Hayling Island

HAYLING ISLAND

Heglingaig (x cent.); Heilinciga or Halingel (xi cent.); Hailinges or Haringey (fn. 1) (xii cent.); Heyland or Heling (xiii cent.).

Hayling Island is only separated from the mainland by a narrow channel known as Sweare Deep. Nevertheless it was inaccessible in heavy weather before 1823, when an Act was passed for building a bridge across Langstone Harbour from Havant up to the Ferry House in North Hayling. (fn. 2) The single line of railway to Langstone from Havant has since been extended across the harbour and two stations built, one in North Hayling and the other in South Hayling. (fn. 3) The sea has encroached on the island very considerably. In the fourteenth century more especially the inhabitants suffered through this and other calamities. In 1324–5 the losses of Hayling Priory through the ravages of the sea were at least £42, for the priory buildings and the whole hamlet of East Stoke had been submerged. (fn. 4) Shortly afterwards the islanders were called upon to defend themselves against the incursions of hostile galleys during the French wars, and again in 1340 a great part of the island was entirely drowned by the sea. (fn. 5) In 1346 it was said to be laid waste daily, (fn. 6) and subsequently nearly half of the inhabitants died of the Black Death. (fn. 7) The sea again encroached to a large extent during the seventeenth century. (fn. 8) A considerable part of the east coast is now defended by sea-walls, built when the manor was in the possession of the dukes of Norfolk.

The island is divided into two parishes of almost equal extent, the northernmost being known as North Hayling or Northwood. (fn. 9) Along the channel which divides it from the mainland the country is flat and for the most part barren, though some profits are yielded by the oyster beds off Creek Point to the west. The road along the coast leads eastwards past large salterns and then curving to the south passes through the hamlets of Northney, Eastney, and Westney, with their low thatched houses and well-stocked orchards. North Hayling church is in Eastney, standing close to the road in a small churchyard. The soil from this point onwards is more fertile, stretches of arable land alternating with oakwoods in which there is a dense undergrowth of brushwood and brambles. Tracts of waste-land are, however, frequent, though many commons were inclosed during the last century, (fn. 10) and the island though lowlying is bleak and much exposed, so that when a fire broke out in North Hayling on 23 March, 1757, the violence of the wind increased it to such an extent that the unfortunate villagers were practically burnt out in a few hours. (fn. 11) West of the village, in Towncil Field, a Roman building has been discovered, and excavations are still being continued there. The same road leads on past the hamlet of Northney to South Hayling. To the west of Northney is the hamlet of Stoke, which is divided into East and West Stoke, and consists of a few farm-houses and cottages, old and new, with a Congregational chapel. The western coast is again more barren, the soil being very light and producing but scanty crops of wheat, while its marshy wastes can only be used for pasture, and that not of the best. The sub-soil is for the most part chalk, which is succeeded in the south by Woolwich and Reading Beds. The arable land, which predominates, covers 734 acres; there are 219 acres of pasture and 15 acres of wood. (fn. 12) The whole area of the parish is nearly 2,626 acres.

The greater part of the parish is held by tenants of Havant manor, the land being evidently identical with four hides in Hayling held by the monks of St. Swithun in 1086. (fn. 13) They annexed it to their neighbouring liberty, the tourns of which the tithingman of Hayling has always since attended.

South Hayling, or Southwood, includes the more prosperous portion of the island. The soil is richer than that of North Hayling, the subsoil being London clay, and stretches of flat pasture-land and flourishing wheatfields betoken its fertility. On the east and west coasts, however, there are marshy wastes such as Mill Pond, which, together with Mill Cottage, probably marks the site of the old manorial mill mentioned in a thirteenth-century assessment of South Hayling. (fn. 14) The arable land extends over 1,165 acres the pasture covers 427 acres, and there are 43 acres of wood. (fn. 15) The total area of the parish is 4,803 acres. Near the Mill Pond is a thickly wooded inclosure surrounded by a moat, and known as Tourner Bury. In 'My Lord's Pond,' close by, oyster beds have been laid down, which with other beds near the island were the source of a dispute that arose in 1850 between the local fishermen and the lord of the manor, who based his claim on the mention of two fisheries in the Domesday Survey of Hayling. (fn. 16)

Mengham salterns are also relics of an ancient industry dating from the Conquest, for in 1086 the lord of Hayling had a saltpan in the island. (fn. 17) Mengham is a hamlet at the neck of the most eastern peninsula, and is made up of one or two weather-stained farm-houses, with thickly thatched outbuildings and a Congregational chapel built in 1888.

