MEDSTED
The parish of Medsted, covering an area of 2,484
acres of land, lies on the high country which rises
north-east of Alresford and south-west of Alton, and
slopes down towards the north-west to Preston Candover. Generally speaking the land of the parish
rises from south to north, though the highest ground—
697 ft. above the ordnance datum— is near the village,
which lies more to the west than the north. The main
road from Winchester to Alton cutting through the
town of New Alresford runs on through Bishop's
Sutton to Ropley, and gradually climbing towards
Medsted enters the south-eastern corner of the parish,
forming its south-eastern boundary line for about a
mile. As it enters the parish it sends off a branch road
north-west towards the village, passing under a railway
bridge on the Alton branch of the London and South
Western Railway, which runs through the parish for
about a mile and a half, north of and parallel to the
main road to Alton. There is a station at Medsted
on this line, near the spot locally known as Four Marks,
north-east of the bridge.
Leaving the railway bridge and winding between
fields and meadows the road continues north by the
small iron Congregational chapel standing on the west
side and between the several cottages and houses which
form that part of the village known as South Town.
Then curving slightly east it again turns sharply north
and runs between the village green, with its scattered
gorse bushes, which stretches to the east, and the trim
burial ground hedged in by a thick line of wellgrowing fir trees. This burial ground was formed and
consecrated in 1884 at a cost of £150, and is under
the control of a Burial Board of nine members. Past
the green and the cemetery the road branches east and
west, the eastern branch running towards Alton, the
western forming the main village street. Along this
the unpicturesque low slated cottages are grouped,
with the small village shops and the post office which
lies on the south side of the road. Nearly opposite
the post office is the old Congregational church, built
in 1850, now used as an oil store. Here at the west
end of the village a narrow branch curves to the
north from the main road, and after sending off a
branch north-east towards Bentworth circles round to
meet the main road again some few yards up. On
the island so formed is the church, standing comparatively near the road in the midst of several fine yew
trees; the schools, which stand immediately west of
the church; and two or three cottages, which stand
behind the church, two facing north, two facing west.
On the outer side of the circling road are two or three
cottages; the Castle Inn, a plain-fronted house
standing behind a narrow courtyard; and the parish
hall, consisting of two rooms, erected by the late
Mr. Thomas Nuller.
West of the church, on the south side of the main
village street, behind a high garden wall, stands Medsted House, round the grounds of which the road
curves to the south, downhill towards Bighton. On
the north side of the road as it curves stands the
rectory, round the east side of which a branch road
curves north-west towards Wield, sending off a branch
road south-west towards the small tithing of Hattingley about three-quarters of a mile from Medsted
village.
Both from Medsted House and from the rectory,
and from the high sloping fields which fall away to
the west, a panoramic view stretches north and west.
To the north over Wield and Preston Candover parishes
is seen the dim outline of the high country round
Nutley and Farleigh Wallop, and from this running
west a fine line of undulating country rising against
the horizon, Juniper Hill, Bogmoor Hill, Abbotstone
Wood, and Abbotstone Down.
The lane leading to the two farm-houses and the
three or four cottages composing Hattingley runs
downhill between fields and meadows, beyond which
as they stretch away to the north can be seen a long
blue line of distant country. Passing one group of
thatched cottages on the left the lane approaches the
high tiled wall which surrounds the garden of Pullinger's Farm, with its square white farm-house and
outbuildings lying on the north side of the road.
Nearly opposite, standing back from the road, is
Hattingley Farm with its substantial farm-house and
outbuildings. Some yards on are the two other groups
of cottages, standing north and south of the road,
which compose the rest of Hattingley. Beyond these
the road continues towards the few cottages composing
the small hamlet of Heath Green, which lie west of
it as it branches north and south near the western
border line of the parish.
There are several ancient wells in the village, but
owing to the great depth of all they are seldom used,
many of the inhabitants being supplied with water
from an underground tank. On high ground north
of the village are the remains of a circular entrenchment, and there are several barrows in the parish.
