A Brief History of Stockheath

A Brief History of Stockheath Funfair and fireworks on Stockheath Common, 5 November 2010. John Pile, Steve Jones, Ralph Cousins Havant History Booklet No. 2 View, comment, and order all booklets at www.hhbkt.com £3 2 3 From the O.S. Digital Data with permission of the Controller of HMSO. C.C. Reserved 2008. Licence LA100019217. Aerial view of the Stockheath area circa 2008. 4 Stockheath The area of Stockheath historically centred on the common that bore its name. Originally the triangular shaped common was used by local cottagers to graze their animals on the eight acres of common land. During the ownership of Sir George Staunton larger smallholdings were starting to appear with tenants renting further land from the Leigh Park Estate that bordered onto the common and using their customary rights of grazing on the common itself. Some cottagers renting just an acre or two of land close to the common. Stockheath also saw the rise of larger properties around the common, with small villas beginning to appear on the western side of the common. Advertisements from the local press from the early 1800s advertised properties for sale or let as the following shows: STOCKHEATH BANQUETTING HOUSE TO be SOLD by AUCTION, by Mr. Weller, on Monday, Twelve O’clock on the premises, A substantial newly built BANQUETTING HOUSE, with one very handsome proportioned room, cellar, and bed chamber, well calculated to form into cottage ornee, with garden, poultry yard, orchard and meadow land, the whole comprising about two acres, situate at Stockheath, late the property of Tudor Griffiths, Esq. Hampshire Telegraph, 5 September, 1808 To be SOLD or LET with early possession — A genteel COPYHOLD COTTAGE, replete with Fixtures, pleasantly situated on Stockheath Green; containing two parlours, three bed-rooms, kitchen and pantry, a detached washhouse, with copper and oven; - Also a Yard, Stable, and Outhouse, together with a large and productive Garden, well stocked with good young Fruit Trees in full bearing, and having the customary right of Havant Thicket and Stockheath Common. Hampshire Telegraph, 17 May, 1824 5 STOCKHEATH, HAVANT, HANTS. To be LET, with immediate possession, TWO neat VILLA RESIDENCES situate on the Green, containing large drawing and dining rooms, four good bedrooms and dressing ditto, kitchen, wash and brew houses, gardens and orchards, with a right to turn out over 16 acres of pasture adjoining. Hampshire Telegraph, 25 June, 1859 By the time of the sale of the Leigh Park Estate in 1860, following the death of Sir George Staunton the previous year, the sales particulars of the estate record various properties. In 1864, 887 acres of common land around Havant was enclosed. Stockheath measuring at this time 8.4 acres and the Award dated 1870. Other areas enclosed included Leigh Green and Havant Thicket that had an effect on the Leigh Park Estate. William Henry Stone, then the owner of Leigh Park was allocated 727 acres due to the enclosure of part of his estate. At a constituency meeting in Portsmouth (reported in Hampshire Telegraph 1st July 1865) prior to the July 1865 General Election, Stone, who was standing as Liberal candidate in the Portsmouth constituency, rebuffed the charge of hypocrisy over the matter of the enclosure by saying: When a man came forward and professed to support certain principles, and said he intended to support measures which should be for the benefit of all classes, if it could be shown that in his private capacity, in the disposition of his own property and in his dealing with his neighbours, he was acting contrary to those principles, and in a spirit of harshness and oppression – (hear, hear) then those to whom he appealed for support, would be justified before they gave their votes – (hear, hear) Stone told the meeting that the movement for enclosure: Had been initiated a townsman of their own, Mr. Taplin; and although the alteration was to his advantage, it was no more so than to the rest of the copyholders, except because he was a larger holder. 6 After the enclosure, and after William Stone had left Leigh Park in 1874, larger farms or smallholdings started to appear around the common at Stockheath, under the ownership of Sir Frederick Fitzwygram. STOCKHEATH COMMON The question of the origin of commons and rights of commons are impossible to answer with certainty as they surely predate parliament, and even the monarchy. The assertion that they date from the times that when land was mainly wild and ownerless and all men had equal rights over it is illogical since if the land was free there would be no need for ‘rights’ over it. It is more likely that ‘commons’ and ‘rights’ to use them date from the Middle Ages when ‘rights’ were ‘appendant’ (attached) to the land held of the lord of the manor by copyhold or freehold tenure and they came in