BISHOP'S SUTTON
Sudtone (xi cent.); Sottone Bishop (xiii cent.);
Sutton Bishops and Sutton episcopi (xiv cent.).
The parish of Bishop's Sutton, containing 3,739
acres of land and 9 acres of land covered with water, (fn. 1)
is of irregular shape, the central part, in which the
village stands, being in the comparatively low ground
[250 ft. above sea level] by the head-waters of the
River Alre, while a long strip runs north-east between
the parishes of Bighton and Ropley, rising to a
height of 500 ft. South of the river the boundary
extends to the high ground above Cheriton Wood
and Bramdean Common [450 ft.], its eastward
limit being about a mile from West Tisted church.
The village lies on the south side of the Alre,
which takes its source about a mile to the east. (fn. 2)
The main road from New Alresford to Alton runs
through the parish from west to east, dividing it
into two almost equal portions. The church stands
a little back from the main road on the north, and is
at the west end of the village, approached from a road
which runs north from the village street. At the
corner of this road is the Ship Inn, with its brightly-painted sign-board, a steamer on one side and a
sailing-vessel on the other. Opposite is an ancient
timber-built house, and eastward from this point
the road is lined by cottages with narrow flower
gardens in front. Beyond them is the Fox Inn,
one of a group of little thatched cottages; and
past it on the outskirts of the village to the south
of the road are several new villa residences and
the large racing stables owned by Mr. A. Yates.
As the road leaves the village and leads on to Ropley
it passes through the low-lying country where the
River Alre rises, running parallel with the railway,
beyond which Sutton Beech Wood rises in the distance. About half a mile from Ropley Lodge a branch
road runs southward to Bramdean, passing the fine
beeches of Old Park Wood, which, extended at 95 acres
and its timber valued at £60, was included in the
sale of Bishop's Sutton manor to Sir John Evelyn in
1647. (fn. 3) Sutton Wood, Sutton Beech Wood, Hazel
Wood, Barnett's Wood, Bower's Grove Wood, and
Grant's Copse lie in the north-east of the parish.
There is a rifle-range in the south of the parish a
little to the north of Old Park Wood. The soil
round the village in every direction is a friable loam
adapted to the growth of most crops, and particularly
good for barley. Along the valley from the source of
the river are rich meadow-lands, but on the outskirts
of the parish, especially in the north-east and south-east, are tracts of land of an inferior quality. The
subsoil is chalk, and hence the chief crops are wheat,
oats, barley, and turnips. The parish contains 2,212½
acres of arable land, 1,028 acres of permanent grass,
and 222½ acres of woods and plantations. (fn. 4) In 1685
Sutton Common or Windley Common, with the
consent of the bishop of Winchester, was ordered to
be inclosed and cultivated and divided among those
copyhold and freehold tenements to which common
of pasture there had always pertained.
At the same time twenty acres of the common
were freed from tithes and annexed to the vicarage of
Bishop's Sutton. (fn. 5) The remainder of the common
lands were inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1796.
An interesting description of the manor as it was in
the time of Edward VI exists at the Record Office (fn. 6) :—
'Sutton is distaunte from Alleresford a myle, and
the mannor-howse being a verie olde howse, somtyme
walled round abowte with stone, now decaied, well
waterid with an olde ponde or moote adjoyning to it,
and the ferme-howse being sett and within a stones
cast of the said manner-howse, thowsing being but for
a fermer, lying neer to Sutton churche. There is a
xii score beneth the said manner-howse a corne-mill
holden be copie, the ponde being the hed dam of the
said mill, and a lyttell beneth that a faier great fermehowse belonging to the Lorde Chief Justice and holden
by copie of the manner of Sutten. The parke of
Sutton being a lyttell myle from Sutton Towne, and
all the ground betwixt bi the heighwaie side parcell
of Sutton ferme, having allso a greate sheape pasture
enclosed lyeing round abowte thone haulf of the
parke, all plaine, callid the Parke Downe, bi estymacion 400 acres, parcell of the ferme, and the parke
being abowte two myles good pasture, and muche
wood lately fellid ther, the lodge standing faier upon
a hill towards the northe end of the parke. A greate
wood lying from the sowthewest corner of the parke,
full west, a two myles in length, and being a quarter
of a myle or more over in moost places set with beache
and thicke upon the Lord's common, and a faier
plaine comon belonging to the said Lordeshipp, lying
all alongest the northe side of the said longe wood.'
