BINSTEAD
Benestede (xi cent.).
Binstead, a small parish of 1,206 acres, including
in 1905 299½ acres of arable land, 476¼ acres of
permanent grass, and 253 acres of wood, (fn. 1) extends
from Ryde to Wootton Creek. It is separated from
the modern parish of Ryde by the small stream flowing into the Solent east of Binstead Church. The
village consists of a line of cottages and small houses
on either side of the Ryde to Wootton road. The
better inhabited part lies to the north, where many
superior villas have been built overlooking the Solent.
The ruins of the Cistercian abbey of Quarr lie within
the parish, as also the ancient quarries from which it
took its name. The position of these latter is clearly
indicated by the irregular ground between the high
road and the lane to Quarr. The stone, a tough,
hard, shelly limestone, used as far back as the Roman
occupation, (fn. 2) has practically ceased to be quarried,
though a small seam has lately been opened in the
copse to the west of the church.
There is a small hamlet at the mouth of the creek,
consisting of the coastguard station and a few small
villas and cottages, which doubtless represents the
place called Fishbourn or Fishhouse, upon the coast,
which the Abbot of Quarr in 1365–6 had licence to
inclose with a wall of stone and crenellate. He was
also permitted to build castles and fortalices there. (fn. 3)
A messuage called 'le Fysshehouse' was granted in
1544 to John and George Mill. (fn. 4) Near Wootton
Bridge is the 17th-century house called Kite Hill
belonging to the Fleming estate, the residence in
the 18th century of James Perry, whose daughter
married John Popham and lived on there with her
husband. It has been somewhat modernized, but
retains its original plan of a central block with projecting wings.
Samuel Woodford (1636–1700), the divine and
poet, lived at Binstead 'in a married and secular
condition.' (fn. 5)
MANORS
At the time of Domesday BINSTEAD, which Tovi, the king's thegn,
had held as a free manor of the Confessor,
belonged to William son of Stur. (fn. 6) It would appear
that Binstead must afterwards have passed to the
Crown, as it is probably to be identified with
half a hide in the Isle of Wight, whence stone might
be quarried for the cathedral church of Winchester,
granted by William the Conqueror to Walkelin,
Bishop of Winchester. (fn. 7) This grant William Rufus
extended by leave to dig for stone throughout the
Island where quarries existed, (fn. 8) and Henry I in a precept to Richard de Redvers bade him, somewhat
peremptorily, allow the monks of St. Swithun's to
take their due. (fn. 9) Indeed, some friction must have
arisen between the new lord of the Island and the
bishop, as the precept concluded with the significant
words, 'Quod si non fecis, Alveraldus de Lincoln
faciat ecclesiae et episcopo habere,' and a further
command was sent him to allow the monks to hold
their land, increased to a hide, peaceably and to quarry
stone without let or hindrance. (fn. 10)
Binstead, as a member of the episcopal manor of
Swainstone, (fn. 11) remained with the see of Winchester
till the surrender of that manor to Edward I in
1284. In 1292–3 it was found that the king's
quarry at Binstead could supply stone for the fabric
of the abbey church of Quarr as well as for any work
the Crown might wish to undertake in the Island,
so the abbot was to be allowed to dig and remove
what stone he required, paying at the customary rate
of 40d. a 'millena.' (fn. 12) The history of the manor is
identical with that of Swainstone (q.v.) till the
attainder of the Countess of Salisbury in 1541. (fn. 13) It
was granted in 1544 to Sir William Berkeley, (fn. 14) who
sold it in the same year to John Mill of Southampton. (fn. 15) It then passed with Nursling to Sir Richard
Mill, by whom it was sold in 1609–10 to Sir Thomas
Fleming. (fn. 16) The manor has since followed the same
descent as North Stoneham (fn. 17) (q.v.) and now belongs
to Mr. John Edward Arthur Willis-Fleming, the
present representative of the family, who has a
residence at Binstead House.
