HAYLING ISLAND
Heglingaig (x cent.); Heilinciga or Halingel
(xi cent.); Hailinges or Haringey (fn. 1) (xii cent.); Heyland or Heling (xiii cent.).
Hayling Island is only separated from the mainland by a narrow channel known as Sweare Deep.
Nevertheless it was inaccessible in heavy weather
before 1823, when an Act was passed for building a
bridge across Langstone Harbour from Havant up to
the Ferry House in North Hayling. (fn. 2) The single line
of railway to Langstone from Havant has since been
extended across the harbour and two stations built,
one in North Hayling and the other in South Hayling. (fn. 3) The sea has encroached on the island very
considerably. In the fourteenth century more especially the inhabitants suffered through this and other
calamities. In 1324–5 the losses of Hayling Priory
through the ravages of the sea were at least £42, for
the priory buildings and the whole hamlet of East
Stoke had been submerged. (fn. 4) Shortly afterwards the
islanders were called upon to defend themselves
against the incursions of hostile galleys during the
French wars, and again in 1340 a great part of the
island was entirely drowned by the sea. (fn. 5) In 1346 it
was said to be laid waste daily, (fn. 6) and subsequently
nearly half of the inhabitants died of the Black Death. (fn. 7)
The sea again encroached to a large extent during
the seventeenth century. (fn. 8) A considerable part of the
east coast is now defended by sea-walls, built when
the manor was in the possession of the dukes of
Norfolk.
The island is divided into two parishes of almost
equal extent, the northernmost being known as
North Hayling or Northwood. (fn. 9) Along the channel
which divides it from the mainland the country is
flat and for the most part barren, though some profits
are yielded by the oyster beds off Creek Point to
the west. The road along the coast leads eastwards
past large salterns and then curving to the south
passes through the hamlets of Northney, Eastney,
and Westney, with their low thatched houses and
well-stocked orchards. North Hayling church is in
Eastney, standing close to the road in a small churchyard. The soil from this point onwards is more
fertile, stretches of arable land alternating with oakwoods in which there is a dense undergrowth of brushwood and brambles. Tracts of waste-land are, however, frequent, though many commons were inclosed
during the last century, (fn. 10) and the island though lowlying is bleak and much exposed, so that when a fire
broke out in North Hayling on 23 March, 1757, the
violence of the wind increased it to such an extent
that the unfortunate villagers were practically burnt
out in a few hours. (fn. 11) West of the village, in Towncil
Field, a Roman building has been discovered, and
excavations are still being continued there. The
same road leads on past the hamlet of Northney to
South Hayling. To the west of Northney is the
hamlet of Stoke, which is divided into East and West
Stoke, and consists of a few farm-houses and cottages,
old and new, with a Congregational chapel. The
western coast is again more barren, the soil being very
light and producing but scanty crops of wheat, while
its marshy wastes can only be used for pasture, and
that not of the best. The sub-soil is for the most
part chalk, which is succeeded in the south by Woolwich and Reading Beds. The arable land, which
predominates, covers 734 acres; there are 219 acres
of pasture and 15 acres of wood. (fn. 12) The whole area
of the parish is nearly 2,626 acres.
The greater part of the parish is held by tenants
of Havant manor, the land being evidently identical
with four hides in Hayling held by the monks of
St. Swithun in 1086. (fn. 13) They annexed it to their
neighbouring liberty, the tourns of which the tithingman of Hayling has always since attended.
