HERRIARD
Henert (xi cent.); Herrerd (xiii cent.); Hereyard
(xiv and xvi cent.).
The parish of Herriard covers an area of 2,978 acres
of high country, which rises on every side from
near the centre of the parish, where the ground
is lowest and where the houses are mostly grouped.
Even here the lowest ground is 500 ft. above the
ordnance datum, yet the general impression is that
the parish lies low, since the high ground round
Ellisfield and Farleigh Wallop rises to the west
to more than 600 ft., and in the south-east the
land stretches away towards Shalden, rising to over
680 ft. near Shalden Green. From Basingstoke, however, the main road to Alton running south-east
gradually climbs up to Herriard, entering the parish
in the extreme north-west. From here it runs for
about a mile and a half along the western boundary
of the beautiful woodland country of Herriard Park,
which fills up the whole of the north-east of the
parish, and extends into the parish of Tunworth.
Curving gently towards the south-east between the
park and ploughed fields and meadows the road comes
to the lodge gates of Herriard House, which stands
in the south-west of the park, quite hidden from the
road. South of the lodge gates, also on the east side
of the road, is the church, standing behind a low
wooden, lichen-covered fence, and approached by an
avenue of Irish yew trees. Almost directly opposite
the park gates an oak tree surrounded by a triangular
wooden seat heads a rough narrow lane which runs
south-west into Bagmore Lane, passing some cottages
and the manor farm which stands on the north side
of the lane. The farm-house, behind which runs a
fine tall line of elm trees, stands well back from the
road, while the thatched outbuildings and farm lands
stretch away west and south. The rest of the village
consists of cottages and houses which lie quite apart
from the church and manor farm. For another halfmile the road leads on between the south-western
boundary of the park and field and meadow land,
until it comes to the schools, dated 1851, which lie
on the west side. Beyond the schools the road runs
across Bagmore Lane coming from Weston Patrick,
leads south-west to Herriard Station on the Alton
branch of the London and South Western Railway,
and to the few cottages which lie round the station
and on the north side of the lane as it goes to Preston
Candover. Meanwhile the main road continuing
south-east curves more directly south by Elderfield
House (now used as the vicarage), which stands back
on the west side of the road, and passing the blacksmith's shop runs between Hyde's Farm, which stands
on the east, and the small village pond, by the New
Inn, a modern slated building, and a small group of
old cottages, one of which is the village post-office,
all standing on the west side of the road. Beyond
these the road continues south towards Lasham. A
lane curving to the south-east by Hyde's Farm leads
to the thatched cottages and houses lying for the
most part on the west side of the road, composing
the quiet little hamlet of Southrope. Lee Farm lies
further north-east, while The Grange, the residence of
Mr. A. T. E. Jervoise, (fn. 1) occupies the site of the grange
that once belonged to the nuns of Wintney. The
soil of the whole parish is clay and chalk with a subsoil of chalk, and crops of wheat, oats, and roots are
grown on the 902 acres of arable land. The greater
part of the parish is, however, given over to permanent grass, which covers 1,266 acres. Of the 729 acres
of woodland, Hen Wood with Cowdray's Copse, (fn. 2) and
Honey Leaze in Herriard Park cover the widest extent,
while in the south-west are the Herriard Beeches and
Herriard Common Wood, and in the south-east is
Brick-kiln Common, adjoining Weston Common.
MANOR
Erlenc, before the Conquest, held
HERRIARD. Hugh de Port was lord at
the time of the Domesday Survey, (fn. 3) the overlordship being held by his descendants William, John,
and Edward de St. John in the reigns of Henry III
and Edward III. (fn. 4) Holding from the St. Johns were
the Fitz Peters, Herbert Fitz Peter in 1235 (fn. 5) being
followed by Sir Reginald Fitz Peter (fn. 6) in 1251, Matthew
Fitz Peter (fn. 7) in the reign of Edward III, and Herbert
Fitz Peter (fn. 8) in 1526.
It must have been very early in the thirteenth
century when John de Heryerd was lord of this land.
