QUARLEY
Ferlei (xi cent.); Cornelea (xii, xiii cent.); Querle,
Querlye, &c. (xiv cent.); Qwarley, Qwharley (xv cent.).
Quarley is bounded by Cholderton, Amport,
Grately and the Wiltshire border. The soil is
light and friable, of the secondary chalk formation,
and the subsoil is chalk. (fn. 1) The total area of the
parish is 1,692 acres, over two-thirds of which are
arable land, rather under a third permanent grass,
and the small remainder woods and plantations. (fn. 2)
The principal crops are barley, oats and turnips, with
sainfoin and grasses. Little more than 300 ft. above
sea-level at the north and south extremities, Quarley
Hill in the centre rises to a height of 561 ft. On
the summit is a large camp. Formerly there were
entrenchments extending along Cholderton Hill and
three others in different directions, which have, however, been levelled.
The village is situated in the north on either side
of a road running due north and south through the
parish. The rectory is on the west of the road, and
opposite it is St. Michael's Church standing in Quarley
Park.
There was an inclosure award here in 1794. (fn. 3)
Manor
Earl Harold had held QUARLEY,
and in Domesday Book it was assigned
to the Conqueror, (fn. 4) although Maud of
Flanders, his wife, who died in 1083, had given it
to the abbey of Bec Hellouin. (fn. 5) Like its neighbour, Monxton, the manor was in the charge of the
Prior of Ogbourne (co. Wilts.), the principal cell
of Bec in England, and is probably that 'Cornby'
over which the abbot claimed royal liberties and
customs in 1281. (fn. 6) Be that as it may, according to
the Assize Roll of 1280, the prior had the rights of
gallows, view of frankpledge, infangentheof, chattels
of felons and fugitives and assize of bread and ale, in
all his lands in Hampshire. (fn. 7) In 1404 Henry IV
granted all the possessions of Ogbourne to his son
John of Lancaster (vide Monxton), afterwards Duke
of Bedford and guardian of England, who held them
until his death in 1435, when they came to Henry
VI as his heir. (fn. 8) In 1438 £20 yearly from Quarley
Manor was assigned to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester as part of a pension of 2,000 marks. (fn. 9) In
April 1441 the manor was granted in free alms to
the master, brethren and sisters of the hospital of
Saint Katharine by the Tower of London, (fn. 10) and a
fuller regrant was made in the following August
'with all rights, appurtenances, profits, commodities,
emoluments, courts and views of frankpledge thereto
belonging, and with all rights and claims which the
king had therein as freely as the Priors of Ogbourne
held the same.' (fn. 11) Edward IV gave a fresh charter
in 1462. (fn. 12) In 1563 the hospital leased the manor in
reversion to Godfrey Wilson for ninety-nine years
from Michaelmas 1594. (fn. 13) This lease, which descended
to Hugh Pitman, who died
seised c. 1616, (fn. 14) was subject
to a reservation of a half-share
of casualties, of profits of
courts, and of fines and
heriots, together with all the
great wood and timber standing and growing on the
premises. In 1892 the hospital
sold the manor to Augustus
John Henry Beaumont
(Paulet) fifteenth Marquess
of Winchester, (fn. 15) whose brother,
the present marquess, is now
lord of the manor.
St. Katharine's Hospital. Party fessewise gules and azure with a sword lying barways in the chief and a demi Catherine wheel argent in the foot.
Church
The church of
ST. MICHAEL
consists of a chancel 20 ft. 5 in. by 13 ft. 6 in., north vestry, nave
31 ft. 9 in. by 16 ft. 4 in., and a south porch.
The nave is not later than the beginning of the
12th century and has the remains of three windows
and a north doorway, belonging to the early work.
The walls are 2 ft. 8 in. thick, built of flint set in
herring-bone fashion, and the windows are high in
the walls. The western angles have fair-sized quoins
of wrought stone, but the eastern angles, so far as
they can be seen, are of flint without any wrought
dressings. The whole church is so overgrown with
ivy that much of the wall surface, especially in the
chancel, is entirely hidden.
Plan of Quarley Church
There was no doubt a chancel smaller than the
present one, which appears to be an enlargement of
the 15th century, and has now an east window of
18th-century classic design. The porch was added
in 1881 and the vestry in 1882.
The east window of the chancel is of three lights,
the middle one round-headed and the others flat,
divided by detached square shafts inside and out, with
Ionic capitals; the side lights have now been filled in
with masonry. The only other chancel window is
one in the south wall, dating from the 15th century
and being of two cinquefoiled lights with semiquatrefoils above, under a square head and with a
moulded label outside. A priest's doorway to the
east of it is probably contemporary with it; it has a
pointed head of two continuous hollow-chamfered
orders. In the north wall, to the east, is a low tomb
recess some 7 ft. long and diminishing in depth from
head to foot; it has a sunk quarter-round order running round the jambs and pointed segmental arch
and stopping on moulded bases. No stone or slab
bearing any inscription or ornament now lies in the
recess, which appears to date from the middle of the
14th century. Next to it is a modern doorway into
the vestry, and west of this is a modern arch in which
stands the organ. The vestry is lighted by three
lancets and has a blocked doorway in its west wall.
The chancel arch is a modern one of simple design.
