Frustfield overlaid on modern parish boundaries. Old Whiteparish boundary in red.
A Whiteparish local history page from younsmere-frustfield.org.uk
This page is incomplete and under construction October 2022
Colour coding of public and private pages to show which are available publicly hasn't yet been started: not all links on this page will work on the public website.
This page gives a short overview of the history of Cowesfield and Whiteparish from Saxon times onwards based on the detailed analysis in the rest of this website. For a fuller introduction to the history of the parish without visiting lots of pages see Whiteparish through the Ages. Be aware that I haven't yet colour coded the links on this page to show which are available on the public version of this website.
The parish of Whiteparish forms part of the old Hundred of Frustfield, an administrative subdivision of the county introduced from about the tenth century. The gift of the Earldoms to Wilton Abbey in 968 left a detached southern portion of the parish that is now no longer part of the parish. Frustfield also contained the parish of Landford and a large area of the New Forest now in Redlynch parish. In early times, including in the Domesday Book of 1086, landholdings in the present parish were referred to as being in either Frustfield or Cowesfield.
Frustfield overlaid on modern parish boundaries. Old Whiteparish boundary in red.
According to events described in the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, the Saxons landed at Netley near Southampton in 495, from which they expanded their territory across the north edge of the New Forest as far as Charford on the Salisbury Avon in 508 and took Old Sarum in 552. Whiteparish probably escaped the first of these expansions, coming under Saxon control in or around 552, although as far as is known there were no settlements in the parish at that time. At some stage in the Saxon period manors were established at what were almost certainly Alderstone, Whelpley, Abbotstone, Cowesfield Esturmy and Cowesfield Spilman. All of these were sites with water available, but since none are on the coast or rivers that formed the earliest settlement sites, they were almost certainly founded later rather than earlier in the Saxon period. The earliest references to any part of Frustfield/Whiteparish come in two charters dated 939-946 and 968 that describe the same piece of land, now Earldoms, the second of these charters granting this land to Wilton Abbey. The way this land fits within the area of Frustfield suggests that these other manors probably already existed by that time.
In the Domesday Book of 1086 landholdings in the Hundred of Frustfield were listed under three names, Frustfield with five entries, Cowesfield with two and Landford with one. Some can be identified with ease while others can only be guessed at. The largest and third largest went on to become the two known deserted mediaeval settlements in the parish at Whelpley and Moor, with two more mediaeval settlements in Alderstone around the triangular green north of the church, and at Cowesfield Esturmy around the triangular green that is now Cowesfield Green. Many attempts have been made to assign the Domesday Book entries to particular manors within the Hundred, but the two smallest ones remain difficult to place, Sansoms, the area around Welsteads and Blaxwell being among suggestions.
The Hundred of Frustfield was served by four church tithings, three of these having chapels, the fourth chapel becoming All Saints church. One of the tithings served the two (and later three) Cowesfield manors, one the large and most significant manor of Whelpley with its mediaeval village, and a third the mediaeval village site at Moor, which served Moor and Abbotstone/Titchborne manors. The fourth, Alderstone, served the manor associated with the church, which included a significant detached area of land that lay between Cowesfield and the Hampshire border. This detached portion of the manor, lying as it does to the east of Cowesfield, contains Bunny Lane and the post turnpike (1756) hamlet of Cowesfield Gate and today is thought of as part of Cowesfield. Alderstone forms the nucleus of the modern village of Whiteparish, which today also includes parts of Whelpley, Blaxwell and Cowesfield Esturmy manors.
