WIELD
Walde (xi cent.); Welde, Wolde (xiv cent.).
The parish of Wield, covering an area of 2,104 acres,
lies in the open down country that rises north-east of
Old Alresford and south-east of Preston Candover.
The land, generally speaking, slopes upward from
north to south, reaching a height of 576 ft. above the
ordnance datum in the south-east as the road leads
from Upper Wield to Medsted.
The village of Upper Wield, the nucleus of the
parish, lies in the south, and is reached from the northwest from Preston Candover by a steep rough lane
which rises for about a mile between thick hedges,
plough-land, and pasture land, from 450 ft. above the
ordnance datum to over 550 ft. near the village. On
the approach to the village a farmhouse stands north
of the road, which here makes a more distinct curve
to the south round the house and thatched outbuildings of a small farm which lies in the west,
and runs past the village pond on the opposite
side of the road to the groups of thatched cottages
which lie on either side. A branch road to the west
leads down to the church, which, being approached by
a narrow pathway leading north, stands in a fenced-in
churchyard, and on the north side of the road immediately behind a group of thatched cottages. Southwest of the church is a small Primitive Methodist
chapel dated 1818. The main road continues south
for a few yards beyond this branch leading to the
church, a few thatched cottages lying on the west
side, while opposite is a rough uninclosed green. At
the end of this green the road branches east and west,
the western branch leading to Alresford, the eastern
to Lower Wield. A few yards along this eastern
branch as it leads down hill the village schools stand
on the north side, while beyond the schools are a few
outlying thatched cottages, and at the corner as a
branch road goes north-west to Lower Wield is the
thatched vicarage. Lower Wield, lying away towards
the north of the parish, is about a mile as the crow
flies from Upper Wield, and is on much lower ground.
It consists of three farms, Lower Wield Farm,
Nicholas' Farm, and Pitter Farm, with a few scattered
cottages which always seem to appear round each
corner of the lane known as Berry Wood Lane as it
winds down hill in a more or less northerly direction
towards Bradley. North-west of Lower Wield,
Windmill Hill rises to a height of about 490 ft. above
the ordnance datum.
Wield Village
The soil of the whole parish is clay with a subsoil of
chalk, and crops of wheat, oats, and turnips are grown
on the 1,191 acres of arable land which make up the
best part of the parish. Only 304 acres are given
up to permanent grass, while Wield Wood and
Barton Copse in the south-west of the parish cover
nearly the whole of the 215 acres of woodland.
MANOR
The southern portion of the parish
formed part of Alresford Liberty, and
is most probably included in the entry
under Alresford in Domesday Book. (fn. 1) That this is so
is supported by a perambulation of the manor taken in
the reign of Edward VI, (fn. 2) by the fact that the tithing
of Wield sent a tithing-man to the Old Alresford
court leet, (fn. 3) and also by the circumstance that an
agent sent down from London to report on the whole
bailiwick of Bishop's Sutton (fn. 4) included in his survey
part of the parish of Wield, reporting as follows:
'Your Wild is but a baron ground whereupon be to
littell copices and one small comen thynn sett with
greet trees.' (fn. 5)
The overlordship of the remaining portion, the socalled manor of WIELD, belonged from a very early
date to the bishops of Winchester, under whom it
was held by various tenants. Durand held it of the
bishop at the time of the Domesday Survey, and two
freemen had been the tenants in the reign of Edward
the Confessor. (fn. 6)
From 1270 to 1316 the Wintershulls held Wield
from the see of Winchester, for at the earlier date
Gerard la Grue conveyed a messuage and two carucates of land at West Wield to William de Wintershull, (fn. 7) who died seised of the manor (fn. 8) in 1286, his heir
being his son John, (fn. 9) who was still holding in 1296. (fn. 10)
In 1306 William de Wintershull, John's son, conveyed
the reversion of the manor, two-thirds of which was
held by his mother Mary for life, and the remaining
third by his grandmother Beatrice in dower, to John
de Drokensford and his heirs. (fn. 11) John de Drokensford
must have died almost immediately, for in the same
year (1306) Peter de Courtenay and his wife
Margaret claimed the manor as next heirs of John de
Drokensford on the ground that John de Drokensford,
Mary and Beatrice de Wintershull were dead, and
that a certain Nicholas de Valence had entered into
possession of the manor of Wield, which ought by
right to have descended to Margaret as daughter
and heiress of John de Drokensford. (fn. 12)
The record of the result of this suit has not been
found, but Nicholas de Valence probably proved his
claim to some of the property, (fn. 13) and was succeeded by
his son John and by his grandson another John, for
in 1340 the latter entered a plea for the restoration
of the lands in Wield of which his father (fn. 14) had been
deprived for 'feloniously breaking the mill of the
prior of Southwick, and for having stolen a grindstone
worth 40s. and 1½ quarters of wheat found there of
the price of 6s,' for which offence he had died in
prison.