South Hayling, or Southwood, includes the more
prosperous portion of the island. The soil is richer
than that of North Hayling, the subsoil being London clay, and stretches of flat pasture-land and
flourishing wheatfields betoken its fertility. On the
east and west coasts, however, there are marshy wastes
such as Mill Pond, which, together with Mill Cottage,
probably marks the site of the old manorial mill mentioned in a thirteenth-century assessment of South
Hayling. (fn. 14) The arable land extends over 1,165 acres
the pasture covers 427 acres, and there are 43 acres
of wood. (fn. 15) The total area of the parish is 4,803
acres. Near the Mill Pond is a thickly wooded inclosure surrounded by a moat, and known as Tourner
Bury. In 'My Lord's Pond,' close by, oyster beds
have been laid down, which with other beds near the
island were the source of a dispute that arose in 1850
between the local fishermen and the lord of the
manor, who based his claim on the mention of two
fisheries in the Domesday Survey of Hayling. (fn. 16)
Mengham salterns are also relics of an ancient
industry dating from the Conquest, for in 1086 the
lord of Hayling had a saltpan in the island. (fn. 17) Mengham is a hamlet at the neck of the most eastern
peninsula, and is made up of one or two weather-stained farm-houses, with thickly thatched outbuildings
and a Congregational chapel built in 1888.
East Stoke Common, which forms a peninsula to the
south-east of the island, was inclosed in 1867, (fn. 18) and is
partially submerged at high tide; it was the men of this
hamlet who suffered most from the encroachment of
the sea during the fourteenth century. About halfway across the promontory a wall of cement was
built some years back, but it is now cracked and
broken.
From East Stoke westwards firm white sands stretch
to Sinah Common, whence a steam ferry carries
the traveller to Portsea. The common, on which
golf links have been laid out, is a mass of golden gorse
in spring, and affords a fine view both of the Hampshire coast and the distant hills of the Isle of Wight.
The magnificent sands and the outlook over the
English Channel have caused the hamlet of West
Town to grow into a seaside resort with a parade
along the south beach. The church stands to the
north of the West Town, and at some distance north
of the church is the manor house, a pretty red brick
building of eighteenth-century date in well wooded
grounds, in the occupation of the vicar, the Rev.
C. H. Clarke. This part of the parish is the most
picturesque in the island, and from the abundance
of trees has the great additional advantage of being
sheltered from the gales which sweep across the island
in winter.
MANOR
At the time of the Domesday Survey
the abbey of Jumièges near Caen held
about half the island of HAYLING in
demesne with the overlordship of the rest by the gift
of William I, but their possession was disputed by
the monks of St. Swithun, who based their claim on
a grant of Queen Emma. (fn. 19) She is said to have given
this manor to the Priory in 1043 with eight others
as a thank-offering for having passed safely through
the ordeal of fire, (fn. 20) and the monks stated that she
gave them one-half of the manor and the reversion
of the other half at the death of Ulward White to
whom she gave it for life and that Ulward died in the
time of William I, who thereupon granted the manor
to the abbey of Jumièges. (fn. 21) In a cartulary of
St. Swithun there occurs a charter purporting to be
a bequest of the Lady Elgifu (fn. 22) of five hides at Hayling
to the Old Minster together with the reversion of five
hides, which she had bequeathed to one Wulfward
the White, evidently identical with Ulward White,
for life, and stating that the Priory, at Wulfward's
request, had farmed their moiety to him. (fn. 23) Hayling
was evidently part of the queen's dower, as Ulward
himself held it of Queen Edith before the Conquest. (fn. 24)
