Parishes: Farleigh Wallop

FARLEIGH WALLOP

Ferleye (Domesday); Farley, Farlega (xiii cent.); Farlegh (xiv cent.); Farlegh Mortymer, Farle Mortymere, Farley Mortimer (xiv cent.; xv cent.; xvi cent.); Farley Wallop (xvii cent.).

The small parish of Farleigh Wallop contains 1,725 acres of hill country which reaches its greatest height, of over 680 ft. above the ordnance datum, in the centre of the parish, where the main road which climbs up north from the Candovers meets the branch road which cuts across from the north-west of the parish and runs east by the lodge and grounds of Farleigh Park to the village. From here, after rising again by Broadmere, the ground gradually falls away towards the north of the parish, reaching only a height of about 400 ft. as the main road leaves Farleigh and enters Cliddesden.

Farleigh House, the residence of Mrs. Routh, with its wide stretching grounds and park, occupies most of the south-west corner of the parish. The house itself lies immediately south of the village, the out-buildings and stables becoming part of the village, and the high garden wall running along the south side of the village street. The village itself, lying on high ground, consists only of a few farmhouses and buildings with one good thatched house, and one or two cottages which stand lower than the road as the ground slopes away on the north side. At the east end of the village, near Park Farm, which, with its thatched out-buildings and farm-yard, in which is a gigantic horse-chestnut tree, stands on the left, a narrow lane known as Pigeon House Lane leads sharply downhill to the north. From here over the meadows to the north can be seen the church of St. Andrew, lying away at the top of a rising field, about a quarter of a mile from the village. It is served by the rector of the neighbouring church of Cliddesden.

The soil of the parish is clay with a subsoil of chalk, on which the ordinary green crops and wheat, barley, and oats are grown on the 708½ acres of arable land. There are 286 acres of permanent grass in the parish and 270 acres of woodland. The latter is almost wholly in the south of the parish, where in the south-east the Great Wood stretches south of Farleigh Park; and in the south-west Inwood Copse sweeps away to the west of the main road, covering the track of country that lies between the main road and that leading from the parish of Dummer.

MANOR

The overlordship of FARLEIGH WALLOP was held at the Conquest by the king, (fn. 1) and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the prior of St. Mary of Southwick; (fn. 2) after the Dissolution it appears to have been held of the crown as of the hundred of Basingstoke. (fn. 3)

In the time of the Saxon king Edward, Ulvera or Wulfgifu held Farleigh, (fn. 4) her successor after the Conquest being Siric, the chamberlain, who held of the king. (fn. 5) Farleigh was subsequently held by a family who took their surname from the place. Henry de Farley, in the reign of Edward I, is found alienating his manor of Farleigh to Robert (fn. 6) de Mortimer and Joyce (fn. 7) his wife, at whose death it passed to his son, Hugh de Mortimer of Richard's Castle, son of this Robert (or Roger as he is sometimes called). (fn. 8) He died without male heir in 1304, leaving Joan and Margaret, daughters and co-heiresses. In 1316 Roger de Mortimer of Richard's Castle held the vill of Farleigh (fn. 9) and in 1328 made settlement of the manor on William de la Zouche, of Assheby. (fn. 10) Robert son of William de la Zouche was lord of the manor in 1346, (fn. 11) and was still in possession in 1371. (fn. 12) Early in the next century, however, the manor of Farleigh Mortimer must have been alienated by the Zouches, since it was held in 1428 and in 1431 by John Wyntreshulle of Surrey. (fn. 13) The Wyntreshulles did not long hold Farleigh, as in 1486 John Wallop died seised of the manor of Farley Mortimer. (fn. 14)

His son and heir, Richard Wallop, who was sheriff of Hampshire in 1502, succeeded him, surviving him seventeen years. (fn. 15) Sir John Wallop owned Farleigh Mortimer in the reign of Edward VI. (fn. 16) Farleigh Wallop was favoured by a visit from Queen Elizabeth, who visited the first Sir Henry Wallop there in the September of 1591. (fn. 17) He had been knighted by Elizabeth in 1569, and she had no servant more honest. After years of service in Ireland, after the loss of his second son, shot by Irish rebels, and when he himself was old and ill, he prayed to be relieved of his task, but died the day before his successor arrived. Sir Henry's views on free trade are of interest, for being at one time commissioner for restraining the transport of grain from Surrey, he disagreed with his fellow commissioners in declaring that markets should be free for all men, as 'yt ys most reasonable that one contrye shoulde helpe an other with soche comodytes as they are able to spare.' During his descendant's lifetime in 1667 the manor house of Farleigh Wallop was destroyed by fire and the family muniments perished. (fn. 18) His son Sir Henry Wallop was granted free warren in the manor then known as Farleigh Wallop by James I. (fn. 19) The favour of royalty, however, was withdrawn from Sir Robert Wallop, who succeeded his father in 1642. He took the side of the Parliament in the Civil War, and sat in judgement upon Charles I. (fn. 20) He was one of the few regicides who escaped the death sentence only to undergo a worse ordeal. For his sentence of perpetual imprisonment in the Tower involved also the cruel degradation of being taken once a year to and under the gallows, there to stand with ropes about his neck. (fn. 21) He made sorrowful petitions to the king, but never regained his liberty and died in the Tower in 1667, aged 66. (fn. 22) He had married the Lady Anne, a daughter of Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, and a sister of Thomas Wriothesley, the lord treasurer. (fn. 23) In 1661 Charles II granted to Thomas, high treasurer of England and earl of Southampton, the manor of Farleigh Wallop and other property, all of which had been confiscated upon the attainder of Sir Robert Wallop, and he conveyed the same to the Lady Anne and her son and the family of Robert Wallop. (fn. 24)