His son Richard de Heryerd died in 1221 leaving as
his heiress his sister Maud, (fn. 9) who married Richard de
Sifrewast. By this marriage the latter acquired
Herriard and held it for the service of a knight's fee
and a half of Herbert Fitz Peter in 1235. (fn. 10) Maud de
Heryerd and Richard Sifrewast had sons Nicholas and
Roger, and Richard Sifrewast, son of the latter,
married the mother of Fulk de Coudray. (fn. 11) To this
Fulk de Coudray (the stepson of her grandson Richard),
Maud de Heryerd, then a widow, and Nicholas her
son agreed to give in perpetuity the manor of Herriard in exchange for the manors of Sherborne in
Hampshire and Padworth in Berkshire. (fn. 12) Fulk de
Coudray died in possession of the manor in 1251
leaving a son and heir, Peter de Coudray, aged fourteen. (fn. 13) Upon Sir Thomas de Coudray (fn. 14) the manor
settled in 1297, he being succeeded by his son Sir
Thomas, who died in 1349. (fn. 15) Sir Fulk, son of the
latter, died childless and was
succeeded by his cousin, Sir
Henry (fn. 16) (holding in 1354),
who in turn dying without
issue, was succeeded by his
nephew Edward Coudray in
1365. (fn. 17) The manor then
passed from father to son,
Peter, Edward, and again Peter
de Coudray, holding during
the fifteenth century. (fn. 18) On
the death of the last Peter
the male line of the family
ended. He predeceased his wife, Dorothy Coudray,
who died in 1528 without male issue. Her
heiresses were her three daughters, Joan, Elizabeth,
and Margery. (fn. 19) Of these Joan became wife of
Peter Kydwelly, (fn. 20) and Margery wife of William
Riche, (fn. 21) while Elizabeth married Richard Paulet. (fn. 22)
Joan and Margery and their husbands granted their
thirds of the manor to Elizabeth and Richard Paulet,
who thus became possessed of the whole. (fn. 23) Their
son, John Paulet, died in September, 1579, during
the lifetime of his mother, who had by that time
married her third husband George Puttenham (fn. 24) ;
he left a son, Richard Paulet, who held Herriard
manor some few years later. (fn. 25) With the death of
this son, Sir Richard Paulet, Herriard passed from
the male line of the family,
and was settled upon his
daughter Lucy, wife of Sir
Thomas Jervoise, who followed
Sir Richard in the reign of
James I. Sir Thomas Jervoise
received his knighthood from
James I. He represented
Whitchurch (Hants) in the
Short and Long Parliaments
of Charles I, and was a staunch
supporter of the Parliament
during the Civil War. (fn. 26) The
family of Jervoise held in succession in the male line as follows: three lords of the
manor of the name of Thomas Jervoise, the son,
grandson, and great-grandson of the husband of Lucy
Paulet, during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. The
first of these followed in his
father's footsteps in his adherence to the Parliament,
and he and Captain John
Jephson were described by
Clarendon as 'the two eldest
sons of two of the greatest
rebells.' Tristram Huddlestone Jervoise held in 1776,
and George Purefoy Jervoise
in 1792. Here the male
line terminated. From Mary
Purefoy Ellis Jervoise, sister of the last male heir,
the manor passed to her son Francis Jervoise Ellis
Jervoise, who held it in 1849. From his son Francis
Michael Ellis Jervoise the manor passed to his son
and heir, Francis Henry Tristram Jervoise, the
present owner. (fn. 27)
Coudray. Sable ten billets or.
Paulet. Sable three swords set pilewise with their hilts or.
Jervoise. Sable a cheveron between three eagles close argent.
The present house was built in 1704, and is a
large brick building covered with plaster, containing
some good eighteenth-century panelling, and later work
of the Adams period; there is also a little early
seventeenth-century panelling from a former house.
There is a good deal of excellent seventeenth and
eighteenth-century furniture, some inlaid cabinets
being particularly fine, and there are a large number
of portraits, including an early panel picture, belonging to a class of royal and other portraits of which
there is a good series in the library of the Society
of Antiquaries.