The abbey of Jumièges, however, having once obtained a grant of so rich a manor, refused to give it
up, and though William I himself confirmed Queen
Emma's gift to the priory, (fn. 25) Henry I regranted Hayling
to Jumièges. (fn. 26) Early in the twelfth century Bishop
Henry de Blois and the monks of Winchester renounced their right to the manor in favour of
Jumièges Abbey at the prayer of Pope Innocent and
in consideration of the poverty of that church, and
in 1150 Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, bore
witness to this concession. (fn. 27) During the whole of
Stephen's reign the abbey seems to have lost power
over its English possessions, to judge from the mandate of Henry II to the officers throughout England
to restore to the abbot and monks all their fugitives
who escaped after the death of Henry I (fn. 28) and from
his confirmatory charters to them. (fn. 29) He confirmed
to the abbot and monks free warren in Hayling as
they had had it under Henry I, (fn. 30) and allowed them
to carry all things from the demesne of the church
freely to all the ports of England and Normandy; (fn. 31)
hence it seems that the produce of the island was
exported to the Norman abbey, and, from the accounts
of the manor rendered when the priory of Hayling,
founded in the island by the abbey of Jumièges, was
in the hands of Edward I by reason of the war with
France, it appears that the profits of the manor at
that date were considerable. They included 3s. for
100 doves, 49s. for 114 cheeses, and 15s. 9d. for
21 gallons of butter. (fn. 32) In 1414, after the general
dissolution of the alien priories in England, Henry V
granted Hayling to the priory of Sheen in Surrey. (fn. 33)
The prior seems, thenceforward, to have leased the
site of the manor reserving all jurisdiction. (fn. 34) Sheen
Priory surrendered in 1539 and Henry VIII granted
Hayling manor and the site of Hayling Priory in
1541 to Holy Trinity College, Arundel, in exchange
for the manor of Bury. (fn. 35) In
1548 the lands of the college
were bestowed on Henry, earl
of Arundel, (fn. 36) who settled them
on his daughter Joan wife of
John Lord Lumley. She died
without issue and her husband,
who survived her, conveyed
all the Arundel estates to his
nephew Philip, duke of Norfolk, in February, 1579–80.
He was attainted in 1589,
but the Arundel estates, and
Hayling with them, were restored to his son Thomas
in 1604. (fn. 37) It remained part of the property of the
successive dukes of Norfolk till 1825 when William
Padwick, a distinguished lawyer, purchased it under
an Act of Parliament from Bernard Edward the then
duke. (fn. 38) The new lord brought several suits relating
to the liberties of the manor against his tenants,
the most important being one concerning the oyster
fisheries. (fn. 39) After his death the greater part of the
manor was enfranchised, the remainder being purchased in 1871 by Mr. J. C. Park, whose son,
Mr. C. J. Park, the present owner, inherited it in
1887. (fn. 40)

Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel. Gules a lion or.
Besides a court baron the lord of Hayling held
view of frankpledge twice yearly, which was attended
by tithingmen from Northney, Mengham, and West
Town. (fn. 41) In 1553 Queen Mary granted the earl of
Arundel return of writs and pleas of the crown in
this manor as in Alton hundred. (fn. 42) Wreck of sea
was granted to Henry, earl of Arundel, in 1548, but
the tenants of East Stoke had already had that privilege throughout the island under the charter of
Henry III to William Falconer. (fn. 43) Hence in 1634
when a butt and a hogshead
of wine were cast up by the
sea the earl of Arundel's tenant
claimed the one and the tenant
of East Stoke the other. (fn. 44)

Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Gules a bend between six crosslets fitchy argent with a scutcheon or upon the bend charged with a demi-lion in a tressure of Scotland pierced through the mouth with an arrow all gules.
