GREYWELL or GREWELL
Graiwella (xii cent.); Graiwell (xiii cent.).
Greywell is a small parish of 876 acres, situated
on the River Whitewater 2 miles south-west from
Hook. Immediately south of Butter Wood, which
takes up nearly the whole of the north of the parish,
is Greywell Hill Park, with Greywell Hill House on
rising ground, the seat of the Baroness Dorchester.
The Basingstoke Canal runs under this park in a
tunnel of nearly a mile long. The River Whitewater
forms the eastern boundary of the parish and works a
mill which probably occupies the site of a mill existing
in 1600. (fn. 1)
Greywell contains approximately 390 acres of woodland, 213 acres of permanent grass, and 270 acres of
arable land. (fn. 2) The chief crops are grain of different
kinds. The soil is light loam and the subsoil chalk
and clay.
The village, which is unusually picturesque, is
situated in the east of the parish. It is built mainly
on the west side of a branch road connecting Odiham with the Basingstoke and Alresford Road. The
church lies a hundred yards or so south-east of the
village near the Whitewater, and the churchyard
contains some fine beech trees. At the corner
of the footpath leading to the church is a good
half-timber house, probably of 16th or even 15th-century date. It is of an L-shaped plan, the short
projecting wing having an overhanging upper story
and gable with plain curved angle brackets. Another
group of pretty half-timbered houses stands at the
north end of the village near the Fox and Goose Inn,
and there are several good 18th-century brick houses
and a gable with a fine specimen of tile-hanging.
There is a Wesleyan chapel in the parish.
Some place names belonging to this parish mentioned
in various records are:—Stratfeld (1361), (fn. 3) Closes called
Cakebreddi and Styles lying by Butter Wood, Malthouse Piddle, Hughe Millers Piddle, and Shepparde
Piddle (1600), (fn. 4) Millmore, Hopeyard Pidle, Isle and
'a messuage and mill called Cutmill alias Grewell
mill' (1608). (fn. 5) In an account of the lands included in
Greywell Manor in 1602 'a hopp gardene' is included. (fn. 6)
Manor
GREYWELL was probably included
under Odiham in the Domesday Survey
of 1086. In an inquisition taken on the
death of Isabel Basset in 1260 it is stated that it was
the ancient demesne of Henry II who gave it to
Juliana de Aquila, said to be 'mother of Gilbert de
Aquila.' (fn. 7) However, Mr. Round is of the opinion
that this finding was wrong, since Gilbert de Laigle
(Aquila) is known to have been son of Richer by
Edeline, while Juliana (daughter of Geoffrey, Count
of Perche) was the wife of another and earlier Gilbert
(son of Richer) who held Witley (Surrey) as a young
man in 1086, and mother by him of two sons, Richer
and Gilbert, the elder of whom, Richer, paid one
mark into the king's treasury for Greywell in 1167. (fn. 8)
He it was who married Edeline and became father of
Gilbert de Laigle (Aquila). This Gilbert de Aquila
went to Normandy shortly before 1200, (fn. 9) and in 1204
King John granted the issues of the manor of Greywell to his favourite, Alan Basset, the founder of the
family of Basset of Wycombe (co. Bucks). (fn. 10)
After the death of Alan Basset in 1233 Henry III
granted these lands, described as 'late of Gilbert de
Aquila,' to Gilbert Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, to
hold during the king's pleasure. (fn. 11) The conditions of
the earl's tenure of Greywell were that he should do
suit at the hundred court of Odiham and should
pay £4 rent and provide reapers for a day yearly in
autumn at Odiham to reap the king's corn, while the
king undertook to feed them. It was also the duty
of the inhabitants of Greywell to guard the prisoners
at Odiham every third night. (fn. 12)
The earl subsequently granted Greywell to his
niece Isabel, daughter of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby,
on her marriage with Gilbert
Basset son of Alan. (fn. 13) Gilbert
died about 1241 leaving a son
who did not long survive
him; (fn. 14) his widow held the
manor in dower and married
as her second husband Reginald
de Mohun of Dunster (fn. 15) (co.
Somers.). She died in 1260,
and as she left no issue by
Gilbert the manor escheated
to the king. However William
de Mohun, her son by her second husband, (fn. 16) obtained
a grant of the manor and died seised of it about 1281
leaving a son Reginald aged six. (fn. 17)
Mohun of Dunster. Or a cross engrailed sable.