The north wall is now unpierced, but contains
the stones of the west jamb of an original window
set high up in the wall in about the middle of
its length, and further west is a blocked roundheaded doorway of the same period, of plain design.
Of the two windows in the south wall the one east of
the doorway dates probably from early in the 15th
century; it has three trefoiled lights with halfquatrefoils above under a square head. The mullions
are modern. The other window is of two lights of
similar design but of modern date. The south doorway is a pointed one of a single chamfered order; it
is probably contemporary with the window east of it.
Over the doorway and partly destroyed by it is
another blocked round-headed window, and high in
the west wall (above the later west window) is a third,
fairly perfect. All have Jarge roughly-worked stones
in the jambs, but the heads are of thin small stones set
radially like tiles. Only the west window can be seen
from the outside; it has a round head in a single
stone, and wrought stones, set long and short fashion
in its north jamb; in the south jamb this is, however, not the case. The splay runs straight to the
outer face without a chamfer.
The lower west window has modern tracery but
old inner jambs, perhaps 15th-century work. The
wall beneath it is of later date than the general
surface, and there may have been in the first instance
a west doorway. The blocked north door, very near
to the north-west angle of the nave, has a plain
round head in fairly large stones, and the jambs are of
the same character. The radius of the arch is wider
than the jambs, and it seems that the head was
originally filled with a tympanum. The upper edges
of the springing stones are horizontal and not radial,
having a triangular space between them and the next
arch-stone, which is filled in with mortar on one side
and with a small stone in a very rude mortar joint on
the other. The stones show a rough diagonal tooling,
which stops at a well-marked line, beyond which the
stone was meant to be plastered. The surface is
higher beyond the line, instead of lower, as might
have been expected, in order to make a stop for the
plaster. The same thing occurs on the quoins of the
north-west angle, and cannot be entirely due to
weathering of the exposed part.
The nave roof has a few old timbers, with strutted
king posts, but the chancel roof is modern.
The font has been partly retooled and is probably of 13th-century workmanship; it has a
round cup-shaped bowl on a short round stem. The
late 17th-century altar rails, with very pretty twisted
and carved balusters, are now set across the chancel
arch, and more of the same kind are worked into the
modern pulpit. The other furniture is of modern
date.
In the floor, by the font, is a coffin-lid with an
incised floreated cross (probably of 14th-century date)
with a trefoiled leaf at the base of the stem.
Forming the threshold of the vestry doorway is
part of a 17th-century gravestone to John Pitman,
and there are also a number of monuments to the
family of Cox, the oldest dating from 1748.
The two bells now hang on a low frame in the
churchyard to the north of the church. One is inscribed ' Sancta Maria ora pro nobis' and has the
maker's mark, a small black letter s, on the shoulder;
the other is by I.D. 1636, and has the words 'Love
God.' A third bell was cracked and since recast;
it is not now in the church.
The plate consists of a silver chalice and cover of
1779, a chalice of 1895, a paten of 1894, also a
plated chalice and paten and a flagon (secular).
The first book of the registers contains baptisms
1559 to 1712, marriages 1560 to 1708, and burials
1559 to 1711; the second has baptisms 1712 to
1786 (exclusive of the year 1720, contained in the
first book), marriages 1708 to 1752, and burials 1711
to 1808; the third book has baptisms 1787 to 1812,
and burials in 1812 only; the fourth marriages 1755
to 1811.
Advowson
The church, which is mentioned
in Domesday Book, was held with
the manor. The Prior of Ogbourne
presented as procurator-general for the abbey of Bec
in England, except, that is, when the priory was in
the king's hands, as was the case in nine presentations
out of ten during Wykeham's episcopacy. (fn. 16) In the
deeds whereby Henry VI granted Quarley Manor to
St. Katharine's Hospital in 1441 (fn. 17) no mention was
made of the advowson. Apparently this left room
for uncertainty; for in Bishop Waynflete's first
register two presentations by the hospital are recorded,
followed by four by Eton College, (fn. 18) which had a
conceivable claim under the terms of its charter of
endowment. (fn. 19) This was evidently the reason for the
charter of 1462, (fn. 20) in which the advowson is specifically
referred to and the matter settled. The church is
still in the gift of St. Katharine's Hospital, which
was removed from its old site to its present one near
Regent's Park in 1825 to make way for the St. Katharine Dock. During their tenancy of the manor (q.v.)
in the 17th century the Pitmans presented to the
living. (fn. 21)
In 1399 relaxation of five years and five quadragene (fn. 22)
of enjoined penance was granted to penitents who on
the principal feasts of the year and those of the dedication and St. Michael, the octaves of certain of them
and the six days of Whitsun week should visit and
give alms for the conservation of the church of St.
Michael the Archangel, Quarley. Those who did
this on the said octaves and days only were released
a hundred days. (fn. 23)
The school was built in 1817 for thirty-six
children.
Charities
Mrs. Sophia Sheppard, by deed of
25 July 1844, gave an annuity of
£20 for the benefit of the poor of
the parish (see under Amport). In 1906 the sum
of £20 received from Magdalen College, Oxford, was
applied in the distribution of coals among 32 persons.
The official trustees hold a sum of £200 consols in
respect of the charity of the Rev. Thomas Sheppard,
D.D., and Richard Cox, the dividends of which,
amounting to £5 a year, arc carried to the school
account.