EAST STOKE
EAST STOKE, the land
including the south-eastern
corner of the island, was given
by Edwy to his faithful servant Ethelsig and his heirs in
956. (fn. 45) It appears to have
been identical with the 5 hides
in Hayling, held by Ulward
before the Conquest. They
were granted by William I to
Earl Roger of Shrewsbury,
who bestowed them on the
abbey of St. Martin, Troarn. (fn. 46) The gift was confirmed by Henry I and Henry II. (fn. 47) The Norman
monks reserved their land in Hayling in 1260
when exchanging their English possessions for the
Norman property of Bruton Abbey in Somerset, (fn. 48)
probably owing to the convenience of the situation of the island, for it appears from a licence
granted by King John that 'cheeses and bacons'
were exported from their English demesnes for their
own consumption. (fn. 49) In the following year, however,
the abbot of Troarn conveyed the land to John
Falconer of Wade to hold at the yearly rent of 1 d. (fn. 50)
William Falconer, John's predecessor in Wade (q.v.),
had already obtained a few acres in Hayling, (fn. 51) and was
granted wreck of sea in the whole hundred of Bosmere, both within and without Hayling Island. (fn. 52) For
some time the successive lords of Limborne and Wade
retained lands and rents in East Stoke, North Stoke, and
Westney in Hayling. In 1316 the tenants of John
and Joan Botiler of Limborne, in the island of
Hayling, accused them of exacting excessive services,
at the same time stating that their land was ancient
demesne of the crown, producing in evidence an
extract from the Domesday Survey of 2½ hides held
by Earl Harold before the Conquest. Joan proved
that the land was that which was held by the
abbot of Troarn, and therefore was not ancient
demesne. (fn. 53) The descent of East Stoke is coincident
with that of Limborne (q.v.) until the death of
Anthony Pound, when East Stoke evidently became
the portion of his daughter Honor, who married
Henry, earl of Sussex. (fn. 54) In 1596 Sir Robert Ratcliffe, earl of Sussex, and son and heir of Earl Henry,
conveyed East Stoke to Jonah Latelais, whose son
Harison Latelais sold the 'manor or lordship of Northstocke, Eastocke, and Westhaye (evidently Westney), (fn. 55)
with a house called Kent in Westhay,' to Thomas
Peckham of London. (fn. 56) From Thomas Peckham it
ultimately descended to Peckham Williams, (fn. 57) who bequeathed it to John Williams,
and he vested it in trustees
for sale. (fn. 58) It was purchased
by Elizabeth Poole Penfold,
at whose death in 1842 (fn. 59) the
estates passed to her greatnephew, John Leigh Hollest,
who took the name of Williams. (fn. 60) In 1845 he conveyed
East Stoke to Thomas Harris
of Donnington, (fn. 61) from whom
it was purchased by Mr. Lynch
White of Streatham in 1870. From 1890 onwards
he sold the estate in building plots, the largest
portion being bought in 1902 by Mr. Frank Pearce
of Portsmouth. (fn. 62)

Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex. Argent a bend engrailed sable.
In 1086, 2½ hides in Hayling, which had been
held by Edward the Confessor by a certain Leman,
and later seized by Earl Harold, were held by the
king himself. (fn. 63) They seem to have been annexed to
the honour of Gloucester, for towards the end of the
thirteenth century Ralph de Anvers held 2 hides of
land in Hayling of that honour. (fn. 64) The later history
of this fee is uncertain, it seems probable, from the
claim by Joan Botiler's tenants to hold in ancient
demesne, that at any rate a portion of it was at some
time alienated to the owners of East Stoke.
CHURCHES
The church of OUR LADY,
SOUTH HAYLING, lies to the west
of the road from the manor house
to West Town. It has a chancel 41 ft. by 19 ft.,
with a north vestry, central tower 18 ft. 7 in. square
(24 ft. 3 in. square over all), with nave and aisles
54 ft. 10 in. long by 41 ft. 6 in. wide, the aisles being
prolonged to overlap the tower on the north and
south. Over the south door of the nave is a wooden
porch.
The whole building is set out as one design, and
was probably in course of construction from the
second quarter of the thirteenth century to the end
of the third quarter, the chancel being the earliest
part. The treatment of the tower is a very interesting
modification of the cruciform plan, its walls being
only 2 ft. 10 in. thick, and its western supports reduced to a minimum, so that the space it covers is
treated as the east bay of the nave rather than the
base of a central tower, and the transepts to which it
opens on north and south are merely eastern chapels
of the same width as the aisles. The arches opening
from the aisles to these eastern chapels die into the
walls, so that there is no loss of width in the aisle,
their existence being only due to the constructional
necessity of giving abutment to the west arch of the
tower.
