THE SOKE
In the old eastern suburb of the
city, the ancient liberty of the Soke,
is Cheesehill Street, running north
and south, east of the main arm of the Itchen, (fn. 1)
which formed the military fosse of the eastern wall
of the city. Cheesehill Street takes its name from
being the site of the chesil or gravel bank on
which the boats laden with timber and stone,
&c., coming up the Itchen from Southampton
were grounded. The church of St. Peter Cheesehill, on the west side of the street, is at its north
end, at the bottom of the hill as the ground runs
uphill to the south. Nearly opposite is an old
house of early 16th-century date which has been
considerably rebuilt, although the front remains fairly
complete. It is of half-timber construction and is in
two gables with a projecting upper story. The
timber framing is rather heavy and widely spaced,
and in the gables, which have cusped barge-boards,
partly restored, takes the form of king-post trusses.
The window frames are all later insertions and the
ground floor is now used as a shop. As Cheesehill
Street, here a few yards east of Water Lane, joins
Bridge Street (a continuation of the High Street, so
called after it crosses the Soke Bridge), the latter
curves uphill, sending off one branch to the north,
St. John's Street, past St. John's Church to the
site of the old Bub's Cross and itself a few yards
higher merges into Morn Hill (Magdalen Hill)
Road, which runs west and north of St. Giles's Hill.
Bub's Cross, which was standing in 1750, (fn. 2) but
pulled down before Dr. Milner wrote in 1798, (fn. 3)
was in existence at least as early as the 16th century. (fn. 4) West of Bub's Cross, Redhouse Lane leads
down to Water Lane, on the east side of which is a
group of old cottages facing south, which were built
in 1789 in place of the original Hospital of St. Mary
Magdalen on Morn Hill. (fn. 5) Beggar Lane, so
called, it is said, from having been the gathering-place of beggars who waited there until the city gates
should be opened, runs north from the site of Bub's
Cross.
Footnotes
| 1 |
A small branch of this arm of the river, which just
above Simmond's Mill curves off to the west to meet the
main river again just below the mill, was originally known
as the Lady's Lake and frequently occurs in later leases as
such. |
| 2 |
Godson's map of 1750. |
| 3 |
Milner, op. cit. ii, 209. |
| 4 |
Winton Corp. Doc. printed in Hist.
MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 604. In this
document it is given as Hubb's Cross,
bearing out a suggestion made by the
Rev. A. G. Joyce that the cross was originally St. Hubert's Cross, marking the way
to the hunting ground further up the
hill. |
| 5 |
See under 'Charities.' See also
under Chilcomb, Farley Hundred. |