DROXFORD
Drokeneford (ix cent.); Drocheneford (xi cent.);
Drokenesford (xiv to xv cents.).
The parish of Droxford lies in the Meon valley,
the River Meon, which here runs due north and
south, flowing just within its eastern boundary for
nearly three miles. The western boundary of the
parish runs along the chalk downs on the west side of
the valley, the highest point being 400 feet above
sea level. The village is built along the main road
from Fareham to Alton, which here runs parallel to
the river on the west, taking an undulating course on
the lower spurs of the downs. The church, manor
house, and rectory stand in the middle of the village,
a little to the east of the road, and at the bottom
of a dip between two ridges; the houses of the village
being to the north, west, and south. Hazleholt Park,
the residence and property of Mrs. A. Taylor,
occupies some 280 acres in the north-west corner of
the parish, in a depression of the down land. Droxford parish (exclusive of the now separate parishes of
Swanmore and Shedfield) comprises 2,469 acres, of
which 906¼ are arable land, 401 permanent grass,
and 357¾ woods and plantations. (fn. 1) The chief crops
are wheat, oats, and barley. The common lands of
the parish were inclosed in 1855. (fn. 2)
In the latter part of the thirteenth century Droxford
comes into notice as the native place of an interesting
person, John de Drokensford. He was keeper of the
wardrobe to Edward I, and accompanied that king on
some of his Scotch campaigns. He afterwards became bishop of Bath and
Wells, and Lord Chancellor
of England. John de Drokensford is said to have been
the son of the local squire,
and an effigy of a lady in the
south side of Droxford church
has been supposed to be that
of his mother. (fn. 3)
John de Drokensford, Bishop of Bath and Wells. Quarterly azure and or with four (?) heads of croziers countercoloured.
The connexion of Izaak
Walton with Droxford has
recently been emphasized by
Canon Vaughan. Walton's
son-in-law Dr. Hawkins, prebendary of Winchester Cathedral, was instituted rector of
Droxford in 1664, and held the office till his death in
1691. Walton passed the last years of his life with his
daughter and her husband, and a passage in his will
says: 'I also give unto my daughter all my books at
Winchester and Droxford, and whatever in these two
placesare, or I can call mine.' Mr. John Darbyshire, who
was Dr. Hawkins's curate, and Mr. Francis Morley,
were Droxford residents and great friends of Walton. (fn. 4)
The civil parish of Swanmore was formed out of
parts of Bishop's Waltham and Droxford in 1894, (fn. 5)
the name having originally been borne by a tithing in
Droxford manor. (fn. 6) The present parish consists of
2,362 acres, of which 1,457¾ are arable land, 598½
permanent grass, and 162½ woodland. (fn. 7) The chief
crops are wheat, barley, oats, and roots. The north-west portion is a continuation of the down land of
Droxford, and on this high land stands Swanmore
House, the residence of Mr. Myers, M.P., one of the
principal landowners in the parish. To the south, at
a lower level, lies the village, at the junction of the
chalk with the clay, the change of soil being marked
by the existence of brick-works. The southern part
of the parish, which is bounded on the south-east by
the Meon River, was formerly all comprised in Waltham Chase. The bishop of Winchester being lord
of both Bishop's Waltham and Droxford manors, the
queston arose in 1761 as to whether the tenants of
Waltham, as intercommoners with the tenants of Droxford, had a right to cut bushes and underwood 'in
that part of the common that is within the manor of
Droxford.' It is interesting to note that this document
gives to Waltham Chase its other name of 'Horderswood Common,' the two names being clearly stated
to be interchangeable. (fn. 8) The wood called 'Bishops
Wood' lies across the boundary between Swanmore
and Shedfield. It is so called from the fact that when
Waltham Chase was inclosed in 1870, this was the only
part left to the bishop. It has since been sold by
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to Major Daubeney.