The chancel has five tall lancet lights under an
inclosing arch in the east wall, four tall lancets on the
north, and four on the south, the lower part of the
westernmost window on the south being cut off by a
square-headed low side window of two lights; the
stonework of this window is modern. The lancets
have a keeled roll on the rear arches and jambs, and
a roll-string at the sill level. Between the third and
fourth windows on the south is a plain pointed doorway, part of the original arrangement, and at the
south-east of the chancel is a double piscina with
trefoiled arches, and round shafts with moulded bases
and capitals. East of it is a square-headed cupboard
in the wall, 15 in. deep and 2 ft. 7 in. wide, with a
rebated opening 1 ft. wide by 1 ft. 10 in. high, and
in the east jambs of the north-east and south-east
lancets are thirteenth-century corbels with recesses
above to take the ends of a beam which crossed the
chancel at this point, showing that the high altar was
set forward with a space behind it for a vestry. It is
to be noted that these corbels are worked from the
same template, instead of being right and left handed,
as their positions require.
The tower stands on four wide pointed arches of
two chamfered orders, with half-octagonal responds
to the inner orders. These have moulded capitals
on the eastern piers, while those on the western piers
are foliate, and of interesting and rather unusual
detail. The walls of the tower only rise to about
a foot above the ridge of the nave roof, and have two
small lancet windows in each face of the upper stage,
with single lancets of a like character at a lower level
on the north and south, showing that the eastern
chapels of the aisles were from the first designed to
have lean-to roofs like the aisles instead of being
gabled north and south like transepts. The tower is
finished with a low-pitched hipped roof from which
springs a short octagonal wooden spire, both being
covered with oak shingles.
The nave is of three bays, with widely spaced
arcades like those under the tower, their chamfered
orders dying on to octagonal dies The octagonal
capitals are unusually shallow in the bell, but are
most effectively treated with carved foliage, while
shafts beneath are markedly slender in comparison
with the dies above. The effect of lightness and
space thus obtained is most satisfactory. The clearstory
has two circular windows on each side, set over the
columns instead of the arches, and inclosing quatrefoils with pierced spandrels.
The east bay of the north aisle has a modern east
window of two lights with a trefoiled circle in the head,
and in its north wall two lancet lights with modern
heads and a quatrefoil over, the same arrangement
occurring in the east bay of the south aisle. Under the
south window in the south aisle is a trefoiled thirteenth-century piscina. At the west of these bays
are sharply-pointed drop-arches of two chamfered
orders, the outer order dying into the side walls,
while the inner rests on half octagonal corbels, those
on the tower piers having curious foliate carving.
The remaining three bays of the aisles have small
lancet windows in the first and third bays, and wide
pointed north and south doorways in the middle
bays, with plain chamfered arches. The west windows of the aisles are of two lights with quatrefoils
over, and the nave has a plain thirteenth-century west
doorway and over it a large four-light window with
fifteenth-century tracery, the main lights having a
transom at half height. The south porch is a very
pretty fifteenth-century construction, with moulded
plates, tie-beams, and outer arch; it is in rather
shaky condition, and a good deal patched with later
work.
All the church except the tower has tiled roofs,
the timbers of the nave roof, which has trussed
rafters and moulded tie-beams with king posts, being
perhaps contemporary with the nave walls, and a rare
specimen of their kind.
In the chancel is an eighteenth-century wooden
reredos, but all other wood fittings are modern. In
the second stage of the tower, below the bell frames,
are some seventeenth-century timbers which seem to
have been intended to be seen from below, and the
tower was probably meant to be open to the nave as
high as the floor of the bell-chamber.
At the west end of the north aisle is the font,
with a square Purbeck marble bowl, c. 1200, on a
central column and four modern angle shafts with
stone capitals and bases. At the east end of the
same aisle is a very interesting and early rectangular
stone bowl, the sides curving outwards at the top, and
ornamented with interlacing patterns. There appears
to be no drain in the bottom, and its original purpose is not certain. On the external south-east
angle of the south aisle and the south-east buttress of
the chancel are incised sun-dials.
