All'antica Carving of the Early Tudor Renaissance at St Mary's Church, Old Basing, Hampshire
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Proc. Hampshire Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 64, 2009, 147-171 (Hampshire Studies 2009) ALL'ANTICA CARVING OF THE EARLY TUDOR RENAISSANCE AT ST MARY'S CHURCH, OLD BASING, HAMPSHIRE By NICHOLAS RIALL ABSTRACT that was until modern times known simply as Basing, as it was also to the Paulets, and this is In volume 62 (2007) of Hampshire Studies, the early the name that will be used here. Tudor Renaissance tomb at Sherborne St John and the work of Thomas Bertie were described, alongside a dis cussion of dating and the implications for the adoption THE PAULETS AND BASING of the aU'antica style in Hampshire. This paper takes that research further, by exploring the earlier PauletA notable feature of the fabric of St Mary's chapel at Basing, built c. 1519, which also displays Church is the presence of many shields, both traces of the early Tudor Renaissance. Researching theinsid e the church and affixed to the exterior, that Paulet chapel reveals important connections to contemdisplay the heraldry of families associated with porary work in Winchester Cathedral, and sheds lightth e honour of Basing and who were connected on the evolution of the Tudor decorative arts. to the Paulets by marriage. The lords of Basing had, from the Norman Conquest and down to the 14th century, been the St Johns. Their line INTRODUCTION failed in 1347 with the death of Edmund St John, and the estate eventually passed to his younger St Mary's Church in the village of Old Basing sister, Isabel, wife of Sir Luke de Poynings; thence (Fig. 1) has been the subject of a paper by John to their son, Sir Thomas de Poynings, who died Crook (2002), who demonstrated the overall in 1428. His heirs were the daughters of his son development of the church as part of a survey Hugh, who had predeceased him (Table 1). following the discovery of some incised lines The Basing portion of the Poynings inheritance in the plasterwork of the south chapel. He went to Constance (nee Poynings), the wife of provided a commentary on the Paulet chapel, Sir John Paulet of Nunney, Somerset (VCHH and the Paulet tombs that lie between this IV, 123-6; and see GEC Complete Peerage, under chapel and the chancel (Fig. 2). However, he Winchester, Marquessate). This Sir John Paulet did not describe the roof corbels of the north died 1436/7; he was succeeded by his son John chapel and their parallels with similar corbels in (d. 5 Oct 1492) who, with his wife Eleanor (nee Winchester Cathedral (formerly the Priory of St Roos), was buried in Basing Church. Their son, Swithun), nor did he mention the spandrels of also named John, was born c. 1460. He married the monumental arches over the Paulet tombs. his cousin, Alice Paulet of Hinton St George, In particular, the presence of aU'antica detail in Somerset. Paulet died on 5January 1525 (Loades one of these spandrels is not discussed. It should 2008, 166, quoting the Inquisition Post Mortem be noted that this detail had eluded other archi records) and, with his wife (who oudived him), tectural historians, the present author included, was buried in the church at Basing in the tomb until Mr Rodney Hubbuck drew this author's within the chapel that he had had built. He was attention to its presence. the father of William Paulet, the first marquis of Winchester who is famed for the longevity of Old Basing is the modern name for a village 147 148 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY *• ' •. ... • "* ••.•;•" ''V Fig. 1 St Mary's Church, Basing. Exterior of the Paulet chapel from the northeast his life and his ability to survive the internecine a new chapel and a pair of monumental tombs to politics of the Tudors from the reign of Henry hold the remains of his parents, and those of his VIII through and into that of Elizabeth. wife and himself (Fig. 2). It therefore seems likely The great brick-built mansion at Basing was that it was this Paulet who made the decision apparendy the creation of William Paulet who to make Basing the main home for the family, was granted a licence to crenellate in 1531. While which, alongside the casde and estate at Nunney this is taken to indicate that he built a fortified and elsewhere in Somerset, also held lands in mansion, it is clear from remains on the ground Sussex and Wiltshire, besides an extensive estate and the presence of earlier Paulets buried in in Hampshire. The most likely reason for this the nearby church, and taking account of their choice would have been the proximity of Basing prominent role in