to being because someone had assumed ownership and control over it. There were sound economic reasons why the rights were granted. There was an obligation of the part of the manorial tenant to leave his holding (when he surrendered it) in as good condition as he received it and his rights of common helped him to do this and to pay his dues to the lord. The manorial system of the Normans acknowledged lordship over the land, but the peasantry kept their customary rights. The Commons Act of 1285, also known as the Second Statute of Westminster, confirmed landowners’ right to ‘approve’ common land – that is, to fence off surplus common land beyond that which was required to meet the commoners’ needs for survival and convert it to more profitable agricultural use. This was a frequent source of conflict between landowners and commoners until the practice of ‘approvement’ was finally regulated under the Law of Commons Act of 1893. It has now been abolished. By the mid-19th century many common rights had been eradicated by enclosures but some have survived until the present day. John Pile has carried out considerable research into this area (Read also his history entitled ‘Romano-British and Saxon Commons.’) and he puts forward the following conjectural history of Stockheath: Both of the 10th century charters defining the Saxon estate of Havant (S 430 dated AD 935 and S 837 dated AD 980) refer ‘to thon hwitan stoccae’ at a location that may be identified with the present Stockheath. Susan Kelly 7 Fireworks on Stockheath Common, 5 November 2013. 8 (pers. comm.) translates this as ‘to the white tree-stump or post’ and it is likely that this is the origin of the present name. Professor Coates (in a personal communication) agrees that Old English stocc ‘a tree trunk or stump’ is more likely than OE stoc ‘a place’, especially ‘a secondary settlement’, to be the etymon (root) of the place name Stockheath. From this point, progressing northward, the boundary of the estate passes ‘through the wood enclosure to Nedda’s wood or clearing to the highway’. The highway could well be Riders Lane which follows the old parish boundary between Bedhampton and Havant. The ‘wood enclosure’ may refer to an enclosure for deer and it is significant that the later Bedhampton deer park lay immediately to the west. The deer park was probably created from the Forest of Bere after the Norman Conquest, but it too may have had a Saxon counterpart. Stockheath is funnel-shaped and it is clearly an exit from an area of former common wood-pasture to the north. Cattle would have been driven into the funnel at the junction of Riders Lane and Stockheath Lane and then down Stockheath Lane to be grazed on the coastal pasture grounds. The possibility that this may have once been a hedged or fenced game enclosure would not have precluded its use as common grazing land. There was another exit- funnel at Leigh Green around the present junction of Prospect Lane and Bartons Road. The present line of Stockheath Lane from Stockheath, Stockheath Road, Martins Road and Bartons Road as far as the junction with Eastleigh Road (where there was a third exit-funnel) probably marks the southern edge of a large block of former wood-pasture/game enclosure, which was not opened up until the 13th century. This area was probably secondary woodland, which regenerated after having been cleared in Roman times. Inclosure Acts The Inclosure Acts were a series of United Kingdom Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land in the country. This meant that the ‘Rights of Common’ that people once held on these areas were denied. Acts for small areas had been passed sporadically since the 12th century but the majority were passed between 1750 and 1860. In 1845 a general Inclosure Act was passed which allowed for the appointment of Inclosure 9 Commisioners who could enclose land without submitting a request to Parliament. According to Chapman & Seeliger in their book, A Guide to Enclosure in Hampshire 1700–1900, 1997, an order was made in 1864 for the enclosure of 891.40 acres of common land in the parishes of Havant and North Hayling. Under this order 886 acres of enclosed common land were shared among 35 allottees as ‘awards’ of which Sir William Stone received 727 acres (82% of the total). It is important to note that various commoners received a share of the land in proportion to their forfeited rights over it. However Stockheath Common, which was included within the ‘award’ made to Stone, came with the following condition from the commissioner: And I declare that with the approbation of the Inclosure Commissioners for England and Wales I have set out and do hereby set out allot and award to William Henry Stone of Leigh Park Havant, Esquire who has consented to receive the same as part of his allotment.

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