East Stoke Common, which forms a peninsula to the south-east of the island, was inclosed in 1867, (fn. 18) and is partially submerged at high tide; it was the men of this hamlet who suffered most from the encroachment of the sea during the fourteenth century. About halfway across the promontory a wall of cement was built some years back, but it is now cracked and broken.

From East Stoke westwards firm white sands stretch to Sinah Common, whence a steam ferry carries the traveller to Portsea. The common, on which golf links have been laid out, is a mass of golden gorse in spring, and affords a fine view both of the Hampshire coast and the distant hills of the Isle of Wight. The magnificent sands and the outlook over the English Channel have caused the hamlet of West Town to grow into a seaside resort with a parade along the south beach. The church stands to the north of the West Town, and at some distance north of the church is the manor house, a pretty red brick building of eighteenth-century date in well wooded grounds, in the occupation of the vicar, the Rev. C. H. Clarke. This part of the parish is the most picturesque in the island, and from the abundance of trees has the great additional advantage of being sheltered from the gales which sweep across the island in winter.

MANOR

At the time of the Domesday Survey the abbey of Jumièges near Caen held about half the island of HAYLING in demesne with the overlordship of the rest by the gift of William I, but their possession was disputed by the monks of St. Swithun, who based their claim on a grant of Queen Emma. (fn. 19) She is said to have given this manor to the Priory in 1043 with eight others as a thank-offering for having passed safely through the ordeal of fire, (fn. 20) and the monks stated that she gave them one-half of the manor and the reversion of the other half at the death of Ulward White to whom she gave it for life and that Ulward died in the time of William I, who thereupon granted the manor to the abbey of Jumièges. (fn. 21) In a cartulary of St. Swithun there occurs a charter purporting to be a bequest of the Lady Elgifu (fn. 22) of five hides at Hayling to the Old Minster together with the reversion of five hides, which she had bequeathed to one Wulfward the White, evidently identical with Ulward White, for life, and stating that the Priory, at Wulfward's request, had farmed their moiety to him. (fn. 23) Hayling was evidently part of the queen's dower, as Ulward himself held it of Queen Edith before the Conquest. (fn. 24) The abbey of Jumièges, however, having once obtained a grant of so rich a manor, refused to give it up, and though William I himself confirmed Queen Emma's gift to the priory, (fn. 25) Henry I regranted Hayling to Jumièges. (fn. 26) Early in the twelfth century Bishop Henry de Blois and the monks of Winchester renounced their right to the manor in favour of Jumièges Abbey at the prayer of Pope Innocent and in consideration of the poverty of that church, and in 1150 Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, bore witness to this concession. (fn. 27) During the whole of Stephen's reign the abbey seems to have lost power over its English possessions, to judge from the mandate of Henry II to the officers throughout England to restore to the abbot and monks all their fugitives who escaped after the death of Henry I (fn. 28) and from his confirmatory charters to them. (fn. 29) He confirmed to the abbot and monks free warren in Hayling as they had had it under Henry I, (fn. 30) and allowed them to carry all things from the demesne of the church freely to all the ports of England and Normandy; (fn. 31) hence it seems that the produce of the island was exported to the Norman abbey, and, from the accounts of the manor rendered when the priory of Hayling, founded in the island by the abbey of Jumièges, was in the hands of Edward I by reason of the war with France, it appears that the profits of the manor at that date were considerable. They included 3s. for 100 doves, 49s. for 114 cheeses, and 15s. 9d. for 21 gallons of butter. (fn. 32) In 1414, after the general dissolution of the alien priories in England, Henry V granted Hayling to the priory of Sheen in Surrey. (fn. 33) The prior seems, thenceforward, to have leased the site of the manor reserving all jurisdiction. (fn. 34) Sheen Priory surrendered in 1539 and Henry VIII granted Hayling manor and the site of Hayling Priory in 1541 to Holy Trinity College, Arundel, in exchange for the manor of Bury. (fn. 35) In 1548 the lands of the college were bestowed on Henry, earl of Arundel, (fn. 36) who settled them on his daughter Joan wife of John Lord Lumley. She died without issue and her husband, who survived her, conveyed all the Arundel estates to his nephew Philip, duke of Norfolk, in February, 1579–80. He was attainted in 1589, but the Arundel estates, and Hayling with them, were restored to his son Thomas in 1604. (fn. 37) It remained part of the property of the successive dukes of Norfolk till 1825 when William Padwick, a distinguished lawyer, purchased it under an Act of Parliament from Bernard Edward the then duke. (fn. 38) The new lord brought several suits relating to the liberties of the manor against his tenants, the most important being one concerning the oyster fisheries. (fn. 39) After his death the greater part of the manor was enfranchised, the remainder being purchased in 1871 by Mr. J. C. Park, whose son, Mr. C. J. Park, the present owner, inherited it in 1887. (fn. 40)