Reginald died without heirs, possibly before he came
of age, and the property was divided between his two
sisters, the manor of Greywell being assigned to the
elder Mary and her husband John Meriet in 1297. (fn. 18)
On the death of John Meriet, about 1327 the
manor reverted to John de Mohun of Dunster, (fn. 19) a
great-grandson of Reginald de Mohun of Dunster by
his first wife. (fn. 20) He died in 1330, and his grandson,
John, a minor, was his heir. (fn. 21) During this minority
William de Horwode, the king's yeoman, was granted
the custody of the manor, but he was soon deprived
of it, and the Bishop of Norwich put in his place. (fn. 22)
Sir John de Mohun died in 1376 (fn. 23) and Greywell
then passed in accordance with the marriage settlement of 1348 to his widow Joan, who died in
1404, (fn. 24) leaving as her heirs two daughters, Philippa,
wife of Edward Plantagenet, Duke of York, and
Elizabeth, widow of William Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, and a grandson, Sir Richard L'Estrange, son of
Maud a deceased daughter, who had married Sir
John L'Estrange. (fn. 25) Philippa was dealing with Greywell in 1431, (fn. 26) but Richard appears to have ultimately
inherited the whols manor, which he granted in 1444
to Thomas Haydok in tail at
a rent of £10 for 110 years,
and at the end of that term
a rent of £20. (fn. 27) This Thomas
had a son John who presumably succeeded his father
in possession. (fn. 28) He died in
1504 and was buried in
Odiham Church. Another
Thomas with his wife Christine
was holding in 1508, (fn. 29) and
James Haydok, who was descended from Alexander Haydok the second son of a
'Thomas Haydok of Greywell,' is also described as
'of Greywell.' (fn. 30) He left a son William and a widow
Margaret, who apparently married, as her second
husband, Michael Harris. (fn. 31)
Haydok of Greywell. Argent a cross sable with a fleur de lis sable in the quarter.
Margaret was holding in dower in 1597, (fn. 32) but she
had died before 1602, in which year William Haydok
sold the manor to Edward Glascocke. (fn. 33) In 1605
Edward Glascocke died, leaving Greywell Manor to
his son Joseph, who died the next year, bequeathing
the manor to his brother Arthur. (fn. 34) Edward, Lord
Zouche, purchased the manor in 1610 from Edward
Cason (to whom it had been conveyed in the preceding year by Arthur Glascocke (fn. 35) ) and by a deed
of 1625 conveyed it to his cousin Edward Zouche
and another, to be held to his own use (fn. 36) He
died three months afterwards when the property descended to his daughter Mary, wife of William
Connard, and Zouche Tate his grandson, the child of
Elizabeth, another daughter (vide Hartley Wintney), (fn. 37)
and Sir Edward Zouche acquired the manor from the
latter in 1627. (fn. 38) He died in 1634, (fn. 39) and was succeeded by his son James, who died nine years later,
leaving a son Edward. (fn. 40)
In 1663 James Zouche, brother of Edward who
died without issue in 1658, was holding the manor; (fn. 41)
he died in 1708 without issue, and Sophia Bayes his
niece became heir-general to the family. (fn. 42)
The manor next appears in the possession of the
Earls of Northington, and in
1786 the widow of the first
earl and the sisters and coheirs of the second earl sold
it to trustees for Guy Carleton, first Lord Dorchester. (fn. 43)
Guy, Lord Dorchester, the
third baron, died in 1875,
when his cousin Dudley Wilmot succeeded him as fourth
baron. He died without heirs
in 1897, when the barony
became extinct. (fn. 44) In 1899
Henrietta Anne Carleton,
elder daughter and co-heiress
of Guy, third Lord Dorchester, was created a baroness,
and she is the present owner of Greywell Hill. (fn. 45)
Carleton, Lord Dorchester. Argent a bend sable with three voided lozenges argent thereon.
A fishery was appurtenant to the manor, as appears
from a document of 1536 which records how a servant
of Thomas Haydok called Richard Edwards murdered
a certain Edward Waterman while fishing in waters
belonging to his master at Greywell. (fn. 46)
Church
The church of ST. MARY consists
of a chancel 22 ft. by 14 ft. 4 in.;
a nave 40 ft. 1 in. by 16 ft. 8 in.,
a west tower 7 ft. 9 in. by 6 ft. 9 in., and a north
porch. The oldest part of the church is the nave,
which is of the end of the 12 th century, and except
for the windows and the addition of a rood-stair has
apparently remained unaltered. The church of which
this formed part consisted also of a tower and a
chancel, of which the former was largely rebuilt in the
latter half of the 17th century, while the chancel has
been completely rebuilt in modern times. The porch
is a modern structure.
The windows of the chancel are all modern, and
have tracery of 15th-century detail. That to the
east is of three, the other two to north and south
of two cinquefoiled lights. On the north is also a
modern blocked door. The chancel arch is original,
a narrow pointed opening of one square order. At
the spring are grooved hollow-chamfered abaci. The
jambs are almost completely restored, but such old
stones as remain unscraped, both in the jambs and in
the head, show diagonal tooling.
