Hursley, Hampshire

Description
Hursley, a village and a parish in Hants. The village stands 5 miles SW by S of Winchester, and 3 from Chandlers Ford station on the L. & S.W.R. The parish contains also the places called Bunstead, Crampmoor, Stundon, Pit, Puck-nail, Eatlake, Chandlers Ford, and Ramally, and it includes all the chapelry of Ampfield and part of that of Braishfield. It has a post and money order office under Winchester; telegraph office, Otterbourne. Acreage, 10, 726; population of the civil parish, 1398; of the ecclesiastical, 914. Merdon Manor, which included Hursley, belonged to the Saxon kings; was given by Kynegils to the bishops of Winchester; passed, in the time of Edward VI., to the Crown; went, toward the middle of the 17th century, to Richard Cromwell, son of the Protector; and was sold at the death of Cromwell's daughters to Sir William Heathcote. A castellated palace, called Merdon Castle, was built on it by Bishop Henry de Blois, and is now represented by only a portion of a flinty tower and two wide trenches. A mansion, on another site, not far from the castle, was built by Sir Philip Hobby in Henry VII.'s reign; was taken down in 1718 by Sir William Heathcote; and was then found to have in one of its walls the seal of the Commonwealth, supposed to have been identically that which Oliver Cromwell took from the Parliament. Hursley Park, the seat of the Baxendale family, occupies the site of Cromwell's mansion, is an edifice of red brick with stone basement and dressings, contains a portrait of Richard as a youth with his father in armour, by Walker, and stands in a large well-wooded park. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester; value, £380 with residence. The church has fine stained-glass windows, and contains the grave of Richard Cromwell and monuments of him and his relatives. The Rev. John Keble, author of the " Christian Year," was vicar from 1836 till 1866, and lies buried in the SW comer of the churchyard. The vicarage of Ampfield is a separate benefice.