Shedfield, also a former tithing of Droxford, was
created a civil parish in 1894. (fn. 9) The chief natural
feature is an outlying spur of the downs called
Shirrell Heath, 250 ft. above sea-level. It is well
wooded on the north and east slopes, and a farm called
'Hawk's Nest' lies on the eastern side. On the summit are several houses, including a convalescent home.
The water-works for Gosport are also in process of
erection here. From its isolated position, Shirrell
Heath commands a magnificent view of the Hamble
and Meon valleys, with the blue hills of the Isle of
Wight on the horizon. Shedfield village consists of
a few houses, with church and school, lying on either
side of a cross road in the fork formed by the branching of the Fareham road to Bishop's Waltham and
Botley respectively. The common behind the school,
though called Shedfield Common, is really in Wickham parish. Three fine estates in this parish are
Hall Court, Shedfield House, and Shedfield Lodge,
owned and occupied respectively by the Rev. A.
Murray-Aynsley, Lady Phillimore, and Mrs. Franklyn.
The parish comprises 2,003 acres, of which 801¾
are arable land, 691½ permanent grass, and 158½
woods and plantations. (fn. 10) The soil is sandy loam, and
the chief crops are wheat, barley, and oats. Fruit is
also cultivated.
Traces of the old tithing of Hill (fn. 11) are to be seen
in the place-names Hill Place (the residence of Major
Daubeney), Hillpound, and Hill Grove.
MANORS
The manor of DROXFORD, like its
neighbour Bishop's Waltham, was one of
the manors of the see of Winchester.
The first grant of the land was in 826, when King
Egbert, 'in gratitude to God for his coronation as
king of all England,' gave the vill of 'Drokeireford' to
the prior and monks of St. Swithun, Winchester. (fn. 12)
In 953 King Eadwig granted twenty mansae of
land in Droxford to the noble lady Ædelhild, who
probably held as a tenant of the monks. (fn. 13) According
to the Domesday Survey Droxford was among the
lands held by the bishop for the support of the monks
of Winchester. (fn. 14) It was then assessed at 14 hides,
in contrast to the 16 hides of the time of Edward
the Confessor. In 1284 the manor passed wholly
to the bishop, the monks renouncing 'all right and
claim which they have or shall have in the said manor,
for ever.' (fn. 15) This agreement marked the termination
of a long series of disputes between successive bishops
and priors. The credit for the peace was due to
Bishop John of Pontoise, who in return for the
manor of Droxford (inter alia) granted to the monks
certain advowsons and rights. In the same year
Edward I granted to the bishop the return of all
writs within the manor of Droxford. (fn. 16) After this
Droxford remained in the hands of the bishops of
Winchester until the reign of Edward VI, when in
1551 Bishop Poynet surrendered the whole hundred
of Waltham, including Droxford manor, to the
crown. (fn. 17) Thence it passed the following month
to William, earl of Wiltshire. (fn. 18) Queen Mary, however, restored it in 1558 to the bishopric. (fn. 19) The
bishops retained the manor until the great Civil War,
when the Long Parliament found a purchaser for
Droxford in one Mr. Francis Allen, who gave
£7,675 13s. 7d. for it. (fn. 20) On the Restoration, the
bishops recovered their possessions, and Droxford
remained attached to the lands of the Winchester see
until the Bishops' Resignation Act of 1869. (fn. 21) Droxford then passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,
who have since continued to be lords of the manor.
In 1376 John de Garton of Erehutte, late citizen
of London, died seised of lands and rents in MIDDLETON held of the bishop of Winchester, with
suit of court to the manor of Droxford. (fn. 22) This is
evidently the same as Midlington, a tithing in Bishop's
Waltham Hundred. (fn. 23) There is no descent traceable
of the owners of this property, and the lands seem to
have been split up. At a court baron held at
Droxford Manor in 1761, it was presented that 'all
lands that did heretofore belong to the manor of
Midlington have no right of common in Waltham
Chase.' (fn. 24) Midlington is now owned and occupied by
Mr. F. H. Christian.