The lands had been taken into the king's hands,
but after it had been proved by inquisition that the
Valences' lands in Wield were held of the bishop (fn. 15)
and not of the king in chief, they were restored. (fn. 16)
Six years later John de Valence was holding half a
fee in Wield which had formerly belonged to Beatrice
de Wintershull. (fn. 17)
The Holts evidently succeeded to part of the
Wintershulls' estate, for in 1428 Richard Holt and
his co-parceners were holding half a fee in Wield
formerly held by John de Valence. (fn. 18) After this date
there seems to be no mention of Wield until 1569,
when the manor was settled on Thomas Sackville,
Lord Buckhurst, and his wife Cecilia, daughter of Sir
John Baker of Sissinghurst in Kent. (fn. 19) (fn. 20)
Seven years later it was conveyed by them to Ralph
Henslowe, (fn. 21) who died seised of the manor of Wield
in 1578. (fn. 22) His son and heir Thomas conveyed the
estate to Thomas Burye in 1591, (fn. 23) who sold the
manor in 1598 to Arthur Wilmott, (fn. 24) in whose family
it remained for thirty-six years and was then sold by
Edward Wilmott to Constance Lucy, widow, and her
son Sir Richard for £1,200. (fn. 25)
The manor remained in the possession of the Lucy
family for about 140 years, (fn. 26) and then passed to the
Rodneys, (fn. 27) though whether they held by the right of
inheritance or by purchase it is difficult to discover.
Mr. Earle was the owner of the manor from about
1874 to 1886, when he sold it to Mr. Wood, brother
of Mr. Gaythorne Wood of Thedden Grange,
Alton, who in his turn sold it to Mr. Barnes Wimbush, from whom it was bought in 1900 by Count
D. Beaumont Gurowski, the present lord of the manor. (fn. 28)
There is a mill mentioned among the appurtenances
of the manor in 1286 (fn. 29) and in 1569, (fn. 30) which
probably gave its name to Windmill Hill in the
north-west of the parish. There was a park at Wield
from an early date. In 1279 complaint was made
that certain persons had broken into the park of the
bishop of Winchester, hunted therein and carried
away deer. (fn. 31) Among the entries in the Ministers'
Accounts for Wield for 1323 is 'Payment made by
the park-keeper of 2s. each for 6 carts during the
winter.' (fn. 32) Beyond these references no record of the
park can be found.
CHURCH
The church of ST. JAMES has a
chancel 20 ft. 4 in. by 14 ft., and nave
34 ft. 8 in. by 19 ft. 8 in., with a bellturret at the west. There was formerly a western
tower, but this was destroyed in 1812, when the
turret was set up, which contains a single bell.
Externally the building is covered with rough-cast,
and has red-tiled roofs. The nave walls are of twelfthcentury date, probably c. 1150, and those of the
chancel, though showing no twelfth-century features,
are probably co-eval with them. The chancel has a
modern three-light east window of geometrical style,
the north and south walls being blank; and the
chancel arch is semicircular, of two orders, slightly
chamfered on the west face, with a chamfered string
at the springing, which is continued up to the angles
of the nave. On either side of the arch, which is
5 ft. 8 in. wide, large openings have been cut through
the wall.