It seems probable that the abbey of Quarr was
built on the manor of NEWNHAM, for in the
taxation of the abbey lands in 1291 no land at
Quarr is mentioned, while the land at Newnham
heads the list of the abbey's possessions in the Isle of
Wight. (fn. 18) Further, in the valuation of the possessions
of the abbey in 1536 under the heading 'Quarr' is
included the manor of Newnham with the site of
the abbey. (fn. 19)
The manor, therefore, probably belonged to the
abbey from its foundation in 1131. The abbot and
convent obtained a grant of free warren in all their
lands including this manor in 1284. (fn. 20) The possessions of the abbey at Newnham in 1291 were
valued at £10, (fn. 21) and in 1536 the manor with the
site of the monastery was worth £11 19s. 4d. (fn. 22) The
site of the abbey and the grange of Newnham were
leased in 1537 for twenty-one years to John Mill of
Southampton, (fn. 23) and this estate with the manor of
Quarr was granted in 1544 to John and George
Mill. (fn. 24) The manor of Newnham, the site of the
abbey, and the southern portion of the manor of
Quarr from that time followed the descent of Binstead Manor, and now belong to Mr. John E. A.
Willis-Fleming, but the northern part of the manor
of Quarr called the Quarr House estate was sold
about 1858 to Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane. His
son sold the house and grounds in 1907 to the Benedictine community from Solesmes, who have recently
erected conventual buildings on the site.
Newnham Farm is of the 17th century, but has
been added to in the 18th century, and a series of
initialled dates cut in the brickwork over the east
door refer to a family of Young, tenants of the manor
in 1774. (fn. 25)
QUARR
ABBEY
The Cistercian house of our Lady at
Quarr was founded in 1131, by Baldwin
de Redvers, as a colony from Savigny, and
was consecrated 1 June 1150. A licence
to wall and crenellate was granted in 1340, and this
work was still in progress in 1366. The abbey was
dissolved in 1537.
The existing remains are scanty, but present the
general features of a normally arranged Cistercian
house, save for the fact that all the conventual
buildings are on the north instead of on the south
side of the church. (fn. 26) The church was completely
demolished at the Dissolution, so that its very site was
uncertain sixty years later, when Sir John Oglander
visited the spot.
The fragments revealed by excavation indicate that
the general type of architecture in the church and
the greater part of the conventual buildings was that
of the middle of the 13th century. For the most
part nothing can be recovered beyond the foundation
plan, the foundations themselves having been dug out
in many places. The portions of the abbey left above
ground are a great part of the cellarium, of which the
southern end has been converted into a barn; parts
of the kitchen, part of the south-west walls of the
frater or refectory, and two buildings believed by
Mr. St. John Hope to be the wood-house and the
infirmary chapel.
The church was of the usual Cistercian type, consisting of a presbytery, quire and nave, together about
160 ft. long and 26 ft. wide, north and south transepts about 35 ft. north to south by 20 ft. east to
west, each with an eastern aisle 15 ft. wide, of three
bays, and containing a chapel in each bay, with
dividing walls between, and nave aisles about 10 ft.
wide. Apparently at a later period north and south
chapels were built to the presbytery, lining with its
east wall, and with the southernmost and northernmost bays of the north and south transept aisles
respectively, and a porch or galilee some 16 ft. deep
was built right across the west end of the church,
while a chapel 50 ft. long by 20 ft. wide covered the
southern end of this porch as well as the two westernmost bays of the south aisle of the church. The
northernmost of the north transept chapels appears to
have been lengthened about the same time.
In the thickness of the presbytery wall on the
north, and just west of its junction with the east wall
of the north transept aisle, is a grave, apparently constructed during the building of the church. This
was probably the founder's tomb. When opened in
recent years it contained the bones of a tall man
and a woman, but showed indications of previous
disturbance.
The clearstory appears to have been lighted, as at
Netley, by triple lancet windows, of which fragments
are to be found in the modern farm buildings at the
south end of the cellarium. If this was so, the usual
western progression of the church is plainly indicated,
though, by analogy with Buildwas, which Quarr
closely resembles in general proportions, the use of
the pointed arch is no evidence of late 'transitional'
date.
Of the existing buildings the most considerable
portion is the southern end of the cellarium, which
extended northwards from the western portion of the
church; a doorway opened to it from the porch next
to the west wall of the church. Another wide doorway in its east wall opened into the north aisle of the
church, opposite to a corresponding opening in its
west wall, thus forming a clear way, doubtless partitioned from the rest of the cellarium, from the outside
to the church. This southernmost portion of the
cellarium therefore practically formed an extension of
the north aisle. Another and smaller doorway in the
west wall stands opposite to a window looking into
the cloister. To the north again a window in the
west wall faces a narrow doorway in the east wall
opening to the cloister, and a little further north is a
narrow loop in the west wall, with a wide window
opposite to it. Most of these are blocked, and the
upper part has been rebuilt in the 17th century.
