UP NATELY
Opnatelegh, Estropnateley, Natale, Natteleges
Estrope (xiii cent.); Up Natele, Upnatelegheseththrop (xiv cent.).
Up Nately is situated 4 miles east from Basingstoke
and 2½ miles south-west from Hook station on the
main line of the London and South Western Railway.
The parish contains 1,143 acres of land and 6 acres
of land covered with water, and rises from 225 ft.
above the ordnance datum in the north to 397 ft.
above the ordnance datum on its southern boundary.
The north-east of the parish is covered with copses,
while the south is open down-country. Basingstoke
Canal flows through Up Nately, entering it at Little
Tunnel Bridge. The village is situated a little to the
south of the canal, and from it roads run north over
Brickkiln Bridge and west over Penny Bridge to join
the main road from Basingstoke to London at Scures
Hill and Hatch respectively. Eastrop Farm and
Eastrop Bridge to the east of St. Stephen's Church
commemorate the fact that the parish was sometimes
known as Nately Eastrop (fn. 1) to distinguish it from
Nately Scures. The soil is clay, chalk, loam and
sand and the subsoil clay and chalk. The chief crops
are wheat, oats, barley and roots. There are extensive brickfields no longer in use in the parish. The
chief landowners are the Baroness Dorchester of
Greywell Hill, Winchester College and Messrs.
Herbert B. Thorp and William Palmer.
The extra-parochial district of Andwell situated
north of the Basingstoke Canal contains 148 acres and
consists of the Priory Farm with the lands attached,
the interesting remains of the Benedictine Priory formerly occupied by a colony of monks from the abbey
of Tyron and a water-mill worked by the River
Lyde—all grouped together a short distance south of
the main road from Basingstoke to London. The
soil is clay, sand and gravel and the subsoil clay.
The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots, and
watercress is also cultivated. Up Nately and Andwell
together contain 628 acres of arable land, 281 acres
of permanent grass and 122 acres of woods and plantations. (fn. 2) Among place-names found in early records
are Hangate (fn. 3) (xv cent.); Slades and Howpitts (fn. 4)
(xvi cent.).
Manor
The whole of Andwell and the greater
part of Up Nately were included in the
great manor of Maplederwell (q.v.) until
early in the 12th century, when Adam de Port, lord of
Maplederwell, by charter granted £7 14s. worth of
his land in Nately and various privileges (fn. 5) to the great
Cistercian abbey of Tyron in France. (fn. 6) This charter
was confirmed by Henry I. (fn. 7) Tyron forthwith sent
a colony of monks to settle in this new estate, which
was subsequently known as the manor of ANDWELL.
Roger de Port, the eldest son and successor of Adam,
much increased his father's benefactions by granting
to the monks of St. Mary of Andwell lands at Winchester and Maplederwell, the mill and miller of
Andwell and a virgate of land pertaining to the mill,
and all the chattels and tithes of the mill once held
by the Priory of Monk Sherborne, (fn. 8) and other gifts
followed from the de Ports of Maplederwell. (fn. 9) Andwell met with the same fate as the other alien priories
in England, being sequestered by Edward III on the
ground of the allegiance it owed to his adversary of
France. (fn. 10) In 1376 it was committed at a rent of
£10 to Thomas Driffed, who guaranteed to find a
monk to officiate in the church, to keep the priory,
church and buildings in repair, and to pay the tenth
as often as one was granted by the clergy. (fn. 11) He
failed to keep the contract, however, for commissioners
appointed after his death in 1386–7 assessed the
dilapidations to the property at £68. (fn. 12) During the
latter part of the reign of Richard II the parent
monasteries of alien houses were permitted to sell
them to other religious houses or to persons who
desired to use them for
founding charities, hospitals or
other works of charity. (fn. 13)
William of Wykeham, Bishop
of Winchester, availed himself
of this privilege by buying
Andwell from the abbey of
Tyron in 1391, paying £20
to Thomas Thorpe, to whom
its custody had been committed in 1387, for his
interest therein. (fn. 14) The bishop
bestowed the manor or priory
of Andwell with all its
possessions, then valued at
£10 10s. a year, on his newlyfounded College of Winchester, (fn. 15) in possession of
which it has continued to the present day. (fn. 16)
Winchester College. Argent two cheverons sable between three roses gules, which are the arms of William of Wykeham.
