History of Alresford
History of Alresford >> White's Directory 1848
White's Directory of Essex 1848
ALRESFORD is a pleasant village and parish, on the eastern side of the vale of the river Colne, 5½ miles South East of Colchester, containing 289 souls, and 1427A.2R.25P. of land, watered by two rivulets, which fall into a creek of the Colne, on the south side of the parish. The creek is fordable at low water; and from this ford, and the alders still growing near it,the parish had its name. At the Norman Survey, it belonged to the Earl of Boulogne. It is in two manors, Alresford and Cockayne, both now he1d by Mrs. Mary Higginbotham, of London, and formerly by the Ferc1e, Staunton, Tabor, Cockayne, and other families. Most of the soil belongs to other proprietors, the largest of whom is W.W. Hawkins, Esq., of Alresford Hall, which stands on an eminence, and has lately been mnch enlarged. Mr. Hawkins is the lessee of the manors.
The Church (St. Peter,) is a small well proportioned structure in early decorated style, supposed to have beee built about 1300, by Anfred de Staunton, to whom there is an inscription, in Norman-French. The chancel underwent extensive repairs in 1848, when new stone windows were inserted. The painted glass in the east window was given W.W. Hawkins, Esq. The rectory, valued in K.B. at £8, and in 1831 at £322, is in the incumbency of the Rev. J. H. Swainson, M.A., and in the patronage of the Trustees of William Hulme, Esqr.'s Exhibitions at Brazenose Col1ege, Oxford, who obtained the advowson in 1765, and always present one of their Exhibitioners. The Rectory House is a commodious brick building, with tasteful grounds; and the glebe consists of 8A. in this, and 29A. in Little Bentley parish. The tithes have been oommuted for £356 per annum. A neat National School has been erected by W.W. Hawkins, Esq., in the Elizabethan style; and the poor parishioners have a yearly rent-charge of 12s.8d., out of the Pointer Farm, in satisfaction of the bequest of Edmund Porter, in 1508. This farm now belongs to Mrs. Simons.
