88 



THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY <. NATURALIST. 



THE HAMPSHIRE INDEPENDENT, June 28, 1890. 



WEATHER REPORT FOR THE WEEK. 

 From the meterological register made at the Ordnance 

 Survey Office, Southampton, under the direction of Col. Sir 

 Chas. Wilson. K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., R.E. Lat. 50 

 54' 50" N. ; long. i24'o" W. ; height above sea, 84 feet. 

 Observers Sergt. T. Chambers, R.E., and Mr. J.T. Cook. 



* Black bulb in vacuo 



THE HAMPSHIRE INDEPENDENT, July 5, 1890. 



HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB. 



MEETING AT WONSTON, STOKE CHARITY 

 AND MICHELDEVER. 



A meeting of the Club, postponed from last week 

 on account of the weather, was on Wednesday 

 carried out at the above three villages, under the 

 guidance of the Rev. G. N. Godwin, B.D., B.A., and 

 Mr. T. W. Shore, F.G.S., F.C.S. On this day the 

 weather held out a favourable promise, and there 

 was a fair muster of members, the party numbering 

 just 40. Proceeding by the Didcot, Newbury ' and 

 Southampton " Railway, the party alighted at Sutton 

 Scotney station and walked thence in an easterly 

 direction to Wonston, where the inspection of the 

 church formed the first item of the day's programme. 

 There is not very much of antiquarian interest in this 

 edifice, it having been burnt down in the year 1714, 

 but there is some decorated work of the Transition 

 period (the latter part of the isth century) in thechancel 

 arch, and the walls contain some Isle of Wight lime- 

 stone which must have been quarried before the 

 fourteenth century. The church is a plain building, 



consisting only of a nave and chancel, north aisle and 

 west tower. Mr. B. W. Greenfield spoke of the late 

 rector, the Rev. Alexander Dallas, who had written 

 a book about the place, giving some information about 

 deceased inhabitants, and Mr. Godwin mentioned 

 that Mr. Dallas was the founder of the Irish Church 

 Missions. Mr. Shore here read the following paper 

 on 



WONSTON. 



Wonston is one of those places concerning which the 

 histories of Hampshire are silent. Indeed, not one of the 

 three places the club visits to-day is even mentioned in the 

 so-called county history. This circumstance shows how 

 much need there is in these educational days for such 

 societies as the Hampshire Field Club and the 

 Hampshire Record Society. The parish of Wonston 

 having been during its entire history an ecclesiastical 

 manor, must have much light thrown upon its history by 

 the publication of the diocesan records, such as the ancient 

 episcopal registers, which will be iucluded in the work of 

 the Hampshire Record Society. I hope all members of 

 the Field Club will do what they can to promote the 

 objects of the Hampshire Record Society, by becoming 

 members or advocating its support to others able to sub- 

 scribe to it. 



The earliest name of this manor, as far as we know, was 

 Wynsygestune, and later Wansington, a name denoting, I 

 think, the tun or settlement in or by the water meadows 

 a name its surroundings will bear out. Wonston as a 

 name has no connexion with Woden of the Anglo-Saxon 

 mythology, as Canon Isaac Taylor, in his book on " Words 

 and Places," is inclined to think, but he had evidently 

 when he wrote not seen the name as it occurs in Anglo- 

 Saxon charters. 



Kynegils, the earliest Christian King of Wessex, gave 

 all the land within seven miles of Winchester to the old 

 monastery there, afterwards known as the Priory of St. 

 Swithun ; and Wonston probably formed the northern 

 limit of this grant made about A.D. 635. Thereasonfor 

 thinking this is contained in the Doomsday record, which 

 says that it always belonged to the monastery, and is as 

 follows : 



" The Bishop holds Wenesistune. It alwa3*s belonged 

 to the monastery. In the time of King Edward it was 

 assessed at 10 hides, now at 7 hides. There are 7 plough- 

 lands, 2 in demesne, and 10 villeins and 6 borderers with 

 5 ploughlands. Here is a church, and here are 10 slaves 

 and a mill worth 73. 6d. In the time of King Edward and 

 afterwards it was worth 5, now 10." 



As the manor was always Church land, the monks had a 

 perpetual succession, and the national records contain no 

 such references to it as they contain of those which de- 

 scended by inheritance. It is to the unpublished ecclesi- 

 astical records we must chiefly look for information con- 

 cerning it. Its church is, however, mentioned at a very 

 early date, A.D. 901, in a charter of Edward the Elder, 

 which contains the boundaries of the land at Cranbourn 

 that adjoined this manor close by the church. This is, 

 certainly, one of the earliest authentic references to a 

 country church in Hampshire, perhaps the very earliest 

 which we can find, and it shows that a church stood on 

 this very spot nearly a thousand years ago. The mention 

 of the church in the charter (which is in Latin) is: "These 

 are the boundaries of the land at Cranbourn. First begin 

 at the stream ol Micheldever, which flows before the place 

 where the church of Wonston stands, then go along the 

 stream to Waddange," <S-c. We shall cross the stream at 

 this spot. 