There are pits for three bells in the tower, but
only one bell remains, inscribed 'In God is my hope,'
1634, with the founder's initials I. H.
The church plate is modern, and consists of two
chalices, two patens, a flagon, a cruet and an almsdish.
The registers of North and South Hayling churches
are kept together, and the first book, the parchment
copy of 1598, contains baptisms to 1653, and marriages and burials to 1649, and belongs to North
Hayling. The second, with entries 1672–1801,
belongs to South Hayling. The third has North
Hayling entries 1653–1724, and the sixth continues
the list to 1801. The fourth book has South Hayling
marriages 1754–88, and the fifth continues the
same to 1812. The seventh has North Hayling
marriages 1754–1804, and the eighth the same to
1812. The ninth has North Hayling baptisms and
burials 1802–12, and the tenth the corresponding
entries for South Hayling.
To the south of the church, near the south porch,
is a very fine yew tree, which though somewhat past
its prime is still full of leaf, and adds greatly to the
beauty of the churchyard.
The church of ST. PETER, NORTH HAYLING,
consists of chancel 20 ft. 2 in. by 13 ft. 2 in., nave
45 ft. 2 in. by 19 ft. 8 in., with aisles and north
transept chapel, north and south porches, and a wooden
bell turret over the east bay of the nave. Nothing in
the building seems to be older than the end of the
twelfth century, the north arcade of the nave being
probably of this date, while nearly every other detail in
the church belongs to the early part of the thirteenth
century. The walls of the nave are only 2 ft. 1 in.
thick, but this in a building of small scale does not
necessarily imply an early date, and the north wall of
the north aisle, which is not likely to be older than
the existing arcade, is of the same thickness. The
probable growth of the plan has been that a former
chancel, whose west wall was a little to the east of the
responds of what is now the second bay of the nave
arcades, was prolonged eastward early in the thirteenth
century, the line of the chancel arch being moved
eastwards to its present line, and a north transept
chapel (and probably also a like chapel on the south,
now destroyed) added. Openings were made into both
these chapels from the new east bay of the nave,
which was probably occupied from the first by a
wooden belfry as now, representing the central tower
of a more ambitious design, as at South Hayling.
There have been no later additions to the plan,
except the north porch. The chancel has three tall
lancet windows on the east, and two smaller windows
on north and south, with a priest's door at the southwest angle. The heads of the lights are bluntly
pointed or round, but the rear arches are in all cases
pointed, and a moulded string runs round the inner
face of the walls at their sill level.
Near the north-east angle is a recess
rebated for a wooden door, and opposite to it on the south a pointed
piscina recess with a projecting bowl,
both features being of the date of the
chancel. The east wall leans outward
dangerously, and is supported by three
large raking buttresses. The chancel
arch is pointed, of two chamfered
orders, of the full width of the chancel, save for small half-round shafts on
the responds with moulded capitals.
The north transept, which is approximately 13 ft. square, a dimension
found elsewhere in the county in
transepts of this kind, has two tall
lancets on the east like those in the
chancel, and between them a large
trefoiled recess, having a small image
bracket over it, marking the site of a
former altar. The north window of
the transept is like those on the east,
and the west window, also a single
lancet, is lower, with a pointed head.
The nave arcades are of four bays, the
three western being continuous, but the
east bay on each side seemsto be an addition, as suggested above. The arches here are quite
plain, pointed, with a square-edged string at the springing, chamfered below; the north arch is not central
with the transept, probably because a transept set centrally with it would have been inconveniently small.
The other three bays of the north arcade have
pointed arches of one order with edge chamfers, square
abaci, with simple leaves at the angles of the capitals,
circular columns, and moulded bases with spurs on a
square plinth. The east respond has a capital with a
row of plain heart-shaped leaves on the bell. In the
south arcade the arches are like those of the north,
but the capitals, columns, and bases are circular. The
abaci are of square section, and the bases are moulded,
the capitals being quite plain, without any ornament.