Besides a court baron the lord of Hayling held view of frankpledge twice yearly, which was attended by tithingmen from Northney, Mengham, and West Town. (fn. 41) In 1553 Queen Mary granted the earl of Arundel return of writs and pleas of the crown in this manor as in Alton hundred. (fn. 42) Wreck of sea was granted to Henry, earl of Arundel, in 1548, but the tenants of East Stoke had already had that privilege throughout the island under the charter of Henry III to William Falconer. (fn. 43) Hence in 1634 when a butt and a hogshead of wine were cast up by the sea the earl of Arundel's tenant claimed the one and the tenant of East Stoke the other. (fn. 44)

EAST STOKE

EAST STOKE, the land including the south-eastern corner of the island, was given by Edwy to his faithful servant Ethelsig and his heirs in 956. (fn. 45) It appears to have been identical with the 5 hides in Hayling, held by Ulward before the Conquest. They were granted by William I to Earl Roger of Shrewsbury, who bestowed them on the abbey of St. Martin, Troarn. (fn. 46) The gift was confirmed by Henry I and Henry II. (fn. 47) The Norman monks reserved their land in Hayling in 1260 when exchanging their English possessions for the Norman property of Bruton Abbey in Somerset, (fn. 48) probably owing to the convenience of the situation of the island, for it appears from a licence granted by King John that 'cheeses and bacons' were exported from their English demesnes for their own consumption. (fn. 49) In the following year, however, the abbot of Troarn conveyed the land to John Falconer of Wade to hold at the yearly rent of 1 d. (fn. 50) William Falconer, John's predecessor in Wade (q.v.), had already obtained a few acres in Hayling, (fn. 51) and was granted wreck of sea in the whole hundred of Bosmere, both within and without Hayling Island. (fn. 52) For some time the successive lords of Limborne and Wade retained lands and rents in East Stoke, North Stoke, and Westney in Hayling. In 1316 the tenants of John and Joan Botiler of Limborne, in the island of Hayling, accused them of exacting excessive services, at the same time stating that their land was ancient demesne of the crown, producing in evidence an extract from the Domesday Survey of 2½ hides held by Earl Harold before the Conquest. Joan proved that the land was that which was held by the abbot of Troarn, and therefore was not ancient demesne. (fn. 53) The descent of East Stoke is coincident with that of Limborne (q.v.) until the death of Anthony Pound, when East Stoke evidently became the portion of his daughter Honor, who married Henry, earl of Sussex. (fn. 54) In 1596 Sir Robert Ratcliffe, earl of Sussex, and son and heir of Earl Henry, conveyed East Stoke to Jonah Latelais, whose son Harison Latelais sold the 'manor or lordship of Northstocke, Eastocke, and Westhaye (evidently Westney), (fn. 55) with a house called Kent in Westhay,' to Thomas Peckham of London. (fn. 56) From Thomas Peckham it ultimately descended to Peckham Williams, (fn. 57) who bequeathed it to John Williams, and he vested it in trustees for sale. (fn. 58) It was purchased by Elizabeth Poole Penfold, at whose death in 1842 (fn. 59) the estates passed to her greatnephew, John Leigh Hollest, who took the name of Williams. (fn. 60) In 1845 he conveyed East Stoke to Thomas Harris of Donnington, (fn. 61) from whom it was purchased by Mr. Lynch White of Streatham in 1870. From 1890 onwards he sold the estate in building plots, the largest portion being bought in 1902 by Mr. Frank Pearce of Portsmouth. (fn. 62)

In 1086, 2½ hides in Hayling, which had been held by Edward the Confessor by a certain Leman, and later seized by Earl Harold, were held by the king himself. (fn. 63) They seem to have been annexed to the honour of Gloucester, for towards the end of the thirteenth century Ralph de Anvers held 2 hides of land in Hayling of that honour. (fn. 64) The later history of this fee is uncertain, it seems probable, from the claim by Joan Botiler's tenants to hold in ancient demesne, that at any rate a portion of it was at some time alienated to the owners of East Stoke.