The 'verie olde howse,' mentioned by the surveyor
was no doubt the bishop of Winchester's palace, concerning which Mr. Duthy in his Sketches of Hampshire (1839) writes: 'Within the memory of many
persons now living considerable vestiges of a strong
and extensive building stood in the meadows to the
north of the church, which were the dilapidated
remains of an ancient palace of the bishops of Winchester. The walls were of great thickness and
composed of flints and mortar, but it was impossible
to trace the disposition of the apartments or the form
of the edifice.' He conjectures that it was destroyed
in the course of the Civil War. This conjecture
seems a plausible one, for many skirmishes must have
taken place in the neighbourhood both before and after
the battle of Cheriton. In 1830 the remains of the
palace were used as a malt-house, but only the site now
remains. The bishops of Winchester kept a kennel
from very early times in Bishop's Sutton. (fn. 7) In the
early part of the thirteenth century mention is made
of the expenses of keeping the king's hounds at
Bishop's Sutton, which suggests that the king paid
frequent visits to the bishop for hunting, and brought
his hounds with him. (fn. 8) The bishops also had a park
in Bishop's Sutton, (fn. 9) covering an area of 250 acres,
which in 1649 was sold to Sir John Evelyn, together
with 'all that warren of conies within it.' (fn. 10) A fair
was held at Bishop's Sutton on the Feast of St. Giles
and the following days from very early times. It
seems to have been a popular one, for as long as it
lasted seven men acted as constables (custodinarii), (fn. 11)
and two others were employed to guard the woods,
presumably against poachers. (fn. 12) As late as the middle
of the last century two fairs were held—one on the
Thursday after Holy Trinity and the other on
6 November, (fn. 13) but they seem soon afterwards to have
died out. At the time of the Domesday Survey there
were four mills, (fn. 14) but there is now only one, situated
a little to the north-west of the site of the Bishop's
palace, and probably occupying the site of the mill
which in the reign of Henry VI was situated near the
'Court of Bishop's Sutton,' (fn. 15) and which in 1649 was
described as 'all that messuage or tenement and mill
commonly called Sutton mill, late parcel of the manor,
consisting, as the same is now divided, of a dwelling
house, two corn-mills, and a malt-mill, being now or
late in the tenure of Jane Frost, widow.' (fn. 16) Among
place-names mentioned in local records are 'Swetley,
Pylk, Blayputtesthorne, Motynyard, Honeylynch,
Windley, Verdelay, Brynkeworth, Mulcrofte, and La
Holte.' (fn. 17)
William Howley, archbishop of Canterbury,
1828–48, was the only son of William Howley, vicar
of Bishop's Sutton and Ropley, and was vicar of
Bishop's Sutton from 1796 to 1813. He published
several charges and sermons, and his library now
forms part of the Howley-Harrison Library at
Canterbury.
MANOR
It seems probable that part of the parish
of BISHOP'S SUTTON was included in
a grant made by King Ine to the church
at Winchester in 701. (fn. 18) The lands are described as
having been previously granted to the church by Ine's
predecessor, Cynewalh. The northern boundary of
the land thus granted started from Candover (Cendefer), thence to Bogmoor Hill (Bucgan oran), thence
apparently along the northern boundary of Old Alresford parish, and into Medsted parish as far as Green
Lane Farm (Grenmenes stigele). The eastern boundary started from Green Lane Farm, going south
through Medsted parish, and entered Bishop's Sutton
parish. The southern boundary started from Rampscomb Farm (Hremmescumbers geate), thence to
Drayton Farm (Dregtune) in the parish of Bighton,
and thence south-west as far as Tichborne (Ticceburnan). The western boundary passed north through
Tichborne, Itchen Stoke, Swarraton, and Brown
Candover. If the identifications of the place-names
are correct, the land thus granted included the
parishes of Godsfield, Bighton, Old and New Alresford, and Swarraton, and parts of the parishes of
Brown Candover, Medsted, Bishop's Sutton, Tichborne, and Itchen Stoke. The part of the parish of
Bishop's Sutton thus granted seems to have been the
tongue of land which now separates the parishes of
Bighton and Ropley. It seems probable that at the
time of the grant this piece of land formed part of
the parish of Bighton, from the fact that in the grant
of Bighton by King Edwy to Hyde Abbey (fn. 19) there is
mention of Brennescumbes Geat (probably for Hremmescumbes Geat), now probably represented by the
modern Rampscomb Farm, which is situated in the
north-east of the parish at the south of the tongue of
land.
At the time of the Domesday Survey Bishop's
Sutton was held by Count Eustace III of Boulogne. (fn. 20)
In Edward the Confessor's reign it had been held
by Earl Harold. Eustace IV, son of Eustace III,
married Mary of Scotland, and had a daughter
Maud, who became the wife of King Stephen.
