Winchester St Peter Chesil Hampshire Family History Guide

Updated onOctober 17, 2024

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Winchester St Peter Chesil also known as Winchester St Peter Cheesehill is an Ancient Parish in the county of Hampshire.

Alternative names: Winchester St Peter Cheesehill

Parish church: St Peter

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1597
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1780

Nonconformists include: Baptist

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

See Winchester Hampshire Family History Guide

A History of the County of Hampshire 1912

The church of ST PETER CHEESEHILL consists of a chancel and nave in one range 23 ft. 10 in. wide and together 39 ft. 4 in. long, a south aisle extending the whole length of the church and 13 ft. 10 in. wide, and a south-east tower 14 ft. 9 in. by 11 ft. 6 in.

Like many other town churches, its plan is very irregular, filling up the whole available area of its confined site; the tower, which is of the 13th century, is at the south-east, the east wall being on the line of the street, like those of the chancel and north chapel. The arcade between the aisle and chancel is also of 13th-century date, and from the line of a flat-pitched roof on the east wall of the chancel it seems possible that there was originally a north aisle, the area of which has been thrown into the nave and chancel by the removal of the north arcade.

The west window of the nave seems to be of the first half of the 14th century and is set centrally, so that, unless it has been moved, the destruction of the arcade must have taken place before c. 1330. On the other hand, the arrangement of the two 15th-century windows in the east wall of the chancel implies that some structural division existed between them at the time they were set up. The plan of the church has not altered in recent times, except by the addition of a good-sized vestry west of the tower on a piece of the glebe land, a narrow strip of which formerly ran westward from the tower to the river bank.

The principal east window of the chancel is of late 15th-century date, having three cinquefoiled lights with tracery over and a two-centred head with external label. South of it are traces of a canopied niche of about the same period as the window. To the north is a second window of somewhat similar detail, though with a more pointed head and of only two lights. It is also considerably smaller, its crown reaching to about the spring of the head of the larger window, and above it are traces of a low-pitched roof.

In the north wall at the east is a late 15th or early 16th-century window of three trefoiled lights under a square head, with a square-headed external label and a four-centred rear arch. A little west of this is the north door of late 13th-century date and of two plain chamfered orders with simple moulded abaci at the springing.

Between the south aisle and the nave and chancel is an arcade, which has been scraped, of late 13th-century date, of three bays, the first of which is wider than the others and has a two-centred drop arch of two chamfered orders with a plain chamfered label on the north side. The other arches are of the same detail, but of ordinary two-centred form, and all are of one build. The columns are circular, the respond semicircular, with very shallow and simple bell-capitals and roll-moulded bases. The west window of mid-14th-century date is of three trefoiled lights with flowing net tracery.

The east window of the south aisle is of the same date as that of the chancel, and of very similar detail and the same number of lights. North of it is a canopied niche of mid-14th-century date with a septfoiled vaulted canopy surmounted by a rich crocketed spirelet and flanked by pinnacled buttresses. The projecting shelf is decorated with foliage and has two busts as corbels beneath it of a man and woman in the ordinary dress of c. 1350.

At the east end of the south wall is another niche of mid 15th-century date, with a cinquefoiled head and a crocketed and finialled label and pinnacled flanking buttress; on the shelf is carved a lion with its forepaws on a bone. In the niche is placed a modern statue of St. Peter and immediately below is a small square chamfered recess, in the bottom of which has been placed a square piscina basin. The niche was perhaps on the east wall originally. Further west is a small door to the tower of 15th-century date, with a four-centred head. The north door is blocked.

The west window is of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over and is of late 14th-century date.

The tower is of three stages, the topmost of which is of timber and hung with modern tiles and with a pointed roof. A curious feature is the way in which the bell frame is supported upon posts carried to the floor. On the east at the ground stage is a small 15th-century door, and above it a small window of the same date of two cinquefoiled lights. To the west is a small single light also of 15th-century date. In the second stage is a very interesting square-headed 13th-century east window, unglazed, and divided by a small round shaft with moulded capital and base.

The font is of late 12th-century date and has an arcade of shallow round-headed arches on the faces of the square Purbeck marble bowl, which rests on four circular angle shafts. The seating and fittings generally are modern.

The nave roof seems to be of 16th-century date with curved collars and braces and apparently intended to be finished with a barrel plaster ceiling. The aisle roof, which is gabled, is also old, but has little detail. It is trussed with large cambered principals and strutted king posts. The tower contains three bells. The treble was cast by Lester & Pack in 1765. The second bears in Lombardic capitals ‘AVE GRACIA.’ The tenor is inscribed in black-letter smalls ‘SANCTA MARGRETA ORA PRO NOBIS.’

The churchwardens’ accounts from 1566 are preserved. The first book has a title-page dated 1554, but all accounts between that time and 1566 are lost. The church porch, not now in existence, is mentioned in 1566, and in 1576 the ‘haliwater pot’ was taken from it without consent of the churchwardens. In 1607 a new pulpit and communion table were made, but are no longer in the church. The parsonage adjoined the church on the south, having a common gutter, which was repaired by the parson and parish jointly.

The plate consists of two silver chalices, one undated, but inscribed ‘William Coward, churchwarden, 1675,’ the other of 1868, a silver paten of 1658 and a plated paten and flagon of 1849.

The registers are in four books. The first has baptisms 1618 to 1775, marriages 1597 to 1753, and burials 1597 to 1776. This was originally two books; the earlier part is a transcript made in 1618. There are gaps in the baptisms 1627 to 1642, burials 1627 to 1632, 1642 to 1669, and marriages 1643 to 1668. The baptisms are irregular 1654 to 1666 and marriages 1622 to 1636. The second book has marriages 1754 to 1812; the third and fourth baptisms and burials 1777 to 1811 and 1811 to 1812 respectively.

In addition to the churchwardens’ accounts already mentioned, there are overseers’ accounts from 1697.

Source: A History of the County of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight 1912. The Victoria History of the Counties of England Volume 5, ed. William Page. London Archibald Constable and Company Limited.

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Administration

County: Hampshire
Civil Registration District: Winchester
Probate Court: Courts of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) and Archdeaconry of Winchester
Diocese: Winchester
Rural Deanery: Winchester
Poor Law Union: Winchester
Hundred: Winchester Borough
Province: Canterbury