CHURCHES

The church of OUR LADY, SOUTH HAYLING, lies to the west of the road from the manor house to West Town. It has a chancel 41 ft. by 19 ft., with a north vestry, central tower 18 ft. 7 in. square (24 ft. 3 in. square over all), with nave and aisles 54 ft. 10 in. long by 41 ft. 6 in. wide, the aisles being prolonged to overlap the tower on the north and south. Over the south door of the nave is a wooden porch.

The whole building is set out as one design, and was probably in course of construction from the second quarter of the thirteenth century to the end of the third quarter, the chancel being the earliest part. The treatment of the tower is a very interesting modification of the cruciform plan, its walls being only 2 ft. 10 in. thick, and its western supports reduced to a minimum, so that the space it covers is treated as the east bay of the nave rather than the base of a central tower, and the transepts to which it opens on north and south are merely eastern chapels of the same width as the aisles. The arches opening from the aisles to these eastern chapels die into the walls, so that there is no loss of width in the aisle, their existence being only due to the constructional necessity of giving abutment to the west arch of the tower.

The chancel has five tall lancet lights under an inclosing arch in the east wall, four tall lancets on the north, and four on the south, the lower part of the westernmost window on the south being cut off by a square-headed low side window of two lights; the stonework of this window is modern. The lancets have a keeled roll on the rear arches and jambs, and a roll-string at the sill level. Between the third and fourth windows on the south is a plain pointed doorway, part of the original arrangement, and at the south-east of the chancel is a double piscina with trefoiled arches, and round shafts with moulded bases and capitals. East of it is a square-headed cupboard in the wall, 15 in. deep and 2 ft. 7 in. wide, with a rebated opening 1 ft. wide by 1 ft. 10 in. high, and in the east jambs of the north-east and south-east lancets are thirteenth-century corbels with recesses above to take the ends of a beam which crossed the chancel at this point, showing that the high altar was set forward with a space behind it for a vestry. It is to be noted that these corbels are worked from the same template, instead of being right and left handed, as their positions require.

The tower stands on four wide pointed arches of two chamfered orders, with half-octagonal responds to the inner orders. These have moulded capitals on the eastern piers, while those on the western piers are foliate, and of interesting and rather unusual detail. The walls of the tower only rise to about a foot above the ridge of the nave roof, and have two small lancet windows in each face of the upper stage, with single lancets of a like character at a lower level on the north and south, showing that the eastern chapels of the aisles were from the first designed to have lean-to roofs like the aisles instead of being gabled north and south like transepts. The tower is finished with a low-pitched hipped roof from which springs a short octagonal wooden spire, both being covered with oak shingles.

The nave is of three bays, with widely spaced arcades like those under the tower, their chamfered orders dying on to octagonal dies The octagonal capitals are unusually shallow in the bell, but are most effectively treated with carved foliage, while shafts beneath are markedly slender in comparison with the dies above. The effect of lightness and space thus obtained is most satisfactory. The clearstory has two circular windows on each side, set over the columns instead of the arches, and inclosing quatrefoils with pierced spandrels.

The east bay of the north aisle has a modern east window of two lights with a trefoiled circle in the head, and in its north wall two lancet lights with modern heads and a quatrefoil over, the same arrangement occurring in the east bay of the south aisle. Under the south window in the south aisle is a trefoiled thirteenth-century piscina. At the west of these bays are sharply-pointed drop-arches of two chamfered orders, the outer order dying into the side walls, while the inner rests on half octagonal corbels, those on the tower piers having curious foliate carving.

