History Walk No 3 - Holy Trinity, Fishers Pond, Nobs Crook
Colden Common Local History Walk 3
Thursday 4th July
Holy Trinity Church, Fishers Pond, Nobs Crook, Community Centre
From the Church Rooms car park cross the road and walk into the Church Yard.
Holy Trinity Church
Take time to stroll around the church yard and look inside the church
Consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester on 29th July 1843 – midway between Twyford and Owslebury to serve Colden Common. Cost £1265/3s – built of flint with stone dressings. The beautiful pulpit of finely carved Caen stone cost £24/6s/6d. The church once had a bell tower. The Windows include a war memorial window between two memorials in the form of metal plaques, one for World War one and the other for World War two.
The Lych gate was given to the church as a memorial by the family of the Reverend L. C. Streatfield who was appointed Vicar in 1931, but died suddenly in 1933. The old churchyard is a site of nature conservation as no fertilisers or pesticides have been used. There is a succession of wild flowers from snowdrops to the orchids.
The graves have the names of many villagers such as the Francis family. There are also servicemen’s graves in Portland stone, including Richard Budd, signalman 2588613 Royal Corps of Signals. Died 6th March, 1940 aged 20. Son of Leonard and Hilda Budd of Eastleigh. The Church is now part of the benefice of Colden Common, Twyford, Morested and Owslebury.
There have been two vicarages; the first and largest is on the other side of the old school house, and can be seen from the new part of the churchyard. Second is further up the access lane. This is the one occupied by the vicar today.
Turn left out of the churchyard and stop to look at the school, which is bult of the same flint as the church.
The School
In 1842 Dame Jane St John Mildmay endowed a 100 foot frontage for a school. Education was then neither free nor compulsory. The school was built by public subscription and a grant of £75 from her Majesty’s treasury towards furniture. In 1874 the school weekly log entry states that there were 101 children in three classes under the master and one or two monitors, with a sewing mistress employed part time for the girls and younger children. A new room was added which almost doubled the floor space and a gallery was put up for the infants in April 1872. In 1910 there were 200 children and a ‘new’ school was built for 80 infants on the other side of the main road at cost of £878.
In 1948 39 of the older children over eleven were transferred to Fair Oak Senior School, changing the status to a Primary School. In 1975 the school moved to Upper Moors Road.
For a longer walk carry on along the road to a footpath on the left, turn onto this path and follow it through the woods and fields to Hensting Lane. Turn left and follow the road to Hensting Hamlet or right to Fishers Pond.
Fishers Pond and Hensting
On the Tithe Map Survey in 1841 the Queen’s Head Inn appears on the survey with Pondside Cottage and a Toll Cottage on the Bishops Waltham road. In medieval times Fishers Pond, the lake was originally used to supply fish and eels for the Bishop of Winchester. It was the largest of three ponds that increased in size between Marwell Manor (now the zoo) and Fishers Pond hamlet
Hensting, a hamlet nestling in a small fold of the downs where the clay soil meets the chalk. The water running off the chalk hits the clay and in heavy rain the ground flood. There are several wells here and deep ditches to drain the water away. There are several old cottages, The Thatched Cottage, about 400 years old, and other houses claim to be upwards of 300 years old. Kennel Farm House was built around 1670. The Hatt family farmed here until 1958.
For a shorter walk cross over the Main Road and a short distance down turn right into Nobs crook. At the bend in the lane turn left for a view over the fields towards Bishopstoke . Retrace your steps to the turning point and go straight on to the end of the lane.
Nobs Crook
Mentioned as ‘Knobs’ Crook in the Tithe Map Survey in 1841. Foulis Court, a Victorian mansion, has a gatehouse and a gardeners lodge. Built as a family home and then used as a school, it now houses offices. The access is off the Main Road opposite Hensting Lane. Leyland’s farm has been converted into business units. The lane continues past some idyllic small rural fields and hedges with individual houses. Cross over Church Lane and into Vears Lane.
Bear right past the old Inn Cottage turn left onto the next pathway.(Site of Church Pond. Continue on the path, turn right at the end of the path. NB this path can be very muddy after wet weather) On the path beside North Pond is a memorial seat carved with fishes from one large tree. This seat was originally sited near the Environment agency building. (just off the church Lane/Main Road roundabout)