Information relating to the History of Bishopstoke
Must recently I have been looking at the “Bishopstoke History Society “web site online, which has brought back some of my earliest memories of growing up in Bishopstoke, attending Bishopstoke primary school, in Church Road from the age of five, the school lessons were held in the old school red brick building next to the caretakers house, Caretaker, Mr Collis , I remember at mid-morning a quarter of a pint of fresh milk contained in a glass bottle, was given to each pupil in the class, unfortunately the milk being kept outside, no fridges, during the winter months meant the milk was frozen solid, so had to be thawed out using the coal fired cast iron stove, situated in the classroom, there was a partly open roofed bricked built toilets in the school grounds , adjacent to a small grassed playing field and school lunches was served in the green iron cladded hut on the other side of the grassed playing field, and an extended untended wild grassed area, the rest of the playing area was tarmacked. Within the school grounds there were two fabricated classrooms. Chalk and Blackboard were used for teaching. At the age of eight I continued my schooling at the newly opened Stoke Park Junior School, situated in Underwood Road. My teacher was Mr Edwards. For a number of years together with my younger twin brother I was a boy chorister at St Mary’s Church, Mr Pink was organist and choir master, the Rector being the Rev. Gordon Rose, I also tried bell ringing for a few months at St Mary’s church.
I am the eldest of the twin sons of Nurse Emery of Bishopstoke, who was the local district midwife from the 1950’s until her retirement in 1975.
I recognise many of the photographic images of Bishopstoke locations displayed on the Society’s web site, remembering some of the old houses, I also knew some of the local people named, Mr Moody and his sons who owned the local garage in Fair Oak Road, Stan Durant, Mr Bishop who was the postmaster at Bishopstoke post office. I can clearly remember, as a child playing in Stoke Park Woods, where there were very narrow, overgrown footpaths. I occasionally walked across Stoke Park Wood to Sandy Lane, Fair Oak, where my grandparents lived, and I remember the remains of the cottage workhouses, situated at Stoke Common. My sister remembers the open fields around Colchester Avenue before the housing development to the south of Colchester Avenue, which includes Underwood Road, East & West Drives etc. I remembered the corporation dustcart & road sweeper, metal dustbins, knife sharpening man, Charley, the local Milkman, the local chimney sweep, bread man, French onion sellers, and the gypsy’s selling clothes pegs.
This brings me onto the main reason for contacting the Bishopstoke History Society.
In the introduction to the history of Bishopstoke Society, shown is a map dated 1613, the original held by Winchester College, attributed and purporting to be of the parish of Bishopstoke.
As an ex- trained surveyor, cartographer and Photogrammetrist, I was extremely interested in examining the 1613 map further, on close inspection assisted by referring to old Ordnance Survey mapping I was able to locate the precise position within the parish of Bishopstoke of this map of 1613.
Below I have collated and shown the results of my investigations.
The first mention of Bishop’s Stoke was recorded in the Domesday Survey, called “Soches” , a manor held by the Bishop of Winchester in 1086.
Stoke, can mean a dependent farmstead, secondary settlement or land near to marshy ground.
Between the years 1211-1212 the hunting deer park was created by the Bishop of Winchester, called “Stoke Park”, and in 1246-47 a field was created to grow oats to feed pigs and wild boar and another field for a vineyard.
The map displayed on the “History of Bishopstoke Society’s” site is in reality not of the whole parish of Bishop’s Stoke, but of the area known as “Stoke Park” the hunting park, woodland and farmland leased and rented out by the Bishop of Winchester and Winchester College. This mapped land area, Stoke Park, was later included into the civil parish of Bishopstoke in 1899. The bishop was also Lord of the Manor of Bishop’s Stoke at that time.
The early Ordnance Survey map and the Tithe Map of 1840 have named the area around and the village itself as Stoke and further areas within the parish, namely Stoke Lodge, Stoke Common, Stoke Park Wood and Stoke Park Farm, have retained this place name, Stoke. I have also noticed in my family history research that residence of the village has been referred to as coming from or dwelling at Stoke, not Bishopstoke, (Bishop’s Stoke), another example of where the name Bishop being used is in Bishops Waltham, in documents referred to as Waltham.
Stoke Park map 1613
Fig 1
The map above shows the original 1613 Stoke Park map, held by Winchester College, the original map scale is unclear, but the land survey was measured in Chains (1 Chain = 66ft, 2011.68 Cms). The chain or later called a Gunter’s chain, (was a linked metal Chain) a distance measuring device used for surveying. The Gunter chain, was designed and introduced in 1620 by English clergyman and mathematician Edmund Gunter, there are 100 links in the chain and ranging rods were used to align the direction of the chain. When surveying, topographic features along the chain line, measurements were taken to the feature from a ninety-degree offset from the chain line. The surveying method of plane tabling may have been used in this map survey and with a compass?
The buildings shown on the above map when orientated east west, now convention, north- south alignment. Buildings drawn on the 1613 map, From the north west corner, Rowley Green Cottage, Stoke Park Farm and adjoining farm cottages, then beyond the southern extent of this map’s detail boundary Hoe Farm (Hoo, Hole, Holt also other spellings recorded in later documents). Some fields have their areas written in acres, Roods and Perches, but all other written text is illegible on the current scaled map presented.
Stoke Park Map 1613 Location
Fig 2
This map shows the actual location of the 1613 Stoke Park Map, clearly positioned within the parish of Bishopstoke, which then included the village of Fair Oak, the mapped detail aligns closely with the boundary features shown on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey County series, six-inch map, there are triangulation stations, Bench marks, BMs, and Spot Height points shown on this map, also the map projection used was the Cassini map projection. The OS map was drawn using the engraving method. Only Latitudes and longitudes are shown on the Ordnance Survey map border, no grid lines. The land has been surveyed using a theodolite with the chain survey method. The main local parish name is shown on the map face, other adjoining parish names printed on the map border.