Steeple (? Stepple xv cent. (fn. 25) ), now represented by
STEEPLE COURT, is a well-wooded piece of land
situated on the right bank of the Hamble, before it
widens to an estuary. It formed a part of Droxford
parish until 1884, when it was transferred to the
parish of Botley by order of the Local Government
Board. (fn. 26) In the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth,
Steeple Court was called a manor, (fn. 27) which seems to
have owed suit to the parent manor of Droxford.
At a court baron held at Droxford in 1761 it
was decided that 'Steeple Court farm has no
rights of common in Horderswood' (fn. 28) (Waltham
Chase). In the sixteenth century Steeple Court was
in the hands of the family of Faukener, (fn. 29) a name
which is found in connexion with the neighbouring
parish of Swanmore as early as the thirteenth century. (fn. 30) By the eighteenth century it belonged to the
family of Warner, (fn. 31) which had long owned land in
South Hampshire, particularly in Titchfield, Waltham,
and Botley. (fn. 32) The Rev. Henry Jenkyns, canon of
Durham Cathedral, bought Steeple Court from
Mr. William Warner about 1875. It is now the
property of Lady Jenkyns.
CHURCHES
The church of OUR LADY AND
ALL SAINTS, DROXFORD, has a
chancel 28 ft. 3 in. long by 15 ft. 6 in.
wide, north and south chapels of equal length,
13 ft. 7 in. and 13 ft. 2 in. wide respectively, nave
45 ft. 2 in. by 19 ft. 6 in., with north and south aisles
8 ft. 8 in. wide, south porch, and west tower 13 ft. 3 in.
square—all measurements being internal.
The earliest details belong to 1150–60, at which
time the church possessed an aisleless nave and chancel, whose walls still stand for the most part, though
pierced with arches opening to the aisles and chapels.
The chancel arch of this church remains intact, and
the north and south doorways of the nave, though
not in their original positions, are part of it. The
chancel had two small round-headed windows on
each side, and remains of those on the south are still
to be seen. Towards the end of the twelfth century
a north chapel was added to the chancel, and a north
aisle to the nave, and in the first half of the thirteenth century a south aisle was built. At the beginning of the next century the north chapel was rebuilt,
probably on a larger scale, and the south chapel either
newly built or enlarged from a previously existing
building.
The aisles of the nave were widened in the late
years of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth
century, and in 1599 the present tower was built,
leaving no evidence of the size of its predecessor, if
it had one. In the eighteenth century the church
was fitted with new roofs and ceilings, and the clearstory windows of the chancel remodelled. The walls
of the church are of flint rubble with ashlar dressings,
and the roofs are red-tiled.
The chancel has a fifteenth-century east window of
three cinquefoiled lights with tracery in the head, and
is also lighted by two clearstory windows on north and
south, the internal masonry of which is probably of
fifteenth-century date, but externally they are of the
eighteenth century. The chancel opens to the
chapels by wide arches, that on the north of late
twelfth-century date, being of one order pointed,
with a chamfered label and an edge-roll towards the
chancel, and a plain chamfer towards the chapel. At
the springing are square-edged strings, hollow-chamfered beneath, and the edge-roll of the arch continues down the southern angles of the jambs. Over
the south arch are remains of two round-headed
lights, the original south windows of the chancel,
with wide internal splays.
The north chapel, c. 1300, has an east window of
three trefoiled lights, and two two-light north windows, with cusped piercings in the head. In the
south-east corner is a locker with a shouldered lintel,
and rebated for a door, with a shelf-groove, and to the
west of it a piscina recess with a plain arched head.
The chapel opens to the north aisle by a late fifteenthcentury pointed arch of two hollow-chamfered orders,
the outer dying out at the springing and the inner
carried by half-octagonal moulded corbels. The
south respond of this arch is the north-east angle of
the original nave, and preserves its quoin-stones
unaltered.
The south chapel, probably built at the same time
as the north chapel, has an east window of three
trefoiled lights with intersecting tracery in the head,
the openings being cusped. In the south wall are
two two-light windows like those in the north chapel.