On the north of the nave, to the east, is a small
door to the rood-loft stair, which is in a semicircular
turret built with shaped ashlar blocks irregularly
diapered with squares of flint. The only other opening in this wall is the north door, the sole entrance,
which is contemporary with the chancel arch. It has
a semicircular head of one square and one chamfered order, and a much-restored label ornamented
with dog-tooth. At the spring of the outer order are
grooved and chamfered abaci, and the masonry shows
diagonal tooling. At the east end of the south wall
is inserted a 15th-century window of three cinquefoiled lights with sub-mullions and smaller lights over.
The jambs, both external and internal, are moulded
with wide hollows, &c. At the other end of the south
wall is a much-restored twin lancet window of mid13th-century date. The heads of its two lights are cut
from a single stone, and the jambs are very much restored. Between these windows is the blocked north
door of early 13th-century date with a round head
and a continuous chamfer, all very much restored.
The tower is of three stages, the top one being a
shingled timber structure and much restored. The
lower stages are part early flint rubble, part 17th-century brick, and part later brick and flint rubble.
The east wall appears to be largely a part of the
original tower, and is quoined with ashlar blocks.
The tower arch is original, and is similar to the
chancel arch, but with plain chamfered abaci. There
is a small round-headed west window of 17th-century
date with a plaster architrave. In the 17th-century
rebuilding the tower appears to have been covered
with plaster. On the north the greater part remains,
and bears traces of imitation quoin ing and part of a
circular panel with a band of fleurs de lis worked in
flat relief. There are also a couple of arches with
grotesquely diminished columns and enormous capitals,
all worked flat in the plaster, forming a frame for the
initials R. H. and 1. p.; and the date, 1663. The
initials are those of the churchwardens at that time,
when the east side of the tower was plastered. The
porch is modern and of plain open-timber construction.
The font is of 15th-century date. It is octagonal
with quatrefoil panels on the faces. The stem has
been lost, and the bowl is placed on the moulded base,
and stands under the tower arch.
There is an unusually complete rood-screen and
loft of early 16th-century date. It stands on a
modern stone base, and has been raised above its
original level, there being now no headway between
the roof and the upper part of the rood-stair. It
has a wide central opening with carved spandrels,
and four bays on either side, the lower panels of which
were formerly solid but are now open; they have
cinquefoiled heads with pairs of quatrefoils over.
The upper panels have simple uncusped tracery, and
over them is a cornice, in the upper surface of which
the mortices for the front of the loft remain. The
screen stands some 8 ft. from the east wall of the nave,
and the space between is ceiled with a flat ceiling at
the cornice level. The middle bay of the ceiling is
separated from the side bays by moulded beams, and
has a geometrical star pattern in moulded ribs; that
of the south bay has a simpler pattern, and the north
bay is divided only into four square panels. The nave
roof above is ceiled and panelled, whilst elsewhere it
is open, and on the east wall above the loft are the
royal arms.
The chancel roof, the seating, pulpit, and fittings
generally, are modern, and there are no monuments
of any interest. The fine old Jacobean oak pulpit
was sacrificed at the last restoration of 1865.
The tower contains three bells. The treble is inscribed 'hal mary ful of gras w.r.,' in Gothic capitals;
the second is inscribed 'fear god 1638' in roman capitals, and was probably cast in the Knight foundry; the
third is inscribed 'henry knight 1632.' There is also
a small 'ting tang' with no marks, but of late date.
The plate consists of a silver chalice and paten cover
of 1569; a silver-gilt spoon, and a pewter alms plate.
The early registers are all contained in one mixed
book containing entries between 1604 and 1812.
Advowson
Greywell was originally a chapelry
dependent on the church of Odiham (q.v.). (fn. 47) A chapel is known to have existed
before 1385, as in that year Bishop Wykeham admonished the Chancellor of Salisbury, the patron of
Odiham, for his neglect of the chapel, and called
upon him to put it in a proper state of repair. (fn. 48) At
the Reformation the vicar of Odiham kept a priest
in the chapel of ease at Greywell, where there were
more than eightscore 'houseling' people who had
ministration in the said chapel. (fn. 49)
A vicarage was instituted in 1902, with the Bishop
of Winchester as patron. (fn. 50)
Charities
Francis William Digweed, by will,
proved 5 February 1866, bequeathed
£200 stock, the dividends to be distributed annually at Christmas in bedding and clothing among aged poor of the parish.
The legacy, less duty, is represented by
£179 18s 11d. consols, with the official trustees,
producing £4 10s. yearly.