The manor thus came to the crown. In 1136 the
king exchanged it with his brother Henry de Blois,
bishop of Winchester, for the episcopal manor of
'Morden' (co. Surr.). (fn. 21) This exchange was confirmed by Henry II (fn. 22) and by Edward I. (fn. 23)
Edward II in 1324 confirmed a grant of a messuage
and lands in Bishop's Sutton, afterwards called
Western Court Farm (q. v. infra), made by Henry
bishop of Winchester to William son of William de
Overton. (fn. 24) The latter after the confirmation encroached upon the bishop's manor, (fn. 25) and in 1357
William de Edendon, bishop of Winchester, brought
an assize of novel disseisin against William de Overton and Isabel his wife and Thomas the son of
William and Isabel and others for unjustly disseising
him of his 'free tenement in Bishop's Sutton.' (fn. 26)
The case was decided in favour of the bishop, who
recovered his seisin of the premises. The same
year the bishop in the King's Court at Westminster
recovered his seisin against William de Overton of
three messuages, 3 virgates and 21½ acres of land,
10 acres of pasture, and 76 acres of wood, in Bishop's
Sutton, Twyford, and Cheriton. (fn. 27)
Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester 1500–28,
granted a lease of the manor in 1519 to Lewis Wingfield with the proviso that he should not let over the
lease in his lifetime. Lewis on his death willed it
to Henry Wingfield, who in his turn granted it in
1539 to Henry Norton, (fn. 28) who was still holding the
site of the manor, in accordance with this indenture,
in the reign of Edward VI. (fn. 29)
On 14 February, 1551, Stephen Gardiner, bishop
of Winchester, was formally deprived of his bishopric,
and the episcopal lands came into the king's hands. (fn. 30)
With John Poynet's accession a month later Bishop's
Sutton was included in the exchange of the episcopal
lands for a fixed income of 2,000 marks, (fn. 31) and in
1551 was granted to Sir John Gate, together
with the hundred and park. (fn. 32) Queen Mary, however, restored the manor to the bishopric in 1558. (fn. 33)
In March, 1647, the manor of Bishop's Sutton was
included in the sale of the bishop's lands, being purchased by Sir John Evelyn of West Dean (co. Wilts.),
for £2,727 13s. 9d. (fn. 34) The manor and premises
sold to him in this year, together with the royalties of
hawking, hunting, fishing, and fowling, were stated to
be of the annual value of £147 19s. 0½d. (fn. 35) Two
years later the same John for £1,717 7s. 6d. purchased Sutton Park, which was then in the tenure of
Sir Thomas Stewkley, an under-tenant, Sutton Mill,
several parcels of meadow or pasture-ground commonly called Park Down and Brinkworths, and various
other premises which were described as late parcels of
the manor of Bishop's Sutton. (fn. 36) After the Restoration the manor was restored
to the bishop, and at the
present time the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners as representing
the bishops are lords of the
manor.
See of Winchester. Gules St. Peter's keys crossed with the sword of St. Paul.
WESTERN COURTFARM
WESTERN COURTFARM
(Westercourte xvi cent.; Westend Courte xvii cent.) is the
farm described by the surveyor
of Edward VI as 'the faier
great ferme-house belonging
to the Lorde Chief Justice and
holden by copie of the manner of Sutten.' (fn. 37) No name
is given to it in this survey, but in a perambulation
of the parish made about the same time it was
stated that Sir Richard Lyster was holding a capital
messuage called 'Westercourte'
with the lands belonging to
it. (fn. 38) This farm was, as has
been shown above, in origin
the messuage and lands granted
by Henry bishop of Winchester to William son of
William de Overton. In 1346
William obtained a grant of
free warren in his demesne
lands of Bishop's Sutton, (fn. 39)
which shows that by this time
the property thus granted to
him had developed into a
manor. He died seised of the so-called manor of
Bishop's Sutton in 1362, leaving a son and heir
Thomas. (fn. 40) A Thomas de Overton, probably son or
grandson of the latter, is described as 'of Sutton
gentleman' in 1431. (fn. 41) From this date the history
of the manor is uncertain until 1501, in which year
John Wayte of Titchfield recovered seisin of the
manors of Bishop's Sutton and Medsted against
Eleanor Courte. (fn. 42) From John it passed with Medsted
to Sir Richard Lyster, who died seised of it in 1553,
his heir being his grandson Richard, aged twenty years
nine months. (fn. 43) In the inquisition taken after his
death it was called the manor of Bishop's Sutton,
and was said to be held of the bishop of Winchester
in socage for a money-rent. Some time after this
Richard Lyster conveyed the manor to Sir John
Leigh. The exact date is not known, but it was probably about 1557, for in that year there was a similar
conveyance from Richard Lyster to Sir John Leigh
of the manor of Coldrey in Froyle parish. (fn. 44) In
1567 Edward Fitzgarrett and Agnes his wife, daughter
and heir of Sir John Leigh, and John Leigh conveyed the manor of Bishop's Sutton, as it was then
called, to John More and Richard Bostock, (fn. 45) obviously
in trust, as in 1575 John Leigh, nephew and heirmale of the same Sir John, died seised of it, leaving
an infant son and heir John. (fn. 46) John's mother Margery married, as her third husband, William Killigrew,
and in 1596 John Leigh, William Killigrew, and
Margery his wife conveyed
the manor in trust to William
Onslowe and Walter Dickman. (fn. 47) John Leigh married
Elizabeth West, daughter and
heir of Sir Thomas West, and
died in 1613, leaving a son
and heir Thomas, aged six. (fn. 48)
In the inquisition taken after
his death he was said to be
seised of the manor of Sutton.