Near the south-east angle is a trefoiled piscina, and
north of the east window is a large canopied and
crocketed niche for an image, with a panelled base.
The arch at the west end of the chapel is of the same
date and design as that in the north chapel; but the
corresponding east angle of the aisleless nave has been
cut back and the original quoins destroyed.
The chancel arch is semicircular, of two orders on
the west face, the outer with a large roll, and the
inner with a good zigzag pattern and an edge-roll,
and of one plain order on the east face. The outer
order on the west has nook-shafts with foliate capitals,
and small shafts with scalloped capitals are worked on
the western angles of the inner order.
The nave is of three bays, with a north arcade of
wide pointed arches of a single order springing from
plain rectangular piers, with square-edged chamfered
strings at the springing. All arches have a plain
chamfered label towards the nave, and the eastern arch
has an edge-roll on arch and jambs, the other having
plain chamfered angles.
The south arcade has pointed arches of two chamfered orders without labels, the outer order dying into
the walls at the east and west of the nave without
responds, while the inner is carried on half-round
moulded corbels of mid-thirteenth-century character.
There is a clearstory on the north side only, of two
three-light windows, a pointed light between two
square heads; on the south the roof is carried
without a break over the nave and south aisle.
The north aisle has two square-headed north
windows of late fifteenth or early sixteenth-century
date, each of two cinquefoiled lights with pierced
spandrels, and in the west wall is a plain squareheaded two-light window of the date of the tower.
The wall in which it is set is in part of late twelfthcentury date, the original north-west quoins of the
former aisle being visible and showing the extent to
which the aisle was widened at the later rebuilding.
The blocked doorway in the north wall was formerly
the north doorway of the aisleless twelfth-century
church, and like the contemporary south doorway
must have been twice moved and reset. Both have
semicircular arches of two orders with a chamfered label,
the label enriched with tooth-moulding on the upper
member and a zigzag on the chamfer, while the outer
order has a beaded cable mould and three rows of
horizontal zigzag, and the inner order is plain. The
outer order has nook-shafts in the jambs with moulded
bases, and capitals scalloped in the north doorway
and simply foliate in the south. On the east jamb
on the south doorway is an incised sun-dial.
The south aisle has the same arrangement of
windows as the north, of the same detail and dates,
and in its west wall is similar evidence of widening.
The west tower, built in 1599, is finished with
modern red-brick battlements, the north and south
windows of the upper stage being of two lights in
brick, while the east and west windows are of modern
stonework, with four-centred heads to the lights. In
the middle stage is a square-headed window of three
lights, and another in the ground stage over the west
doorway. The stonework is nearly entirely modern
here, and over the latter window is a tablet with the
date 1599, also in modern stonework. At the northwest angle of the tower is a projecting rectangular
stair turret.
The roofs of the church seem to have been entirely
renewed in the eighteenth century, when plaster
cornices and ceiling were added, and the chancel roof
was tiled and hipped at the east. Plaster coved eaves
were added to the north and south chapels, and a
cornice with mutules to the chancel, and there are
traces of internal painted decoration of this date.
The altar rails are an interesting example of seventeenth-century date, with heavy rails and posts
crowned by finials in two cases, and balustrades of
turned shafts. The other fittings of the church are
modern, the panelling round the east end of the
chancel being a very good piece of work. In the
north chapel on the south and east walls parts of an
eighteenth-century masonry pattern decoration remain
in red lines, with floral sprays in each block.
The font is modern, of twelfth-century design, with
a square bowl on a central and four angle pillars.
In the north chapel is a brass plate with an inscription to Edward Searle, farmer, 1617, and close to it
a marble slab with the indent of an inscription plate.
In the south chapel is the effigy already referred to, a
poor figure in Purbeck marble of a lady in long gown
with hanging sleeves and a jewel hung round her
neck.
There are four bells, the treble of 1606, the second
recast 1899 from a bell of 1631, and the third and
tenor of 1672.