The principal remains are those of the church and
of a part of the western range, but the approximate
position of the other claustral buildings and the site
and extent of the cloisters themselves may be deduced
with some certainty. The church is on the north of
the site, and consists of a small chancel 17 ft. by
16 ft. 6 in. and a nave 38 ft. by 19 ft. 6 in. Nearly
the whole of the north and south walls of the nave
remains complete with the windows, and probably
not reduced in height to any appreciable extent. Of
the west wall of the nave about two-thirds to the
north has collapsed and is replaced in brick. No
traces remain of a chancel arch. Of the chancel only
the lower parts of the north and east walls remain now
about 6 ft. in height, and probably partly rebuilt at
that, for no traces of windows are left. The church
is now used as a barn.
Plan of Andwell Priory, Up Nately
Almost the whole of the east and north walls of the
western range remains, two doors being in situ in the
former, which is built about in line with the west
wall of the church. The western range thus projected west of the church by nearly its full width,
the extent of which is now uncertain, for the west
wall has disappeared and is replaced by a brick wall
of comparatively recent date and possibly not on the
old foundations. This part of the building now
forms the kitchen of the farm-house which covers the
rest of the site of this range, while a later wing dating
from about the middle of the 19th century is built
east and west and covers the western part of the frater
range. Of the latter and of the dorter range, chapter
house, &c., nothing is standing above ground except
a piece of walling running east
and west and apparently part
of the south wall of the dorter.
A small portion of freestone
quoining in this suggests the
inside south-west angle of the
dorter and gives a line which if
carried north intersects the
church at about the east line of
the nave. The dimensions of
the cloisters thus obtained are
41 ft. 6 in. each way, which
places the north wall of the
modern house on the north
line of the frater and conventual
kitchen. The site of the
cloister and of the destroyed
buildings is now the farm-house
yard, and the fragments of wall
and the buildings are connected
up by thin modern walls completing the square. In all cases
the old walling is of flint rubble
with freestone dressings. The
earliest detail remaining is of
early 12th-century date and
may well be original. The
next date of which there is
evidence corresponds with the
dedication of 1220, (fn. 17) a portion
of a window of that time remaining. Finally in the first
half of the 14th century the
large window of the nave was
inserted and the claustral build
ings largely reconstructed, if not rebuilt. By the
end of the century, however, the place appears to
have fallen into disrepair, (fn. 18) but no recognizable
traces of the repairs of this time remain. The postReformation work which converted the buildings
into a farm-house has no detail of any interest; they
are of various dates and of the simplest character.
The north and east chancel walls, which are standing to about 6 ft. in height, have no detail of any
sort. At the east of the nave is a dilapidated halftimber partition of 17th-century date, of which a
good deal of the herring-bone brick nogging has
fallen out. In the south wall are two complete
windows and the western jamb of a third. The
last, which is the 13th-century one already referred
to, and has lost its eastern jamb, head and sill, is
placed high up in the wall. The remaining jamb is
chamfered and rebated for a glass frame. It has
been made into a door, opening into the loft formed
by inserting a floor at about two-thirds the height of
the walls. The other jamb is roughly made up in
17th-century brickwork and rubble, and the stair or
ladder to it which no longer remains was contained
in the small half-timber structure of 17th-century
date, which is built against the nave at this point and
is now much dilapidated. West of this are a window
of early 14th-century date and three uncusped lights
with interlacing mullions. The sill of this window,
unlike the other windows, is only about 4 ft. above
the floor and must have cut into the cloister roof.
The third window in this wall is one of the 12th
century. It has a plain round external head and is
possibly rebated, but is now blocked up and obscured
by creepers. The splay is wide and the rear arch
round-headed. Opposite this on the north is a
similar window, also blocked up, which has lost its
external head. At the west end of the north wall,
high up, are the blocked remains of a wood-framed
17th-century light.
In the middle of the north wall is a tomb niche of
late 14th-century date. The head is trefoiled and
chamfered and has an ogee label. At the springing are
plain moulded circular corbel caps.
The only remaining trace of the west door is a
fragment of its abacus, a plain chamfered one of 12th-century date. The extra thickness of the west wall
suggests that it was surmounted by a bell gable. The
two doors of the western range are both of 14th-century date. Both have two-centred heads and are
continuously chamfered, while the door to the south
has a drop-arched head. Either of these doors may
have opened into the outer parlour. In the north
wall of the western range is a fragment of a window
jamb but devoid of detail. Between the two doors
noted above is a small recess now repaired in brick
but apparently an old one.