SOUTHROPE
SOUTHROPE (Sudtrop, Suthorp, Sudetrope,
Suderope, xiii cent.) was held of the crown. (fn. 28) An
inquisition taken in the reign of Henry III shows
that Richard le Malle was granted the hamlet of
Southrope by Henry II for the serjeanty of keeping
the king's falcons. (fn. 29) In 1221, however, Maude de
Heryerd and her husband Richard de Sifrewast paid
a fine when they entered upon the land of Richard
de Heryerd in Southrope. (fn. 30) During the reign of
Henry III the lady of Herriard was summoned to
show by what warrant she held the hamlet, which the
king appeared to regard as his property. (fn. 31) Her title
must have been found good, as Fulk de Coudray held
Southrope with the manor of Herriard in 1251, (fn. 32) the
hamlet evidently having formed part of the grant to
Fulk from Maud de Heryerd. Thence onwards the
hamlet follows the descent of the manor. (fn. 33)
The De Heryerd family were benefactors of
Wintney Priory. A charter of Edward I confirmed a
charter of Richard son of Richard de Heryerd, which
in its turn confirmed the gift of Richard Makerel to
the nuns of Wintney of 1½ virgates of land in Southrope, afterwards known as WINTNEY HERRIARD
GRANGE, which had been granted to John and
Thomas Makerel by his father Richard de Heryerd. (fn. 34)
Maud de Heryerd also had alienated rent to the
nuns. (fn. 35) King Henry III attempted to obtain a virgate in Southrope from the prioress as part of the
royal manor of Odiham alienated without licence. (fn. 36)
Richard de Sifrewast was called to warrant the
prioress's right, which he did. (fn. 37) However, the matter
ended well for the nuns, as Edward I made them a
grant in free alms of a virgate of land and 5 marks
rent, 'which the king lately demanded against them.' (fn. 38)
In 1428 the grants made to Wintney represented
half a knight's fee in Herriard. (fn. 39) At the Dissolution
all lands in Wintney Herriard which had belonged
to the priory were granted to Sir William Paulet,
first marquis of Winchester, comptroller of the household of Henry VIII, and brother of the Richard
Paulet who married Elizabeth Coudray. (fn. 40) The
Paulets held the manor of Herriard Wintney (fn. 41) until 1851, when Lord Bolton sold it with the advowson
to F. J. E. Jervoise, grandfather of the present owner
of Herriard. (fn. 42)
In 1337 the prioress and convent of Wintney
enfeoffed Sir Thomas Coudray of rent from their land
in Herriard and Ellisfield for the endowment of a
chantry chapel in Sherborne Coudray for the benefit
of the souls of Sir Thomas and his ancestors. (fn. 43) From
'the outgoing' of the manor of Herriard Wintney
Richard Paulet paid £4 to the chantry priest at the
Vyne in the reign of Edward VI. (fn. 44)
CHURCH
The church of OUR LADY is a very
valuable example, built about the year
1200, of excellent style and detail, preserving, in spite of decay and repair, much of its
original character. It has a chancel 26 ft. by 16 ft. 6 in.,
with modern north vestry, a nave 47 ft. 4 in. by
20 ft. 2 in., with a modern north aisle and a modern
west tower.
The east window of the chancel is a fifteenth-century insertion of three cinquefoiled lights with
tracery, probably replacing a group of three lancets.
The side walls preserve the original arrangement of
three lancets, a pair coupled in the eastern part of
the wall, and a single light farther west. (fn. 45) Externally
these are quite plain, but have an edge roll at the
inner angle, and a moulded string at the sill level.
At the north-east of the chancel was a small vestry,
part of the original design, which is now destroyed,
but traces of its roof-line and door are yet to be seen.
In a drawing of 1828 in the possession of Mr. F. H. T.
Jervoise this doorway is shown complete under the
second lancet on the north. Below the east window,
and now hidden by the altar table, are two large
square locker recesses, of original date, rebated for
doors, and under the first window in the south wall
is a round-headed piscina recess with a modern bowl,
and a square locker to the west of it. Their nearness
to the floor shows that the levels have been raised in
modern times. Near the south-west angle of the
chancel is a square-headed low side window of fourteenth-century date, the lower part blocked up; it
now contains a few pieces of old glass, including a
pretty fifteenth-century figure of St. Margaret in white
and gold glass, formerly in the tracery of the east
window of the chancel, above the south main light.
The chancel arch, which before the repairs of
1876–7 had spread dangerously and was cracked and
distorted, is a very fine feature, 14 ft. 8 in. in span,
with three moulded orders and a dog-tooth label.