A population shift took place from several of the manorial centres into the village of Whiteparish that may have started as early as the beginning of the 13th century and was probably complete by the 16th century, bringing the Whelpley population and the Whelpley Manor House from the mediaeval site at Whelpley Farm to land belonging to the same manor along the north side of The Street. It seems probable that the house rebuilt in brick in 1627 and now Abbotstone House had previously been the Whelpley Manor House associated with this shift. In 1562 the St Barbe family had built or more probably rebuilt or enlarged their Alderstone manor house next to the church. These movements formed the village of Whiteparish around the manorial centre of Alderstone, first named as Whytechyrch in 1278 and Whyteparosshe in 1301. However, the manor of Alderstone was still referred to in 1330 [IPM on Ingelram Berenger]. The mediaeval site at Moor was abandoned quite early, leaving the main population centres at Whiteparish and Cowesfield Green. Blaxwell Manor crosses the A27 at the old village hall site close to the Parish Lantern, so some houses on the south side of the A27 west of the Parish Lantern and those on the north side from The Green to Pains Firework factory are in Blaxwell. Cowesfield Esturmy includes all the south side of the A27 up to and including the Parish Lantern and the north side almost up to where the footpaths to Blaxwell and Miles Lane cross the road, so again much of the village of Whiteparish is within the manor of Cowesfield Esturmy.
Hamlets grew up at Newton by 1289 and after the turnpike road was built in 1756 at Cowesfield Gate where a gate across the road prevented stock straying from Cowesfield Spilman into that part of Alderstone manor to the east. Houses at Cowesfield Gate are entirely on Alderstone Manor land and not part of Cowesfield. Brickworth seems to have been an early hamlet, while Moor, Titchborne, Cowesfield Louveras and Whelpley are farms today.
Two parts of the parish/Hundred were given to church foundations: Alderstone and the Earldoms. The advowson and rectory of Alderstone were granted to St Edmunds College Salisbury in 1339 and land, probably the whole of the manor, in 1347. After the dissolution in 1540, the chapels of St Leonard at Whelpley and St James at Moor were seized for the crown in 1546 and sold, together with the whole of Alderstone Manor, including All Saints church, to William St Barbe. The chapel at Cowesfield Spilman had already been lost by that date, the last recorded chaplain having been appointed in 1464. St Leonards Whelpley had its last new chaplain in 1538, although at Moor the last recorded chaplain was appointed in 1436, so the chapel may not have been in active use when seized.
The gift of the Earldoms to Wilton Abbey in 968 resulted in time to it ceasing to be part of the Hundred, leading to the parish having a detached area to the south that included Wicketts Green, North Common and Whitterns Hill. At the dissolution the Earldoms was granted to the Earl of Pembroke, from which its modern name arose.
Three manors remain to be mentioned. Cowesfield Louveras to the east of Cowesfield Spilman is known to have existed by the time of Henry II (1154-1189), Blaxwell by the time of Edward I (1272-1307) and Titchborne, recorded under its earlier name of Abbotstone in 1316.
As the manorial system fell away, land started to be bought and sold (see Manor Evolution for a full analysis. William Stockman of Downton bought Titchborne (Abbotstone) and Moor manors, building the house and separating off the Newhouse estate and selling that in 1619, while a relative Joseph Stockman inherited and sold another part of this purchase as Dry Farm. Whelpley manor was divided into two parts in 1627, Whelpley Farm being sold and Whelpley Manor bequeathed to a relative. The manor and associated land was later sold in 1657 to Giles Eyre 2 (1607-1685). Remaining parts of the four Whelpley commonable fields were divided by an Enclosure Award of 1804, and from about this time the lands of Whelpley manor lying south of the A27 and west of Common Road had been completely divided into small farming units, the only manor in which this was the case. Between 1622 and 1632 Blaxwell manor was divided into five parts as the inheritance of five sisters, some parts later being regrouped by subsequent purchases.