The soil is chalk and clay with a subsoil of chalk, producing crops of wheat and oats on the 1,278¼ acres of
arable land. The parish is sparsely wooded, the whole
36½ acres of woodland being covered by Boynes Wood
in the north-east. Everywhere, however, between
the arable fields is rich meadow land, and this with
the down land in north and west makes up the 1,069¼
acres of permanent grass.
There is no inclosure award for Medsted. Goatacre Farm preserves one of the old place-names, among
which, occurring at least in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are 'Croftpytte,' 'Mayegate, (fn. 1) 'Tennacres,' 'Pitacre,' 'Penland,' 'Layneham Down,' (fn. 2)
'Whitewey,' and 'Greenwayes.' (fn. 3)
MANORS
Although there is no separate mention
of MEDSTED either before or at the
time of the Domesday Survey, nevertheless, if the identification of place-names that occur in
an eighth-century charter of King Ine be correct,
Medsted must have been included in a grant of 40
mansae of land at Alresford made by that king to
Winchester Cathedral in 701, in confirmation of an
earlier grant by Kinewald. (fn. 4) It consequently formed
part of Alresford Liberty (q.v.) and the manor of Old
Alresford (q.v.), and is most probably included in the
entry under Alresford in Domesday Book. (fn. 5) That
this is so is supported by a perambulation of the manor
taken in the reign of Edward VI, (fn. 6) by the fact that the
tithing of Medsted sent a tithing-man to the old
Alresford court-leet, (fn. 7) and also by the circumstance that
Anthony Browne, an agent sent down from London to
report on the whole bailiwick of Bishop's Sutton (fn. 8)
previous to its purchase by Sir John Gate in the reign
of Edward VI, included in his survey the parish of
Medsted, reporting as follows:—'Midsted adjoyning
on the sowthest side of Wild and parcell of Old Alresford manor is verie well wodded with great beches
and some oks onn everie side the greate wodds thereof, which from the village roun a mile and a haulf of
Alton, and onn the west side from the ferme of
Alresford downe to the commen felds of Medsted and
on the sowth side to London hieghwaie that leadeth
from Alresford to Alton, and onn the northe side to
the mannor of Wild.' (fn. 9)
The parish still forms part of the manor of Old
Alresford.
The history of a holding in Medsted, afterwards
known as MEDSTED COURT, can be traced from
the fourteenth century. As late as 1316 the bishop
occurs as lord of the vill of Medsted without mention
of any sub-tenants of the manor, (fn. 10) but in 1346 Richard
Houtot, probably a descendant of a family which had
held small parcels of land in the parish as early as
1202, (fn. 11) was holding a knight's fee here which had
belonged to Andrew Houtot, (fn. 12) and seven years later
Martin de Hertham and Isabel his wife, sister and
heiress of Andrew Houtot, conveyed lands, rents, and
half a knight's fee in Medsted to William de Overton. (fn. 13)
He was followed by his son William, who held one
fee in Medsted and Tadelyng in 1428 which Richard
Houtot had formerly held; (fn. 14) and three years later
Thomas de Overton, William's son, held the manor of
Medsted, a liberty of the bishop of Winchester, by the
service of the fourth part of one knight's fee. (fn. 15)
In 1501 John Wayte of Titchfield recovered seisin
of the manors of Sutton and Medsted against Eleanor
Courte; (fn. 16) and in 1530 this John Wayte conveyed the
manor of Medsted to Richard
Lyster, (fn. 17) who, however, sold
all his right in it to Sir John
Leigh in 1556. (fn. 18)
Leigh. Gules a cross engrailed and a border engrailed argent.