There are two small lancet lights in the north aisle,
and between them a plain pointed thirteenth-century
doorway under a wooden porch, which may be in
part of the fifteenth century. The south aisle, the
east end of which is used as a vestry, contains no old
features except the south doorway, which has a low
four-centred head, and may be of the sixteenth century. In the west wall of the nave is a fifteenth-century doorway, and over it a window of three
cinquefoiled lights, with modern tracery.
The roofs of the have, transept, and north aisle are
old, and of plain character with trussed rafters, while
the east bay of the nave is ceiled at the level of the
tie-beam, and boarded in above, access to the belfry
being by a stair at the south-east, which may represent
an old stair to the rood loft. In the spandrel between
the tie-beam and the nave roof is a fifteenth-century
beam with cusped and pierced hanging tracery, like a
barge-board. The other woodwork in the church,
beyond a seventeenth-century chest, has no archaeological interest.
The font stands in the third bay of the south
arcade, and has a round tapering bowl without a
stem. The top edge of the bowl is scalloped, but
this seems to be a modern adornment, though the
font itself may be of the thirteenth century. On the
capital of the pillar against which it stands is a
fifteenth-century stone bracket.

St. Peter's Church, North Hayling
There are three bells, fitted with half wheels, in
frames which are probably mediaeval. Two of the
bells are blank, but seem to be contemporary with the
tenor, which is inscribed in good Gothic capitals
Sancta [M]aria ora pro nobis; it is a late fourteenth
or early fifteenth-century bell.
The plate consists of a cup of 1569, with a cover
paten of the same date, and a second cup and cover paten
a little larger, and of slightly different outline, but probably made locally as a copy of the other, and bearing
no hall-marks. There is also a modern paten, 1858.
For the registers see South Hayling.
ADVOWSONS
The church of SOUTH HAYLING was held by the abbey of
Jumièges, and was appropriated to
that monastery in 1253–4, (fn. 65) and the advowson was
vested in the successive lords of the manor until
Mr. William Padwick gave it to his daughter, the
present Mrs. R. F. Clarke.
The church of NORTH HAYLING is a chapelry
attached to South Hayling, but no chapel was assessed
with the church in the Taxatio of 1291. In 1304,
however, and during the next ten years, there were
several petitions from the inhabitants to the bishop
praying that the vicar should celebrate in the chapel
of St. Peter, Northwood. The dispute between
the vicar and his parishioners was settled in 1317,
when the vicar agreed to hold full and complete
service there every Sunday and on certain festivals,
and to provide the necessary books. (fn. 66) Under Bishop
Edendon (1346–66) the chancel was repaired, Bishop
Waynflete (1447–87) issued a commission for the
dedication of Northwood chapel, (fn. 67) and shortly afterwards another agreement was made between the
vicar of Southwood and his parishioners at Northwood chapel as to the services to be held there. (fn. 68)
The living is still a perpetual curacy attached to
South Hayling.
A Congregational chapel was built in 1888 at
Mengham and a Free Church mission house at Elm
Grove in 1894. The South Hayling elementary
school was opened in 1875–6.
CHARITIES
There are no endowed charities
within the parish of North Hayling,
but in South Hayling a small piece
of land in the Church Road, called 'The Surplice
Piece' has been in the possession of the vicar and
churchwardens for many years, and according to
tradition was given to provide a fund for washing
the vicar's surplice. A church room was erected on
part of the land in 1904. By an order of the
Charity Commissioners, dated 5 September, 1905,
the real estate was vested in 'the Official Trustee of
Charity Lands' and a scheme established directing
that the church room should be used for the benefit
of members of the Church of England in the parish
of St. Mary, and that the income of the charity,
subject to the up-keep of the church room, should be
applied towards defraying the expenses in connexion
with the parish church.