These 

 lofts are now generally to be found only in remote 

 country places. The church, the vicar said, was 

 built by King John in 1215 in commemoration of 

 Magna Charta, though why John should wish to com- 

 memorate this was not mentioned. The font of this 

 church is of the time of Henry VII, and there is some 

 Norman moulding over the north door. There are 

 four bells, on which the inscriptions are as follow : 

 i, the oldest or pre-Reformation bell has " Hal Mari 

 fvlofgras'' (Hail, Mary, full of grace); 2, " Feare 

 God, 1638"; 3, "Henry Knight made me, 1662." 

 The small or Sanctus bell has no inscription. 



ODIHAM CASTLE. 



A short walk next led to the ruins of Odiham 

 Castle, of which portions of the walls of an octagonal 

 building are all that now remain. Of this, which was 

 evidently the keep, Mr. Shore read the following 

 quotation from Mr. Clarke's book on Medieval 

 Military Architecture in England : 



Whatever its extent may have been in former times all 

 that remains is the ruin of a single tower of an octagonal 

 form, the faces of the octagon being about 22 feet 6 inches. 

 The walls including the casing were 10 feet thick. The 

 interior diameter from face to face was 38 feet. A buttress 

 of 4 feet projection and 2 feet wide was set at each angle 

 of the tower rising nearly to the summit 60 feet high. The 

 tower is built of flint nodules made into a conglomerate by 

 a large quantity of very good mortar. The whole of the 

 exterior appears to have been faced with small ashlar 

 blocks of stone, which casing is gone ; but the mortar has 

 preserved the beds of the stone more or less perfect. The 

 same stone was used in the interior for dressings. The 

 tower consisted of a basement of two stories, and six of its 

 eight facings appear to have been pierced for openings. 



The first floor was about 30 feet high. The floors were of 

 timber and made of large beams laid about 6 inches apart, 

 the walls being pierced with square recesses for the beams. 

 As these recesses are radiating and not parallel it is clear 

 that the floor rested on a central pier or post as in the 

 Wakefield Tower of the Tower of London. 

 A plan of this building issued by the Society of Anti- 

 quaries and an old print of the ruin, believed to be 

 taken from the Gentleman's Magazine, were exhibited. 

 The position of the other parts of the castle does not 

 appear to be known, but the surrounding moats, now 

 more or less filled up, could be traced in the field. 

 As to the age of the castle, Mr. B. W. Greenfield 

 suggested that it pointed to the time of the war 

 between King Stephen and Matilda ; the herring- 

 bone work showed Norman age. In the fireplace of 

 an upper floor there appeared to be some bricks, 

 probably Roman bricks used by the Norman builders, 

 for, Mr. Shore said, he knew of no bricks made 

 between the time of the Roman occupation of Britain 

 and that of Edward III. 



ODIHAM " PRIORY." 



By invitation of Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., a visit 

 was next made to the " Priory," where there are 

 some remains of medieval buildings. A portion of the 

 house has been restored by the present owner. Lord 

 Basing, and is now the dwelling-house of his brother, 

 Mr. Sclater, whilst another part has been allowed 

 to lapse into a picturesque ruin. It was pronounced 

 by the architectural authorities of the party, Mr. 

 Dymond and others, to be of the Perpendicular 

 period. The ruined portion is generally called the 

 " chapel," but as it had an upper floor this is 

 evidently incorrect. Lord Basing here acted as 

 chaperon, pointing out the features of interest and 

 conducting the party into what was the old refectory. 

 The building, he said, was formerly the rectory of 

 Greywell ; but when it was dissevered from the 

 church it was thought needful to change the name, 

 and that of " Priory " (without any apparent reason, 

 for the place does not appear to have been built as a 

 priory) was chosen. Tea was then provided by Mr. 

 and Mrs. Sclater, after which the party reassembled 

 to hear the following paper by Mr. Shore on 



DIHAM MANOR. 



Probably no town in Hampshire of its size has a longer 

 or more eventful history than Odiham. I cannot under- 

 take even to mention all the main points in that history in 

 a short paper. So far as I am aware its history has not 

 yet been written, although there are short summaries of 

 events connected with the town in various publications. 

 It is much to be desired that some one of sufficient leisure 

 should undertake to write a history of this town. The 

 national records contain much unpublished information 

 about it. 



The visit of the Field Club to Odiham brings us into 

 touch with local illustrations and examples of early and 

 medieval life such as few towns in this county, or, indeed, 

 in England, could bring before us in a more forcible way. 

 As regards its origin, the place in Hampshire which most 

 resembles it is perhaps Kingsclere, which I hope the club 

 will visit before long. Clere, whether the king's clere or 