Sir John Leigh (fn. 19) died seised
of the manor in 1575, (fn. 20) leaving an infant son and heir
John, aged one year, (fn. 21) who
died in 1612, and was succeeded by his son Thomas, a
child of six at the time of his
father's death. (fn. 22) Thomas Leigh
died in 1640, leaving a son
and heir Philip, aged eleven,
who evidently succeeded to the estates on the death
of his mother. (fn. 23) Philip Leigh still held Medsted in
1653, (fn. 24) but between that date and 1699 the manor
changed hands, for in the latter year John Henley
conveyed it to Joseph Mayor. (fn. 25)
In 1748 Edward Rookes was holding Medsted,
though whether by purchase or by inheritance is
uncertain, and sold it in that year to Sir William
Jolliffe for £1,400. (fn. 26) After this date no further record
of this property has been found.
In the fourteenth century we have records of
another holding in Medsted, which after being leased
to various tenants was conveyed to Nicholas de Hany
ton in 1333. (fn. 27) Two years later Nicholas de Hanyton
was granted a licence to alienate this land in mortmain to the prior and convent of St. Swithun at
Winchester, (fn. 28) who retained it until the dissolution of
the monasteries. (fn. 29) In 1541 it was granted to Sir
William Sidney, (fn. 30) and subsequently it seems to have
become amalgamated with his other lands, as there is
no further separate record of it.
CHURCH
The church of ST. ANDREW has a
chancel 22 ft. by 13 ft. 8 in., and a nave
45 ft. by 17 ft., with north transept and
aisle, a north-west vestry and south porch, and wooden
bell-turret. The whole building was modernized and
enlarged in 1833, the nave being lengthened at the
time, a west tower destroyed, and the south doorway
of the nave blocked up.
Though so completely modernized the building
probably preserves the dimensions of its twelfthcentury nave and chancel (the lengthening of the nave
excepted), the oldest work now existing being the
north arcade of the nave, c. 1160, of two bays with
semicircular arches of a single order chamfered on the
angles, square scalloped capitals, and round columns
with moulded bases, the whole liberally whitewashed
over. The chancel has a modern east window with
net tracery, and fourteenth-century trefoiled lights in
the north and south walls, the chancel arch being
modern, as are all other features of the nave. The
vestry and north transept are also modern, but the
north aisle retains its original width of 5 ft. 7 in.
The font, near the south door, which is to the west of
the older blocked doorway, is also modern, and near it
is the poor-box on a curious stone bracket, a corbel of
three engaged shafts with foliage more like fourteenthcentury French work than anything English; it appears
to be ancient, and was formerly an image bracket, on
the north side of the east window of the chancel.
There are three bells, the treble by Samuel Knight,
1705, the second and tenor being of 1655 and 1660
respectively.
The plate consists of a communion cup of 1563,
with an incised band of ornament on the bowl and
another on the foot, and a flat paten, probably of
local make, with the date 1680 upon it. The church
also possesses a brass cross of Abyssinian workmanship
from King Theodore's chapel at Magdala.
The first book of the registers begins in 1560, the
baptisms continuing till 1732, the marriages till 1723,
and the burials till 1702. The second book runs
from 1732 to 1779, and the third from 1780 to 1812,
while the fourth is the printed marriage register 1754–
1812.
ADVOWSON
At the time of the Domesday Survey there were three churches at
Alresford, (fn. 31) and as Medsted was
probably included in Alresford, possibly one of these
churches became later the parish church of Medsted.
Until quite recently the church of Medsted was
attached to that of Old Alresford, and the advowson
has therefore followed the descent of Alresford, and
was from earliest times in the hands of the bishop
of Winchester.
A few years ago the churches were separated, and
since then the living of Medsted has been in the gift
of the Lord Chancellor.
At the present day the living is a rectory with
7 acres of glebe and residence.
CHARITIES
In 1875 Henry Joyce Mulcock, by
will proved this date, left £500 to be
invested and income applied in the
distribution of articles in kind among the poor, the
charity to be called 'The Parish of Medsted Trust
Fund.' The legacy was invested in £528 15s. consols, with the official trustees.