From Thomas West it seems
to have passed to John Venables, who died in 1648 aged
twenty-nine. (fn. 49) In 1685 it was called the manor of
Westerne Court or Westend Court, and was in the
possession of John Venables of Woodcote in the
parish of Bramdean. (fn. 50)
Lyster. Ermine a fesse sable with three molets argent thereon.
Leigh. Gules a cross engrailed and a border engrailed argent.
CHURCH
The church of ST. NICHOLAS,
BISHOP'S SUTTON, has a chancel
34 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft. 6 in. (at the west
end 16 ft.), nave 55 ft. 4 in. by 19 ft. 8 in.,
north and south porches, and wooden bell-turret
over the west end of the nave. The nave has
been but little altered in its main features since its
building about 1150, and preserves four original
windows, plain round-headed lights set high in the
walls, two on the north and two on the south,
and north and south doorways set midway between
the pairs of windows. (fn. 51) The west wall is 3ft. 9 in.
thick, and the east wall 3 ft. 5 in., the two side walls
being only 3 ft. 3 in.: they are built of flint rubble
with a few Roman bricks, brought to a face with a
thick coating of brown mortar, which has been in
great measure removed in the course of modern patching and pointing. Three of the four original external
angles remain, with large ashlar quoins, the north-east
angle having given way and been rebuilt in red brick
with a heavy brick buttress. The north and south
doorways have semicircular arches of two orders and
a chamfered label, with nook-shafts with scalloped
capitals to the outer order; the inner order being
square and the outer moulded with a heavy roll, and
in the case of the south doorway a line of beak-heads.
The north doorway is as usual of plainer character, and
has moulded wedge-shaped projections in place of the
beak-heads. At the east end of the south wall a
widely splayed lancet, c. 1220, has been added (fn. 52) to
light the south nave altar, the plain circular piscina of
which is in its sill. The original west window of
the nave, if there was one, has given place to a two-light uncusped fourteenth-century window, and over it
in the gable is a small narrow lancet, probably of the
same date, and lighting the second stage of the
wooden belfry. The belfry stands on four massive
posts within the church, and from the absence of
detail is difficult to date. It rises as a square above
the nave roof, and its vertical sides are covered with
oak shingles, with small wired openings near the eaves
which admit air rather than light to the bell-chamber.
It is finished with a pointed red-tiled roof. The
chancel arch has evidently failed and been rebuilt with
the old stones, and is now of two square orders of
13 ft. 9 in. span, bluntly pointed, and having nook-shafts on its western face with scalloped capitals which
have lost their abaci.
Bishop's Sutton Church
The chancel, though retaining at its west end the
width of the twelfth-century chancel, has probably been
entirely rebuilt in the last years of the thirteenth
century, and no part of its masonry seems earlier than
that date. It has an east window of three trefoiled
lancets under an inclosing arch, the rear arch of
which is moulded, and the arch having spread, the
head of the central light has opened and been repaired
by the insertion of an extra stone, so that the light is
wider at the top than at the bottom. Externally
pairs of modern buttresses are set at the angles of the
east wall. In the north wall is a single trefoiled
lancet, to the west of which was formerly a north chapel
or vestry, now destroyed, a blocked squint from it, just
west of the lancet, and commanding as usual the place
of the high altar, being its only remaining feature.