The mapping projection for Ordnance Survey mapping changed to the UTM projection in 1936, (Universal Transverse Mercator Projection). So, on the later maps, detail of topographic features changed their surveyed positions and shapes, also a grid was added to the maps.
County Series maps (published from the 1840s to the 1940s) were based on local county projections and meridians. Sheets are identified by the relevant county name plus a sheet number. These maps were published at scales of: 1:10,560 (6 inches to the mile, covering the whole of Great Britain).
Note the wooded area names now appear on the 1871 six-inch map, and the outer boundary of the mapped area depicted on the OS map closely follows the 1613 map boundary alignment, (the later OS map may have copied the park boundary from a later map derived from the 1613 map, all land surveyed in both 1613 & 1871 maps used the chain measuring method. Parts of the boundary of the 1613 map defines the park Lug boundary created in 1211.
Stoke Park Wood was part of a deer hunting park, owned by the Bishop of Winchester for almost 300 years before being disemparked in 1540, it then continues to be owned by the Ecclesiastical Commission, who leased it for a period to Winchester College. Approximately 214 acres, the largest remaining fragment of the ancient forest of Bere.
Map of Stoke Park 1613
Fig 3
Fig 3. This is a new recompiled and redrawn map based on the Winchester College map dated 1613 of Stoke Park, showing the agricultural land and defined Woods held by the Bishop of Winchester. The map has been orientated North south and a scale has now been added, underwood names added and the watercourse named (Bow Lake). Also, outer track directional names were added. There is clearly an ancient tree shown on the original map, which by referencing to the tithe map of Bishopstoke of 1840 lies within the field named “Bowland Oak”.
The farm on the outer southern boundary is Hoe Farm, which no longer exists, the farmhouse and adjoining farmland location is now occupied by the modern houses of Drayton Way Estate, situated south of Stoke Park Wood.
I have found no images of the farmhouse, by searching on line or reference in the HRO Winchester catalogue. I remember visiting this farmhouse in the late 1950’s, which was then farmed and occupied by the Bayliss family.
Further research using the Tithe Map and accompanying awards, I have found that the total area shown by the 1613 map is approximately 640 acres, Stoke Park Wood covering about 220 acres.
In 1840 about 280 acres of wooded land was held by Winchester College 44% of mapped area, 360 acres of agricultural land and some underwood leased by Winchester College to Thomas Twynam, farmer living at Stoke Park Farmhouse, Thomas Twynam farmed an area covering 56% of mapped area of Stoke Park.
Map of Bishop Stoke Village 1618
Fig 4
The map above is based on the section of Bishop Stoke, surveyed in 1618 to show the navigation course of the River Itchen from Winchester to Wood mill near Southampton. The map shows the village, the church, the two manor houses and two corn mills, also four cottages, the cottage near the top of Spring Lane is clearly visible on the painting of Spring Lane.
(“Lane near Bishopstoke”, Artist Frederick W. Watts 1800-1870.
Painting held by the Southampton City Art Gallery)
Note the thatched cottage (117-119) Spring Lane, is not depicted on this map, although a positioned tree is placed at the junction of Church Road and Spring Lane.
The map shows the land ownership at this time in history, Mr Wells of Brambridge and Sir George Phillpott.
Map of Bishopstoke 1872 superimposed with the 1613 map of Stoke Park and Bishopstoke Village 1618
Fig 5
Map of Bishopstoke 1872
Fig 6
Additional information.
Reference to Hole (Hoe) Farmhouse, Bishopstoke Tithe Map 1840, House & Garden, owned and occupied by Thomas White.
1841 Census Pyle Hill Farm Bishopstoke Hampshire
HO107 Folio 404/4 Page No 2
Thomas White 70 1771 born Hampshire
Richard White 30 1811 born Hampshire
Eliza White 30 1811 born Hampshire
Harriett Benham 20 1821 born Hampshire
Thomas Butt 20 1821 born Hampshire
William Light 15 1826 born Hampshire.
1851 Census Crowd Hill Bishopstoke Hampshire
HO107 Folio 1675/60 Page No 3
Thomas White Head 82 1769 married Farmer of 120 acres employing three labourers, born Sparsholt Hampshire
Richard White Son 42 1809 Um Farmer’s son born Owslebury Hampshire
Elizabeth White Daughter 40 1811 Um b Chichester Sussex
Ann Goater Servant 1833 Um House servant born Bishopstoke Hampshire
William Marsh Servant 22 1829 Um Farmer’s labourer born Beauworth Hampshire.
HRO Winchester
Reference 1855B/100
Will and renunciation of Thomas White of Pyle Hill Bishopstoke Hampshire, Yeoman 1855.
Hole (Hoe) Farm Bishopstoke surrendered to Stephen Dummer from his father Thomas Dummer on the 22nd February 1638.
HRO Winchester
Reference 1696P/18
Will and Inventory of Stephen Dummer (Dumer) Senior of Bishopstoke, Yeoman 1696
Stephen Dummer 1599-1670.
There are references to Stoke Farm in the HRO Winchester catalogue, but I believe that they refer to Manor Farm Bishopstoke and not Stoke Park Farm.
Occupiers of Stoke Park Farm
1840 Thomas White
1880’s Edward Dunford
1930 Reginald Allen & George Allen
1943 John Dunford tenant farmer of the Diocese of Winchester
1950 John Dunford’s parents bought Stoke Park Farm
1962 Bought Manor Farm Bishopstoke, (Bishop of Winchester dairy Farm).
Further investigation using the Bishopstoke Court records may provide the early farmers of Stoke Park Farm, or other relevant documents held by Winchester College.
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