There are no traces of any sub-vault, though a set-off
runs along both walls for about two-thirds of the
present length, at about 9 ft. 6 in. from the present
floor level. A circular light in the north wall and a
blank window in the east gable have been brought
from elsewhere. At the north-east angle of the
cellarium, and forming the western part of the north
range of the cloister, are the remains of the kitchen.
Apparently there were two entrances from the cloister.
Near the easternmost is a deep recess. The fireplace
probably stood in the north wall, which was 9 ft.
thick. In the east wall are a locker and a hatch to the
frater. The shelf grooves of the locker appear to be
of Roman tiles. Next the kitchen to the east remain
portions of the south and west walls of the frater,
which ran north and south. In the south wall the
western jamb of the great door, raised by two steps
from the cloister, remains. It had Purbeck marble
capitals and jamb shafts. There are traces of arcading
on the interior walls, and the hatch to the kitchen,
on the frater side, has jamb shafts and a segmental
head. In the south-west angle are two lockers, also
with segmental heads. A lavatory recess was just to
the east by the frater door, in the cloister. Next to
the frater on the east, and completing the north
range, was the warming-house, with a recess and a
large fireplace in the east wall, and a doorway to
a yard in the north wall. From the yard a passage
led northwards to the building considered by
Mr. St. John Hope to have been the wood-house.
It opened northwards to other apartments, and possibly
to a passage to the reredorter.
Sketch Plan of Quarr Abbey
The dorter undercroft, of which the southern end
formed the north half of the eastern range of the
cloister, projected northward till it was stopped by
the wall of an apartment between it and the passage
to the reredorter. It had a central row of seven
columns, and was doubtless vaulted and divided into
several chambers. In the third bay from the south
is a deep recess in the western wall. To the south of
it was the chapter-house, which was divided into three
alleys by two rows of six columns, supporting the
triple vault of seven bays, and was entered from the
cloister at the west end by a triple doorway, or arcade
of three bays, of its full width, supported on groups
of three shafts, one row of four shafts on each of the
three steps down from the cloister. The two outer rows
were cylindrical, the lower ones thicker than those on
the top step. Those on the lowest step were, like all
the rest of the columns in the chapter-house, of four
slender columns clustered round and attached to a
central thicker shaft. The columns on the two
descending levels were stilted on plinths to bring the
bases of all three rows to a common level, and the
bases of all the columns in the chapter-house itself
were brought to this level by similar plinths. Each
group of three columns on the steps was linked together
by a little arcade of moulded arches running through
the thickness of the entrance arch. The lowest row
not only matched the other columns of the chapterhouse, but also formed the westernmost supports of
the three alleys of quadripartite vaulting. A wall
arcade ran round the three remaining sides of the
building, its shafts being exactly like those of the free
arcades, and almost completely detached from the
wall. Between their plinths was a stone bench-table.
All the bases, shafts and capitals throughout the
building were of Purbeck marble, and the ribs of the
vault were of freestone. Externally pairs of rightangled buttresses stood at the east angles, with two
smaller buttresses between the bays of the east
wall.
Alongside the chapter-house to the south, between
it and the north transept of the church, was a slype
leading from the cloister to the cemetery. It is possible that the sacristy may have been in the small
extension of the northernmost transept chapel, but its
position is uncertain. At the east end of a long
passage or pentice leading from the dorter subvault along and beyond the north wall of the chapterhouse, and forming the south side of the infirmary
court, lay the infirmary hall, a large building of three
aisles running north and south. The west aisle was
at a later date divided into rooms by partition walls.
Opening off the hall on the east is a building, still
partially standing, which is thought by Mr. St. John
Hope to have been the infirmary chapel. It was a
building of two stages of late 13th-century date, and
its western doorway, opening to the infirmary hall,
was pointed, with shafted jambs and a segmental
rear-arch on the infirmary or western side, where the
jambs were also shafted. This doorway formed the
central arch of an arcade across the western end of
the building, the other two arches inclosing recesses
with stone benches in them. It had a window on
the north-west with a pointed head and shafted
jambs, a wide internal splay and a pointed and
moulded rear-arch. A similar window was opposite
in the south wall. In the middle of the north is a
wide fireplace, of at least a century later, with a
square head and panelled sides, and eastward of it a
doorway to the open. There was another fireplace
in the upper stage at the west end. It seems very
likely that, whatever the original purpose of the
building may have been, it was converted into a
misericorde in the late 14th or early 15th century.