In the jambs are short engaged shafts with foliate
capitals, the two belonging to the inner order and
the south capital of the outer order being ancient, all
the rest, with the bases and much of the stonework
of the arch and jambs, dating from 1876. The nave
had in the first instance three lancets on each side,
with doorways between the second and third. The
north wall has been destroyed by the addition of the
aisle and its place taken by an arcade of three bays with
octagonal shafts and capitals, but in the south wall
two of the original lancets remain, the place of the
third, the eastern of the three, being taken by a threelight fifteenth-century window, inserted to give more
light to the south nave altar. Another window of
this kind now takes the place of the south doorway,
having been put here in 1876; before that date it
was at the north-east of the nave in a corresponding
portion to the other. The original south doorway
has completely disappeared; it had a brick porch over
it in 1828, but no drawing of it seems to be extant.
By a rather unusual treatment the inner jambs and
rear arches of the fifteenth-century windows have been
made to harmonize with the thirteenth-century lancets,
having a similar edge roll worked on them.
The west tower is of three stages with a plain
parapet and a north-east stairway, and serves as a
porch to the nave. The jambs of its eastern arch are
in part of old stonework, and the entrance is from the
south through a fine pointed doorway, formerly the
north doorway of the nave, of two moulded orders
with a dog-tooth label, and nook-shafts with foliate
capitals. Several small crosses are scratched on its
jambs. Before the building of the tower there was a
square wooden turret at the west of the nave, and an
external brick stair to a square-headed door in the
west wall leading to a gallery. Under the gallery
was a square-headed window of three lights. Externally the ashlar clasping buttresses of the south
angles of the nave are preserved, but the chancel
has added diagonal angle buttresses. On the nave
buttresses are a considerable number of incised
sundials.
At the east end of the north aisle is the organ,
screened by the re-used materials of a fine pew which
used to stand in the south-east angle of the nave. It
has high panelled sides surmounted by open arcades
with a carved cornice and turned finials. On the
heads of the posts are the initials of Peter and Dorothy
Coudray, Richard and Elizabeth Paulet, John and
Katherine Paulet, Richard and Anne Paulet, Sir
Thomas and Lucy Jervoise, and Sir William and
Anne Young, and the dates 1635 and 1819, the
latter marking a repair.
The font, of serpentine, is at the west end of the
nave, and is modern, as are all the other fittings of
the church.
In the west window of the north aisle is a little
old heraldic glass, with the arms of Popham—there
was a Coudray-Popham marriage in the fifteenth
century. Below is the upper part of a second shield,
per pale indented or and gules.
At the west end of the aisle is a large slab with the
indents of two shields, apparently of fifteenth-century date.
Popham. Argent a chief gules with two harts' heads or.
There are three bells; the
treble by a late fourteenthcentury London founder, probably John Langhorne, inscribed: 'Thomas vocor ego
Nevile super omnia sono';
the second by John Warner,
1876; the tenor inscribed
Nathaniel Hied, 1654.
The plate consists of a very
fine parcel-gilt cup of 1562,
unusually richly ornamented,
with an inscription recording its repair in 1850;
a modern paten (1849) engraved to match the cup;
a second paten of 1887, and a plated flagon.
The first book of the registers begins in 1666, and
goes to 1731, the second goes from 1736 to 1792,
and the third from 1791 to 1812.
ADVOWSON
Under the Taxation of Pope Nicholas the church of Herriard was assessed
at £16 13s. 4d. (fn. 46) The Coudray
family were patrons until 1333, (fn. 47) when Thomas de
Coudray granted the advowson in mortmain to the
prioress and convent of Wintney. (fn. 48) The nuns held
the patronage until the Dissolution, (fn. 49) when it was
granted by letters patent to Sir William Paulet, (fn. 50) in
whose family it remained for over three centuries.
Lord St. John presented in 1664, the marquis of
Winchester in 1683, Charles, duke of Bolton in 1736
and 1742, Harry, duke of Bolton in 1758, Lord
Bolton 1802, William Paulet or Lord Bolton in 1830,
and again Lord Bolton in 1835. (fn. 51) In 1851 Lord
Bolton sold the advowson to Mr. F. J. E. Jervoise, (fn. 52)
whose grandson Mr. F. H. T. Jervoise is the present
patron. (fn. 53)