Andwell Mill probably marks the site of one of the
mills included in Maplederwell in 1086. (fn. 19) As stated
above, it was granted to the monks of Andwell by
Roger de Port, and there are various references to it
in records relating to Andwell. In 1291 rents,
meadow and a mill in Andwell belonging to the
priory were valued at £3 a year, (fn. 20) and three years
later the annual value of the water-mill is given as
20s. (fn. 21) In 1324 it was worth £2 a year, (fn. 22) and in 1387
dilapidations of the water corn-mill at Andwell were
assessed at £6 13s. 4d. (fn. 23) At the view of frankpledge
held at Basingstoke on 12 May 1470 John Baron the
miller of Andwell was fined 12d. for taking excessive
toll. (fn. 24) In 1294 there is mention of a fulling-mill at
Andwell worth 12s. a year. (fn. 25) In 1324 this mill was
farmed at 12d. a year. (fn. 26)
A portion of Up Nately continued to form
part of the manor of Maplederwell even after the
foundation of Andwell Priory. Thus in 1285 Ela
widow of Philip Basset, who was then holding
Maplederwell for life, obtained licence to alienate a
messuage and half a virgate of her land in Up Nately
to a chaplain celebrating divine service in the church
of Up Nately. (fn. 27) Again, in 1535 the Hampshire
possessions of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to which
William Frost had granted the manor of Maplederwell, included lands and tenements assessed at 35s. 10d.
a year. (fn. 28)
Other portions of the parish were included in the
neighbouring manors of Nately Scures and Greywell,
and the Baroness Dorchester as lady of these manors
is one of the principal landowners in the parish at the
present day.
Church
The church of ST. STEPHEN consists of a chancel 11 ft. 1 in. by 7 ft. 9 in.
and a nave 36 ft. by 20 ft. 3 in. with a
small west tower 6 ft. square and a north vestry.
The walls of the nave belong to the original late
12th-century building, but they have been entirely
refaced, and later windows have been inserted.
The chancel, tower and vestry were built in 1844.
The east window of the chancel is modern and has
three cinquefoiled lights under a four-centred head.
The chancel arch, which is 4 ft. I in. in thickness, has
square jambs and semicircular arch with a grooved
and hollow-chamfered abacus at the springing. It is
entirely of late 12th-century stonework.
The easternmost of the two windows of the nave
is of r 5th-century date and has two cinquefoiled lights
each under a square head with a moulded label. The
other three nave windows are modern copies set in
old jambs.
The north doorway is near the west end of the
north wall and is of late 12th-century date. The jambs
and semicircular arch are of two chamfered orders
with a grooved and hollow-chamfered abacus and a
label enriched with dog-tooth ornament.
The vestry and the tower have each a plain twolight window under a square head.
The tower is built of brick and flint and has a
plain two-light window in each face near the top.
The walls of the nave are faced with flint and brick
except the east wall, which is plastered flintwork. The
vestry is of brick and the chancel flint and brick.
The tower contains two bells, the first bearing the
initials R P 1716, and the second being merely dated
1715.
The plate consists of a silver chalice and paten
cover of 1681, a silver flagon of 1788, given in
1833 by James Blatch, vicar, and a silver alms plate
of 1792, given also by James Blatch, vicar, in
1846.
The registers are kept with those of Basing. The
first book contains all entries from 1695 to 1812
except the marriages, which stop at 1750. The second
book contains marriages from 1756 to 1812. This is
not a book of printed forms, but has simply ruled lines.
Advowsons
Up Nately has from the earliest
times been a chapelry dependent on
the parish church of Basing (q.v.),
the living of which is a vicarage of the net yearly
value of £350 in the gift of Magdalen College,
Oxford. (fn. 29) The church of the priory of Andwell was
dedicated between 1215 and 1238, as appears by an
indulgence of forty days granted by John, Bishop of
Ardfert (1215–24), who had officiated for Peter des
Roches, Bishop of Winchester (1205–38), to all who
having confessed and repented had come to the consecration of the church and offered alms, and an indulgence of ten days on like terms to those who had
attended the dedication of the altars which had taken
place on the Feast of the Holy Innocents. (fn. 30) The
advowson of the church or chapel of Andwell was
included in the grant of Andwell to Winchester
College in 1391, (fn. 31) but it is doubtful whether a
chaplain was ever appointed by the college.