Cowesfield Spilman manor was divided into two unequal parts, with Cowesfield House being built as a farmhouse on the smaller one on part of the open fields, then developed in stages into a grand house and estate. The larger part, owned by Lord Ashburton, was let for farming to the Melchet estate. The history of the other two Cowesfield manors is more complex, Cowesfield Esturmy and Cowesfield Louveras manors being passed and owned in various combinations and with other Whiteparish manors. [**Working here** St Barbe, ... Cowesfield Esturmy and Cowesfield Louveras (separated by Cowesfield Spiman) were in common ownership, passing through Lord Rivers in ... to Lady Fremantle by 1842. **]
**Working here** - further links and detail to be added below
Large country houses with parks were established at Broxmore, Newhouse, Brickworth and Cowesfield House. Broxmore House was a replacement for the Alderstone Manor House next to the church and was built in 1562 on the other section of Alderstone Manor to the east of Cowesfield, also integrating a large area of rented land in Cowesfield Louveras into the park and farm. Newhouse was built early in the seventeenth century on part of Tichborne/Abbotstone Manor and first sold in 1619. In 1633 it was bought by Giles Eyre 1 (1572-1635) for his son Ambrose, and remained in branches of the same family for 388 years before being put up for sale in 2021. A notable owner was George Matcham (1789-1877), author of the substantial 1844 history of Frustfield much quoted in this website. His serendipitous links to the Eyre family and their social contacts (he married Harriet Eyre) gave him ready research access to the family papers of all the most important families in the parish at the time, allowing him to construct a very comprehensive history of the Hundred. Brickworth House and Park were set up in 1605 by Giles Eyre (1). He and his descendants, including four more generations also named Giles Eyre, continued to buy land to add to the estate, ending up owning over a fifth of the land in the parish by 1842, including a large part of the remaining common land. Cowesfield House started as a farmhouse built in the late 16th century in the centre of the remaining open fields of Cowesfield Spilman manor. It was turned into a modest country house in 1767 and further enlarged in 1815.
Broxmore and Cowesfield Houses were taken over for military use during the second world war and demolished soon after it. Their parks are now farmland that clearly retain the character of their parkland origins. Brickworth House and estate became part of the Nelsons' Trafalgar Estate in 1878 when the last of the Eyres died. It burned down in May 1860 and a new house was constructed on the site; today this house and its small park are still there adjacent to a small hamlet of houses, the park and its herd of white deer having been described in its time as the smallest deer park in England. The parkland of Cowesfield House returned to farming and the site of the house is now a development of recently built large houses on the site of the pig farm that was built on the site after the demolition of the house. Again, the parkland origins are clear in the landscape of the area. Part of Bunny Lane ran through the Broxmore House grounds, where several buildings from the park remain as houses today and even the walled garden still exists, now an impressive formal garden designed and laid out shortly before 2000.
Today much of the parish is covered by farms large and small. Whiteparish has grown and continues to do so slowly, while Cowesfield has retained its shrunken form without significant new building. The area of Cowesfield Esturmy from Meadow Court to the Parish Lantern is now considered as part of Whiteparish, and the detached section of Alderstone manor at Cowesfield Gate and Bunny Lane is now considered as part of Cowesfield.
A comprehensive book "Hundred of Frustfield" by George Matcham was published in 1844 and has been a significant source of material for this web site. A few key errors have been identified and are pointed out on the appropriate pages, but largely this is very sound scholarship, drew heavily on family papers from all the important people of the time and is comprehensively referenced to papers in the Wiltshire County Archive.
Three papers in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine by Christopher Taylor describe aspects of the landscape and development of farms and estates in the parish. One of these gives details of the mediaeval willage sites at Whelpley, Moor and Cowesfield Green. A second covers the development of the parish in detail. This is highly recommended, but with the reservation that in a book written later in life, Taylor himself retracted the early sequence of dates suggested in the article. To quote from his book: "The story of Whiteparish and the expansion of settlement there may be correct in its relative sequence but the absolute chronology is likely to be quite wrong". The third paper is more problematic. It explores the bounds described in two Saxon charters, but attempted to force the boundary markers described in the charters to match the wrong piece of land at Titchborne Farm rather than the Earldoms, with substantial pieces of land required from the neighbouring parish to make a believable match. A detailed assessment is given at Saxon Charters. Notwithstanding this reservation, Taylor's other papers are well worth reading and give a good general exposition of the likely way development occurred across the centuries.
A book "Whiteparish 100 years of an English Village as told by the people of the village" was published by Eric Chase, Don and Janette Munro to mark the Millenium under the auspices of the Whiteparish Historical and Environmental Association [ISBN 0-9537744-0-6]. This collects reminiscences from a number of older inhabitants, is a very good read and contains much of interest.
Many other references have been used and are too numerous to detail here, but are collected together with links where available on the References page as well as being quoted at the appropriate points within the text of other pages.