The remaining three bays of the aisles have small lancet windows in the first and third bays, and wide pointed north and south doorways in the middle bays, with plain chamfered arches. The west windows of the aisles are of two lights with quatrefoils over, and the nave has a plain thirteenth-century west doorway and over it a large four-light window with fifteenth-century tracery, the main lights having a transom at half height. The south porch is a very pretty fifteenth-century construction, with moulded plates, tie-beams, and outer arch; it is in rather shaky condition, and a good deal patched with later work.

All the church except the tower has tiled roofs, the timbers of the nave roof, which has trussed rafters and moulded tie-beams with king posts, being perhaps contemporary with the nave walls, and a rare specimen of their kind.

In the chancel is an eighteenth-century wooden reredos, but all other wood fittings are modern. In the second stage of the tower, below the bell frames, are some seventeenth-century timbers which seem to have been intended to be seen from below, and the tower was probably meant to be open to the nave as high as the floor of the bell-chamber.

At the west end of the north aisle is the font, with a square Purbeck marble bowl, c. 1200, on a central column and four modern angle shafts with stone capitals and bases. At the east end of the same aisle is a very interesting and early rectangular stone bowl, the sides curving outwards at the top, and ornamented with interlacing patterns. There appears to be no drain in the bottom, and its original purpose is not certain. On the external south-east angle of the south aisle and the south-east buttress of the chancel are incised sun-dials.

There are pits for three bells in the tower, but only one bell remains, inscribed 'In God is my hope,' 1634, with the founder's initials I. H.

The church plate is modern, and consists of two chalices, two patens, a flagon, a cruet and an almsdish.

The registers of North and South Hayling churches are kept together, and the first book, the parchment copy of 1598, contains baptisms to 1653, and marriages and burials to 1649, and belongs to North Hayling. The second, with entries 1672–1801, belongs to South Hayling. The third has North Hayling entries 1653–1724, and the sixth continues the list to 1801. The fourth book has South Hayling marriages 1754–88, and the fifth continues the same to 1812. The seventh has North Hayling marriages 1754–1804, and the eighth the same to 1812. The ninth has North Hayling baptisms and burials 1802–12, and the tenth the corresponding entries for South Hayling.

To the south of the church, near the south porch, is a very fine yew tree, which though somewhat past its prime is still full of leaf, and adds greatly to the beauty of the churchyard.

The church of ST. PETER, NORTH HAYLING, consists of chancel 20 ft. 2 in. by 13 ft. 2 in., nave 45 ft. 2 in. by 19 ft. 8 in., with aisles and north transept chapel, north and south porches, and a wooden bell turret over the east bay of the nave. Nothing in the building seems to be older than the end of the twelfth century, the north arcade of the nave being probably of this date, while nearly every other detail in the church belongs to the early part of the thirteenth century. The walls of the nave are only 2 ft. 1 in. thick, but this in a building of small scale does not necessarily imply an early date, and the north wall of the north aisle, which is not likely to be older than the existing arcade, is of the same thickness. The probable growth of the plan has been that a former chancel, whose west wall was a little to the east of the responds of what is now the second bay of the nave arcades, was prolonged eastward early in the thirteenth century, the line of the chancel arch being moved eastwards to its present line, and a north transept chapel (and probably also a like chapel on the south, now destroyed) added. Openings were made into both these chapels from the new east bay of the nave, which was probably occupied from the first by a wooden belfry as now, representing the central tower of a more ambitious design, as at South Hayling. There have been no later additions to the plan, except the north porch. The chancel has three tall lancet windows on the east, and two smaller windows on north and south, with a priest's door at the southwest angle. The heads of the lights are bluntly pointed or round, but the rear arches are in all cases pointed, and a moulded string runs round the inner face of the walls at their sill level. Near the north-east angle is a recess rebated for a wooden door, and opposite to it on the south a pointed piscina recess with a projecting bowl, both features being of the date of the chancel. The east wall leans outward dangerously, and is supported by three large raking buttresses. The chancel arch is pointed, of two chamfered orders, of the full width of the chancel, save for small half-round shafts on the responds with moulded capitals.

The north transept, which is approximately 13 ft. square, a dimension found elsewhere in the county in transepts of this kind, has two tall lancets on the east like those in the chancel, and between them a large trefoiled recess, having a small image bracket over it, marking the site of a former altar. The north window of the transept is like those on the east, and the west window, also a single lancet, is lower, with a pointed head.