The son of Robert Wallop succeeeded to his father's estates, (fn. 25) since which time the Wallop family have held the manor, (fn. 26) the earl of Portsmouth being the present owner.

FARLEIGH HOUSE

FARLEIGH HOUSE was burnt in 1667 and not rebuilt till 1731 by Viscount Lymington. It is a large rectangular building fronting to the north, in flint and stone, the masonry being of excellent quality. In the middle of the north front is a projecting porch, over which is a large shield of many quarterings giving the alliances of the Wallops. There is a central entrance hall from which the series of groundfloor rooms open, and in the middle of the south or garden front, which commands a beautiful view, is a stone-faced bay of two stories. This looks on to a rectangular garden which with the sloping field to the south covers the site of the old house, whose foundations still exist in part. It probably had a central courtyard, with a terraced garden to the south, and there are traces of what looks like a round bastion at the southwest angle. To the west of the house is an eighteenth-century well-house with a large wheel, and to the east a low range of offices into which two large early seventeenth-century mullioned and transomed windows are built; they are of very good workmanship and doubtless formed part of the old house.

Farther to the east are the stables, a long two-story range standing north and south, substantial flint-faced buildings of eighteenth-century date, having the Wallop arms on a cartouche over one door, and the same quartering three bends wavy and a chief over another.

The walled kitchen garden lies to the south-east, and in its centre at the intersection of four paths is the base of a cross which is perhaps of thirteenthcentury date, with part of an oblong shaft set in it.

CHURCH

The church of ST. JOHN, FARLEIGH WALLOP, is a cruciform building of flint and stone with a west tower. It was entirely rebuilt in the middle of the eighteenth century, in a very dull Gothic style, and the west tower dates from 1873. The east window of the chancel, and those in the north transept, are of three lights with arched heads and tracery, all the rest being square-headed, with three cinquefoiled lights. The interior is absolutely uninteresting as far as the fittings are concerned, the only woodwork of any merit being the altar rails with their twisted balusters of eighteenth-century date. There are a large number of floor slabs to members of the Wallop family, and two large mural monuments of eighteenthcentury date in the south transept. On the south side of the chancel is an altar tomb of sixteenth-century date with quatrefoiled panels, in one of which is the Wallop coat: on the tomb is a Purbeck marble slab with indents of the brass figures of a man and his wife, with what may have been a figure of the Trinity over, and four shields at the angles. At the west end of the nave is the indent of another late brass on a broken slab, the remainder of which is in the chancel floor within the altar rails.

The octagonal stone font is modern, and replaces one of wood.

There are three bells by Mears and Stainbank, 1872.

For plate see Cliddesden.

The register was included with that of Cliddesden until 1813.

ADVOWSON

The descent of the advowson of Farleigh Wallop has always followed that of the manor. There was a church in the parish in the reign of Edward I (fn. 27) the advowson of which in 1279 was granted with the manor to Robert de Mortimer by Henry de Farley. (fn. 28) This Robert and Joyce his wife brought suits against Nicholas bishop of Winchester and Henry de 'Farley,' both of whom appear not to have recognized their right of patronage. (fn. 29) In the fourteenth century Roger de Mortimer (fn. 30) and Robert le Zouche (fn. 31) presented. In the following century the patrons were William Vachell (fn. 32) and John Wallop. (fn. 33) In the family of the last-named patron the gift of the living has ever since been vested. (fn. 34) The rectory is annexed to Cliddesden, and the earl of Portsmouth, the direct descendant of John Wallop, owns the right of presentation.

CHARITIES

In 1736 Thomas Fellowes by will gave to the poor of Cliddesden £30.

In 1766 the Rev. Benjamin Woodroffe, the then rector of Cliddesden cum Woodroffe, invested a sum of £131 8s. 9d. (including probably the said sum of £30 and moneys given by an unknown donor) in £150 Old South Sea Annuities—now represented by £164 14s. 8d. consols with the official trustees, producing £4 2s. 4d. a year.

There is also a schoolhouse and a messuage in Cliddesden, formerly used as a schoolhouse, let at £12 a year.

An annual sum of £10 a year is paid by the earl of Portsmouth for educational purposes.

By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, dated 25 April, 1899, the income is applicable in the proportion of three-fourths for Cliddesden and onefourth for Farleigh Wallop, and the educational part made applicable in apprenticing, and in encouraging attendance at the schools.