The nave has two windows on each side, but none
at the west; all are apparently the original twelfthcentury windows, altered and enlarged in the fifteenth
century, single trefoiled or cinquefoiled lights being
inserted in three of them, and in the fourth, that at
the south-east, two trefoiled lights. There is a blocked
south doorway, which, like the chancel arch, is of the
twelfth century, its semicircular head with a label
showing on the outside. The entrance to the church
is by a west doorway with a square head, dating from
1812. The roof timbers are old, with a modern
painted wooden ceiling fitted to them; and at the
west of the nave is a wooden gallery, also modern.
The fittings are also modern, and very good of their
kind; a second altar has been set up at the north-east
of the nave, and very well furnished. The font, at
the west of the nave, is of Purbeck marble, with a
shallow square arcaded bowl on a central and four
angle shafts, of late twelfth-century date; it was dug
up in a garden in the Close at Winchester, and lately
given to Wield church.
Below the north-east window of the nave is a trefoiled fourteenth-century recess, connected with the
nave altar whose successor has lately been set up here,
but the chancel shows no remains of piscina or sedilia,
their place being occupied by the large monument of
William Waloppe, 1617, whose alabaster effigy, with
that of his third wife, lies on a panelled tomb of
alabaster under a canopy on which are cherubs holding emblems of mortality. Above the effigies in the
recess beneath the canopy are the arms of Wallop
quartering Fisher of Chilton Candover.
The plate consists of a communion cup of 1569
with a modern foot, and a very interesting pre-Reformation paten, c. 1500, and very like that at Bishop's
Sutton, with a silver-gilt edge, and engraved I H S
in the centre. It has, however, at some time been
beaten inside out, so that the hexagonal central
depression has been flattened and the I H S is now on
the underside.
The registers are also of more than ordinary interest, the original small paper book of 1538 being
preserved. To each year a heading is written, giving
the regnal year also, and in the time of Edward VI
the full royal titles. There is a gap from 1552 to
1560, but from 1560 to 1562 the same form of
heading is retained, the entries to this date being in
Latin. From 1562 onwards the heading is dropped,
and English used till 1597, when Latin occurs again,
the entries of baptisms, &c., being from this time
kept separate. The baptisms are entered in two sections, 1597–1663 and 1655–95; the burials in one,
1597–1648; and the marriages likewise, 1597–1678.
The book also contains a register of briefs, 1707–13.
The second book, likewise of paper, is supplementary
to the first, containing baptisms 1568–98, marriages
1563–98, and burials 1561–97.
In a wood at some distance from the village is the
site of a destroyed house, known as the Castle. It
was probably a house of the Wallop family, but
nothing of it now remains, its masonry having been,
according to local report, carried off for building
material in the village.
ADVOWSON
At the time of the Domesday
Survey there is no mention of a
church in Wield, (fn. 33) and the earliest
mention seems to be in the year 1280, when the presentation to the church was in the hands of the king
during a vacancy of the see of Winchester. (fn. 34)
In 1306 the priory of Newark (co. Surrey) acquired
the advowson of the church of Wield, (fn. 35) by grant of
John, bishop of Winchester, and this grant was confirmed by letters patent.
The advowson remained in the hands of the prior
and convent until the Dissolution, when the rectory
was valued at £4 6s. 8d. (fn. 36)
From this time until about the beginning of the
nineteenth century the advowson follows the descent
of the manor. From 1817 until the present day
presentations to the living have been made by the earls
of Portsmouth, (fn. 37) whose ancestors, the Wallops, had
held the rectorial tithes of Wield since 1586. (fn. 38)
CHARITIES
In 1872 Miss Jane Ewen by her
will proved this date left £100, the
interest to be paid yearly to the poor
of Lower Wield, under the direction of the incumbent. The legacy (less duty) was invested in
£97 0s. 9d. consols with the official trustees. The
dividends are distributed in coal to the cottagers.