The nave arcades are of four bays, the three western being continuous, but the east bay on each side seemsto be an addition, as suggested above. The arches here are quite plain, pointed, with a square-edged string at the springing, chamfered below; the north arch is not central with the transept, probably because a transept set centrally with it would have been inconveniently small.

The other three bays of the north arcade have pointed arches of one order with edge chamfers, square abaci, with simple leaves at the angles of the capitals, circular columns, and moulded bases with spurs on a square plinth. The east respond has a capital with a row of plain heart-shaped leaves on the bell. In the south arcade the arches are like those of the north, but the capitals, columns, and bases are circular. The abaci are of square section, and the bases are moulded, the capitals being quite plain, without any ornament. There are two small lancet lights in the north aisle, and between them a plain pointed thirteenth-century doorway under a wooden porch, which may be in part of the fifteenth century. The south aisle, the east end of which is used as a vestry, contains no old features except the south doorway, which has a low four-centred head, and may be of the sixteenth century. In the west wall of the nave is a fifteenth-century doorway, and over it a window of three cinquefoiled lights, with modern tracery.

The roofs of the have, transept, and north aisle are old, and of plain character with trussed rafters, while the east bay of the nave is ceiled at the level of the tie-beam, and boarded in above, access to the belfry being by a stair at the south-east, which may represent an old stair to the rood loft. In the spandrel between the tie-beam and the nave roof is a fifteenth-century beam with cusped and pierced hanging tracery, like a barge-board. The other woodwork in the church, beyond a seventeenth-century chest, has no archaeological interest.

The font stands in the third bay of the south arcade, and has a round tapering bowl without a stem. The top edge of the bowl is scalloped, but this seems to be a modern adornment, though the font itself may be of the thirteenth century. On the capital of the pillar against which it stands is a fifteenth-century stone bracket.

There are three bells, fitted with half wheels, in frames which are probably mediaeval. Two of the bells are blank, but seem to be contemporary with the tenor, which is inscribed in good Gothic capitals Sancta [M]aria ora pro nobis; it is a late fourteenth or early fifteenth-century bell.

The plate consists of a cup of 1569, with a cover paten of the same date, and a second cup and cover paten a little larger, and of slightly different outline, but probably made locally as a copy of the other, and bearing no hall-marks. There is also a modern paten, 1858.

For the registers see South Hayling.

ADVOWSONS

The church of SOUTH HAYLING was held by the abbey of Jumièges, and was appropriated to that monastery in 1253–4, (fn. 65) and the advowson was vested in the successive lords of the manor until Mr. William Padwick gave it to his daughter, the present Mrs. R. F. Clarke.

The church of NORTH HAYLING is a chapelry attached to South Hayling, but no chapel was assessed with the church in the Taxatio of 1291. In 1304, however, and during the next ten years, there were several petitions from the inhabitants to the bishop praying that the vicar should celebrate in the chapel of St. Peter, Northwood. The dispute between the vicar and his parishioners was settled in 1317, when the vicar agreed to hold full and complete service there every Sunday and on certain festivals, and to provide the necessary books. (fn. 66) Under Bishop Edendon (1346–66) the chancel was repaired, Bishop Waynflete (1447–87) issued a commission for the dedication of Northwood chapel, (fn. 67) and shortly afterwards another agreement was made between the vicar of Southwood and his parishioners at Northwood chapel as to the services to be held there. (fn. 68) The living is still a perpetual curacy attached to South Hayling.

A Congregational chapel was built in 1888 at Mengham and a Free Church mission house at Elm Grove in 1894. The South Hayling elementary school was opened in 1875–6.

CHARITIES

There are no endowed charities within the parish of North Hayling, but in South Hayling a small piece of land in the Church Road, called 'The Surplice Piece' has been in the possession of the vicar and churchwardens for many years, and according to tradition was given to provide a fund for washing the vicar's surplice. A church room was erected on part of the land in 1904. By an order of the Charity Commissioners, dated 5 September, 1905, the real estate was vested in 'the Official Trustee of Charity Lands' and a scheme established directing that the church room should be used for the benefit of members of the Church of England in the parish of St. Mary, and that the income of the charity, subject to the up-keep of the church room, should be applied towards defraying the expenses in connexion with the parish church.