HYDE ABBEY
Winchester: Hyde Abbey Gateway
In the most northerly of the old suburbs
of the city, St. Bartholomew, Hyde Street,
the old Roman road to Silchester, running
north from where Jewry Street meets the
North Walls and City Road, passes west of the site of
Hyde Abbey. There is a red brick house in Hyde
Street of early 17th-century date. It faces north
and south at right angles to the street, and has been
partly rebuilt, all the windows being mid-18th-century insertions. Some original openings are still
visible, however, and appear to have held wooden
mullioned sashes. The end to the street has a
curved gable coped with moulded brick and a moulded
brick cornice. At the ground level is a blocked door
with a pilastered Doric entablature all in brick.
The gate-house of Hyde Abbey is a rectangular
stone building of 15th-century date 30 ft. 3 in. by
22 ft. 2 in. internally, facing north-east by north.
The entrance passage occupies the right or west side
of the building, the east side being of two stories
with a vice in the south corner, entered by a small
door from the abbey precincts, which still remains,
though the vice has been almost completely destroyed.
The passage is spanned by two wide four-centred
arches, the outer being of two moulded orders
separated by a hollow with a rebate for the doors
on its inner face. The inner arch is of plainer character, with a single chamfer, and is not arranged
for a door. The passage does not seem to have
been vaulted, and it is doubtful if there was ever
more than a partition between the passage and
the east rooms, which were doubtless the porter's
lodging. In a westerly direction from the gateway are some farm buildings, apparently a part
of the abbey, but such fragments of detail as
remain are all much defaced. Adjoining the
gateway is a barn which appears to be largely
built of old stonework, and at the other end of
this are a few old walls containing a couple of
small square-headed loopholes with much defaced
splays and rear arches. Eastward of the gateway
is a small stream running north and south, over
which is a small footbridge with a segmental
arch largely built of 12th-century stones and
containing a fragment of cheveron ornament.
North of this the stream is again spanned by a
thick rubble wall on a rough arch. Within the
area covered by the abbey grounds are numerous
barns and outbuildings largely built of old
stones.
There are some fragments of the abbey buildings
preserved in St. Bartholomew's Church close by.
These consist of five capitals of very rich design. In
the case of three each face has a circular medallion
with elaborate floral designs, dragons, and in one
instance cherub heads; also a double skew-back,
one side of which has the cheveron ornament and the
other a pellet and leaf ornament and an edge roll.
North of the site of the abbey in the meadows on
the way to the Worthies is Abbot's Barton Farm,
the manor farm of the Abbot of Hyde's manor of
Abbot's Barton. Within the last few years the
meadow land between the site of the abbey and the
Abbot's Barton Farm has been let out for building,
and the result is a new colony of small modern semidetached villas still spreading to the north. The
swampy land east of this site has been drained at the
ratepayers' expense and turned into a flat, uninteresting public park. West of the city the suburb of
Fulflood has increased in the same way within the
last twenty years, the side roads branching north and
south from the Upper Stockbridge Road being lined
with modern cottages and villas. South of the Upper
Stockbridge Road is the workhouse, south of which
again is Oram's Arbor, where until the 19th century
the freemen met to choose their member for Parliament. There has lately (1908–9) been some controversy concerning the use of the Arbor as a public
recreation ground.
South-east of Oram's Arbor at the junction of
Upper High Street and Sussex Street is an obelisk
erected in 1759, on the site of an early processional
cross, to commemorate the plague which had raged
in the city in 1666. It was to this spot that the
peasants of the surrounding country had brought food
for the citizens, who carried it away after the peasants
had left, leaving payment for the same in a bowl of
vinegar to avoid infection. (fn. 1) The county police
station and the county gaol are on the north side of
the Romsey Road, the Roman road which goes out
from the Westgate to Salisbury, the Royal County
Hospital being on the opposite side of the road a few
yards west of the gaol.