the affairs of Hampshire in to London, and thus to the court of Henry VIII, the previous century, that a house of some size combined with an aspiration to involve the family must have stood here before William's prodigy more closely with politics and local government in house was erected (Allen and Anderson 1999). Hampshire. It should nonetheless be noted that That this should be so can be adduced from the Paulets had been sheriffs of Hampshire during activities of Sir John Paulet, who in 1519 created the 15th century- Sir John Paulet who died RIALL: ALL'ANTICA CARVING OF THE EARLY TUDOR RENAISSANCE AT ST MARY'S CHURCH 149 John Crook mens, et del. 1998 Fig. 2 St Mary's Church, Basing. Phased plan (after Crook 2002) in 1492 being sheriff in the reigns of Henry VI the 18th century onwards. Much of this provides (36 Henry VI) and Edward IV (2 and 3 Edward information on the heraldic carvings in and IV). His son, who died in 1525, was sheriff twice around the church. Principal among these in the reign of Henry VII (7 and 16 Henry VII), are notes compiled by William Bingley, in the whilst his son, William, comes to notice from the years 1807—13, for his Collections for the History of start of Henry VIII's reign as listed for the office Hampshire, an unpublished collection now in the of sheriff in 1509 and 1510, becoming sheriff in Hampshire Record Office (HRO MS 16M79/2). 1511 (Table 1; Berry 1839, viii-ix). This was followed by an Architectural Memoir published in 1891 that offers an explanation of the Paulet heraldry (Cayley and Salter 1891), HISTORIOGRAPHY but which, as Crook remarks, offers an architec tural interpretation that should be treated with As Crook has shown, important information caution (Crook 2002, 94). The description of relating to St Mary's Church was recorded from the church in the Victoria County History provides Table 1 A family tree of the Paulet family during the 15th and 16th centuries William Paulet of Melcomb Paulet (d.1435) Eleanor de la Mere (d. 1413, dau of Sir Elias de la Mere of Nunney, Somerset, and Fisherton-Delamere, Wilts, and Maud Hussey) Sir John Paulel of Nunney (d. 11 Jan 1437) Constance Poynings (d. c.1428, dau of Sir Hugh Poynings, 5th baron St John of Basing, Hants) John Paulet of Nunney and Basing (d. 5 Oct 1492) = Eleanor Roos (d. 1504 at Nunney, dau of Margaret = Sir Amias Paulelt Robert Roos of Gedney and Irton, Lines, and of Hinton St George Joan Skelton) Sir William Paulett = Elizabeth Denebaud of Hinton St George (c. 1404-1488) I 1 1 Sir Amias Paulett of Hinton St George (c.1457-1538) Elizabeth Alice =John Paulet of Nunney and Basing Sir John Paulet of Nunney and Basing (b. c.1460 - d. 5 Jan 1525) = Alice Paulett Sir William Paulct, KG, Lord St John of Basing, 1st Marquess of Winchester (1474/5? x 1483-1572) RIALL: ALL'ANTICA CARVING OF THE EARLY TUDOR RENAISSANCE AT ST MARY'S CHURCH 151 fur jprfSJTnn Fig. 3 St Mary's Church, Basing. Inscription on the donor panel set on the west face of the arch that separates the north aisle from the Paulet chapel a helpful account of both its history and its archi attribute to the Paulets, and is more likely to be tecture (VCHH IV and see Roffey 2007). work undertaken by the Poynings. Also by this date it is possible that the tower transepts had been altered, the Romanesque arches giving THE NORTH OR PAULET CHAPEL access to them from the chancel having been reformed with the insertion of Gothic work. Of It is entirely probable that Basing church interest is a (now blocked) squint cut through was originally built in the 11th or early 12th the north wall of the chancel and allowing a century by the de Port family, who then held sight-line into the north transept (Fig. 2). It the honour of Basing. The church may have is feasible that this represents vestiges of an been cruciform in plan, resembling the layout earlier chapel, perhaps the Holy Trinity chapel of East Meon church, and would have had (Roffey 2007, 170), which was swept away in the transepts adjacent to the centrally-placed tower early 16th century when the Paulet chapel was (Fig. 2). Much of this early church has vanished erected. following successive programmes of rebuilding, but the ground plan of the Norman church Donor panel influenced the manner in which this rebuild ing was effected. It is possible that much of Entry into the Paulet chapel from the west is the Norman church survived until the earlier provided through an arch that marks the east 15th century, when the entire structure of the end of the north aisle (Fig. 2). It may be that the church west of the tower and its transepts was walling of this arch is a remnant of the Norman rebuilt.