It is of the fourteenth century, as was probably the
vestry, and the lower stones of the west jamb of the
thirteenth-century lancet have been inserted when it
was made. In the south wall is a trefoiled lancet
corresponding to that on the north, and to the east
of it a trefoiled piscina recess with three drains. It
seems probable that the two outer drains are the
original ones, the number being normal for the date,
and the central drain a later addition, possibly super-seding the other two at a time when the use of a pair
of drains was abandoned. West of the window is a
plain south doorway, and further west a two-light
window widely splayed, with modern tracery of fourteenth-century style and a small quatrefoil in the head.
On either side of the east window are painted consecration crosses in red within a circular yellow border.
None of the woodwork of the chancel is old except
the roof, which has plain trussed rafters and was
formerly ceiled, and the seventeenth-century altar
rails, 2 ft. 9 in. high,
with good turned balusters and a carved rail.
On the floor are a
number of marble slabs,
on one of which are
the mutilated brass
figures of an armed man
and his wife, c. 1500;
while another retains
the nails which once
fixed another brass, and
at the west of the chancel is a slab with indents of a shield and
an inscription plate.
The south door of
the nave is old, with
its lock and strap hinges,
and the roof is of the
same type as that of
the chancel, and probably of the same date. Both
roofs, as well as that of the bell-turret, are covered
with red tiles. The south porch of the nave is
of eighteenth-century brickwork, with benches on
east and west, and the north porch is modern and
serves as a vestry, having no external door. On the
south-east quoin of the nave are traces of two sundials.
The font stands by the south door of the nave, large
and baluster-shaped, with a moulded base, and inconveniently high. It is of eighteenth-century date.
There are five bells, all re-cast by Warner of Cripplegate in 1893.
The plate includes a notable piece, a small silver
paten of c. 1500, the centre being engraved with I H S
on a gilt ground, in lettering of very good style and
design. Besides this there is a communion cup of
1678, an alms dish of 1751, and a modern pewter
flagon.
The registers are not preserved before 1711, the
first book continuing till 1783, with marriages to
1754: the second has marriages 1754–1812, and the
third baptisms and burials 1783–1812. There are
also books of vestry minutes from 1842 to 1890.
ADVOWSON
At the time of the Domesday
Survey there was a church in Bishop's
Sutton with one hide attached, and it
then belonged to Eustace count of Boulogne, lord of the
manor of Bishop's Sutton. (fn. 53) Count Eustace granted the
advowson of the church to the prior and convent of
Merton (co. Surr.), (fn. 54) who continued to be patrons until
the dissolution. (fn. 55) In 1539 Henry VIII granted the
advowson to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, in tail
male. (fn. 56) He died in 1545, and his two sons Henry
and Charles on 16 July, 1551, without male issue.
In the latter year John Poynet succeeded to the see of
Winchester and obtained a grant of the advowson of
Bishop's Sutton. (fn. 57) Three months later, however, it
was granted with the manor and hundred to Sir John
Gate, (fn. 58) but was restored to the bishopric by Queen
Mary in 1558. (fn. 59) However, in 1563 it was again
taken from the bishop and granted to William Stanley,
Lord Mounteagle, son and heir of Mary Mounteagle,
who was one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of
Charles duke of Suffolk. (fn. 60)
In 1604 James I granted the advowson to Anthony
Crewe and William Starkey. (fn. 61) The following persons
have since presented to the living: John Lowman in
1622; Thomas Jones in 1672; Mrs. London, widow,
in 1711; Ann Alexander in 1724; James Brown
Alexander in 1746; John Wood and George Jackson
in 1757; the Rev. William Ralph and others in 1796;
the Marquis of Abercorn in 1811; and the Marquis
of Abercorn and wife in 1818 (fn. 62) ; Sir Thomas Baring,
bart., and John Deacon are given as the patrons in
1831, and John Deacon as the patron in 1849. (fn. 63)
The Misses Tanner were the patrons in 1878. The
living is now a vicarage in the hands of the Peache
trustees.
By an undated deed between the canons of the
church of St. Mary of Merton, and Stephen, chaplain of Bishop's Sutton, it was agreed that Stephen
should have all the tithes of the chapel of Ropley and
all the land belonging to it by the rent of 3 marks,
and that the canons should have all the tithes of the
mother-church of Bishop's Sutton. In return for
this convention Stephen gave up to the canons all the
land which he held of them in Bishop's Sutton except
his messuage in that vill. (fn. 64)
CHARITIES
In 1796 under the provisions of a
Private Act for the inclosure of the
common fields in this parish and
Crawley (34 Geo. III, cap. 81), an acre of arable
land was awarded in respect of the right of the parish
in a common field. The rent of £1 a year is applied
by the churchwardens towards church expenses. (fn. 65)