St Michaels Church

The existence of a church is recorded in the Domesday Book and a Norman church was standing on the site in the 12thC. The present church built in 1775 by Mrs. Lisle replaced an earlier one and there appears to be no record of why this happened but it was described in the parish register of the time as 'this hideous structure*. Some Norman flintwork can still be seen in places round the base on the North side of the building.

The church was restored in 1894 by Mrs. Wake of Manor Farm, the main feature of this being the transposition of the door and a window on the south side of the nave. The door which appears originally to have been in the middle of the nave was moved to its present position and replaced by the existing window in which, it will be noticed, the panes are square rather than rectangular and the sill is wider than all the others.

The lintel of the original window can be seen above the porch. The seating was repaired, the font moved and the floor relaid at a cost of £90.00. A porch was constructed at a cost of £15 and the faculty (permission to do the work) cost £7.6s.4d.

The Rev. William Caudwell, refused to have anything to do with this work and wrote to a diocesan official 'Mrs. Wake collected and kept the money. It was done entirely against my wish as 1 had hoped in a few years time to have been able to have a better and more church-like building, as the present one is more like a barn than a church'. To record this restoration a chestnut tree. allegedly with a parchment beneath, and a stone were placed at the crossroads.

Another restoration took place in 1993 (but this time with no negative remarks recorded) when a Georgian style East window was installed in place of an ugly Victorian one, the nave ceiling replaced, a new vestry built and the roof repaired. The total cost at the end of the 20thC was over £6,500. During this work advice was taken to visit St. Mary the Virgin, Avington, one of the few remaining unaltered Georgian churches in Hampshire, to see its windows because a surveyor doing a structural report in 1990 had commented that we had 'a nice little Georgian church which had been spoilt by inappropriate Victorian alterations'.

About 1643 William Woodward became Rector. In 1649 he heard news of a new preacher in the area from London who claimed to be Christ, the Messiah. This man, William Franklin, having been given notice to quit his lodgings in Andover moved into Crux Easton Rectory with a woman he called his Spouse of Christ, as the guests of William and Margaret Woodward. The local clergy becoming alarmed at the "multitudes of people" flocking to Crux Easton to hear Franklin preach (many of whom became disciples) applied to the local Justices to issue warrants against both Woodwards and Franklin. Margaret Woodward confirmed in court that Franklin was "her Lord and her King" and although the Rector tried to deny his claim that the man was Christ, it was proved that the

Woodwards had allowed Franklin and his Queen Spouse to lie together "in an adulterous way" under their roof. The Judge ordered Margaret Woodward be indicted for a Bawd, William Woodward had his living sequestered and they were evicted from the Rectory.

A tablet to Dorothy Evans "In and adjacent Vault are deposited the remains of Dorothy Evans who died Jan 3 1859, Aged 85. ??ict of Francis Evans of Lenton Grove Esq,Notts. And daughter of Septimus Plumptre M. A. Vicar of Mansfield in the same County. Hounoured belove, lamented Her heart full of that charity which beareth all things, Believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things £In her tongue was the Law of Kindness. And "Her children arise up and call her Blessed." Saved by Grace through faith, her gentle spirit sleeps in Jesus. "complete in Him." By her side her eldest daughter, Catherine Anne Bagge, who died Nov 13, 1868, Aged 83. Renouncing all for Christ, she ever aimed to glorify Him by a holy and useful life.."

In 1897 the Rev. Charles de Havilland, father of the aircraft pioneer, had been bought the living by his father-in-law 'to release his daughter from the drudgery of life in Nuneaton'. Charles was described as a red-faced, thick set man with a small frail wife who hurried round the parish in a pony trap. On her death he married again to a shrewish woman who made his life a misery.

For part of the 19th century the Rector of Crux Easton was also minister of Woodcott but by the early 1920's the vicar of Ashmansworth had become the incumbent of both parishes. In this way the three parishes were administered until 1968 when the parishes of Crux Easton and Ashmansworth were combined with Highclere (Woodcott combining with St. Mary Bourne). All three parishes still retain their separate identity.

The Pulpit and Lectern		The Font

The pulpit is 18th century. The font, also 18th century, is Italian work, the stem and bowl originally having no connection: the much mutilated figures are believed to represent the bringing of the little children to Our Lord.

A set of communion plate was given in 1707 by Lady Mary Phillips of Garrendon, Leicestershire whose daughter Mary married Edward Lisle owner of the parish. The bible and two service books were presented by the patron, the Earl of Carnarvon, in 1880. Electric light and heating were installed in 1953. The carpets made in the 1980/90's and the altar frontal -the Millennium project in 2000 - were worked by members of the congregation.

The earliest registers giving details of baptisms, marriages and burials from 1702, are informal and contain various notes about the parish: previous records had disappeared before the induction of the Rev. Shepard in 1827. The formal registers begin in 1812. The earliest gravestone is dated 1825 and the churchyard was extended eastwards about 1926. Some headstones were laid flat in 1953 and many others have since disappeared.

The Rectory (now Crux Easton House), being no longer required when the parish was combined with Ashmansworth, was sold in the 1920's.