The plate consists of a silver cup and paten of 1737,
and a cup, paten, and flagon of 1632.
The registers begin in 1633, the first book going
to 1736, but the marriages end in 1701 and the
burials in 1727. The second book is of burials in
woollen, 1678–1739, and the third has baptisms
1778–1812, marriages 1732–54, and burials 1740–1812. The fourth and fifth have marriages 1754–90
and 1790–1812.
The church of ST. BARNABAS, SWANMORE,
erected in 1845, is of stone and flint, in twelfth-century style, the south aisle and tower being added in
1876–7. The register dates from 1845.
The church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST,
SHEDFIELD, built in 1875, replaces an older
structure on the same site, the tower of which still
stands in the churchyard. The register dates from
1829.
ADVOWSONS
The earliest mention of Droxford
church is in 1280, when the king
presented to the living because of a
vacancy in the see, (fn. 33) the usual patron being the bishop
of Winchester. (fn. 34) The advowson was surrendered with
the manor to the crown by Bishop Poynet in 1551, (fn. 35)
was granted by the king in the same year to William
earl of Wiltshire, (fn. 36) and restored to the bishopric in
1558. (fn. 37) The living is a rectory, and was entered in
the Valor Ecclesiasticus among the 'peculiar benefices'
of the bishop, (fn. 38) in whose gift it still remains. (fn. 39)
Swanmore was constituted a consolidated chapelry
and ecclesiastical district in 1846. (fn. 40) The living is a
vicarage in the gift of the bishop of Winchester.
In 1829 Shedfield was constituted an ecclesiastical
parish. The living is a vicarage in the gift of the
rector of Droxford. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel at Droxford, built in 1886; another on
Shirrell Heath (now in Shedfield parish), built in
1864; and another at Swanmore, built in 1863.
CHARITIES
Henry Collins, by will 1679,
charged a close called Clever's Close in
Bishop's Waltham with the payment
of 30s. a year, 5s. to be paid to each of six of the
poorest people in Swanmore yearly for ever on the
Thursday before Easter.
John Arthur, by will 1722, gave to the poor of
the tithings of Droxford and Hill £30; John Dee,
by will 1749, gave to the poor of this parish £50;
and the Rev. James Cutler, formerly rector of the
parish, by will 1782, left £50. These sums, with
accumulated interest, were laid out in the purchase of
£215 1s. consols, now held by the official trustees,
the dividends, amounting to £5 7s. 4d., are applied
with the next mentioned charity.
In 1850 James George Boucher, by will, bequeathed
to the rector and churchwardens a sum now represented
by £190 18s. 7d. consols, with the official trustees, for
the benefit of the poor of the parish. The dividends,
amounting to £4 15s. 4d., were together with the
charities of John Arthur and others applied in 1905
as follows: to the vicar of Shedfield £4 3s. 8d., to
the vicar of Swanmore £3 5s. 6d., to be distributed
in those districts, and £2 13s. 6d. was given in money
to ten poor persons of Droxford.
Poor's Allotments. By Inclosure Award of 9 May,
1855, two allotments of 4 acres each (numbered
respectively 213 and 284) were allotted for the use
of the poor of Shedfield, the rents whereof, amounting
to about £25 a year, are applied for public uses,
subject, however, to a yearly rent-charge of £3 5s. and
of £3 respectively. Under the same award 5 acres
of land were allotted as a recreation ground.
By deed of 1880 a site and buildings thereon were
conveyed for the purpose of reading and recreation
rooms.
For the school and its endowments see article on
'Schools,' V.C.H. Hants, ii, 404.
Swanmore. For the combined charities see
Bishop's Waltham.
Poor's Allotments. By the Inclosure Award of
1855 an allotment of 7 acres was allotted for the use
of the poor of Swanmore, producing about £10 a
year, which is subject to a yearly rent-charge of £6.
Under the same award 5 acres were allotted as a
recreation ground.
For the school and its endowments see article on
'Schools,' V.C.H. Hants, ii, 405.