The rest of the remains of the monastery are so
fragmentary as to make conjectural restoration idle.
The new road to Ryde was driven some forty years
since right through the southern half of the foundations of the church from east to west, and many
other indications of buildings on the site are no less
completely obliterated.
CHURCH
The church of the HOLY CROSS
stands on the high ground at the northeastern corner of the parish, and consists
of a nave and chancel built of the local stone, the
employment of which probably accounts for the
apparently early 'herring-bone' work in the walls. (fn. 27)
The church was probably erected for the use of the
workers in the quarries, c. 1150, and was originally
much as it is shown in Tomkins' print of 1795. (fn. 28)
From Tomkins' print of 1794, Sir Henry Englefield's description of 1816, and Mr. Withers' notes
and drawings in Weale's Quarterly Papers, the church
originally consisted of a nave and chancel, separated
by a plain semicircular arch springing from roughly
carved Romanesque imposts and lighted by small
narrow single lights. (fn. 29) In the latter part of the
13th century a remodelling must have taken place,
as is shown by the windows of that period still
remaining and the vestry door now walled up. A
south porch was added in the 18th century, and
in 1844 the nave was pulled down bodily and rebuilt.
The south wall of the chancel has a square-headed
low-side window, and in the sill of the south window
is a trefoiled piscina. In the outer face of the north
wall is an aumbry recess, and below the east window,
now blocked by the modern reredos, is another recess,
the door of which, with its 15th-century hinge, (fn. 30) is
in the vestry. In the west wall two Romanesque
keystones have been built in, as has also a rude representation of the Sanctus Spiritus over the porch. All
three came from the ancient nave, as did also the
present entrance to the churchyard, which was
originally the north door of the church. In the
new belfry hangs an ancient bell inscribed in black
letter 'Sancta Maria ora pro nobis,' which may have
come from Quarr. There are no monuments of any
interest, but in the churchyard is a pictorial headstone to Thomas Sivell, 'cruelly shot on board his
sloop by some officers of the Customs at the Port of
Portsmouth, June 15, 1786.' Sir John Oglander
notes that one of the early pioneers of Arctic research,
Captain John Gibbons, 'comminge from ye northwest passage—being imployed thethor for ye discoverie of that passage by Prince Henry, sonn of
Kinge James … dyed at Ride and … wase
buryed in ye midle of ye chawncell' (of Holy Cross,
Binstead). (fn. 31)
The plate is modern.
The registers are in three books: (1) burials 1710
to 1759; (2) baptisms and burials 1758 to 1812;
(3) marriages 1755 to 1812.
ADVOWSON
The advowson has always been, as
now, with the see of Winchester, (fn. 32)
and on the surrender of the bishop's
lands in the Isle of Wight in 1284 was specially
reserved with those of Calbourne and Brighstone,
the king resigning 'all right he might claim to the
said churches by reason of his manor of Sweyneston
or for any other cause.' (fn. 33) The rector of Calbourne
claimed archidiaconal jurisdiction over Binstead, but
was resisted in 1321 by the parson of Binstead, John
de Witney, who, however, had to give way and resign
in favour of Nicholas de Yestele (Eastleigh), collated
by the bishop. (fn. 34)
The church paid a yearly pension of 2s. to Winchester, (fn. 35) and was served in the 16th century by
an obedientiary of Quarr. (fn. 36) After the Dissolution,
Sir John Oglander notes, (fn. 37) the rectors assumed the
abbot's privilege of marrying without licence and
proving wills, 'and all thinges that ye Abbot in
former times cowlde doo; whereupon ye parsons for
longe time afterwardes weare called Bischoppes of
Binsteede. But that power, as it wase butt usurped,
so it wase taken from them when Bilson and Andrewes
weare Bischoppes of Winchester' (fn. 38) (1597–1628).
There is a Nonconformist chapel (Wesleyan).
The schools are non-provided, worked by the
Local Education Authority in conjunction with local
managers.
There do not appear to be any endowed charities
or permanent institutions in this parish other than
the National school. (fn. 39)