We have to begin with Domesday Book compiled in 1086, and a rough translation reads;

Radulphus holds Bedeslei. Cheping held it from King Edward. Then and now it answers for 2 hides. Land for 4 ploughs. There are four villagers and 7 smallholders with 2 ploughs and 7 serfs. Church and wood for 10 swine; and for grazing 10 shillings. T.R.E. value 10 pounds, later 100 shillings; now 60 shillings

A hide was about 120 acres and used for tax assessment and a plough implies ploughteams of 8 oxen each. T.R.E. means 'In the time of King Edward'.

Ralph de Mortimer, was the founder of the great medieval house of Mortimer, Earls of March, whose especial strength was on the Welsh Border. The overlordship rights lapsed at the close of the 14th century. Long before this, the Manor had been alienated to the Knights Hospitallers, who were certainly settled at Baddesley by 1167, although no trace of a grant by the Mortimers to the Hospital can be found. At first Baddesley was a cell of the preceptory at Godsfield, near Alresford, where the chapel and chaplain's rooms remain in good condition; but before 1365, probably as a result of the economic changes brought about by the Black Death, in 1348, North Baddesley had become the headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers in Hampshire.

The Knights Hospitallers
The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem were originally founded in the Holy Land to tend the sick and aged and to look after pilgrims. They became a powerful military order, benefiting by the suppression of the Knights Templars at the beginning of the 14th century, as many of the possessions of the latter were given to them.

Their headquarters in England were at Clerkenwell, just outside the City of London, where the revived Order of St. John has its headquarters now. After the Christians were driven from the Holy land, they made their headquarters at Rhodes; driven from there, they went to Malta, which was their possession till the Order was suppressed by Napoleon in 1799 and it is said that there are documents relating to Baddesley in the Royal Library at Malta.

The Knights Hospitallers remained at Baddesley till the Dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII, when they suffered with other religious orders; and it is pertinent to ask what kind of a house they had at Baddesley. We can expect nothing elaborate such as Beaulieu or Netley in this County. Few preceptories in England have been excavated; and we do not know if there was a set plan as there was, for example, of a Cistercian house. We may assume it was a small settlement and the brothers were mainly occupied in farming and possibly training recruits for overseas. Quite early there is a mention of a 'capella'; which, if it continued, destroys the assumption that the Parish Church was the Church of the Hospitallers. Even at Godsfield, a smaller place, there is a chapel, as has been pointed out above, built, from the style, about 1360, after the move to Baddesley.

The site is clear, as appears from John Marsh in his Memoranda of the Parishes of Hursley and North Baddesley (1808). There was a gate house opposite the church, existing at the end of the 16th century; some 50 or 60 yards to the south lay the preceptory or commandery, in the present kitchen court of the Manor House. Here there are foundations just under the surface; but anything above ground is Tudor or later. Stories which appear in most guide books that the kitchen still exists are not true.

We can expect the buildings to have been like the church, of flint with ashlar dressing; and possibly the greater blocks of stone used as the base of the late 17th century tower of the church and the contemporary stable buildings of the Manor house came from the ruins. King Edward I, towards the end of his reign, on February 15th, 1305, spent the night here; but we know nothing beyond the record in his itinerary.

Baddesley after the Dissolution
At the Dissolution, in 1536, Baddesley was valued at £131.14s.1d., and a 1949 value about £30,000. It fell to the Crown, and was granted to Sir Thomas Seymour, Henry VIII's brother-in-law, who was beheaded for High Treason in 1545. It therefore escheated to the Crown, but was granted to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton as a reward for his services in bringing the first news of the victory over the Scots at Pinkie. He sold it in 1553 to John Forster; and, after an interval during the reign of Queen Mary when it was restored to the Hospitallers, he regained possession at the accession of Elizabeth in 1558.
This John Forster was a local man, of a type thrown up in every shire at the Dissolution. He was steward to the last Abbess of Romsey and like many monastic stewards, to whom a number of noble families such as the Cecils, owe their origin, he did well out of the Dissolution.

There was a rhyme about him still current in the 17th century:

Mr Forster of Badsley, was a good man
Before the marriage of priests began.
For he was the first that married a nun,
From which he begat a very rude son,

This nun was a cousin of Sir T. Seymour; a court of enquiry into the marriage was appointed in June 1541, but apparently the marriage was recognised.
John Forster's stock was not long at Baddesley. Before 1600 it was sold to a cousin of the Forsters, Thomas

Fleming, the Solicitor-General. He only retained it for four years, buying North Stoneham, which his descendants only sold in the 1940's

He left his mark on the church as we shall see later. He sold it to John More; and the Mores and their descendants, the Dunches were here for over 130 years. The Dunches were strong Parliamentarians, connected by ties of marriage and friendship with Richard Major of Hursley, the father-in-law of Richard Cromwell. Passing by heiresses through the families of Keck and Chute of the Vyne, the manor was sold to Thomas Dummer of Cranbury, in 1767, for £5,500. He died in 1771 and left the estate, subject to his widow's interests - she married finally Sir Nathaniel Dance, subsequently Dance-Holland, the painter - to Mr William Chamberlayne of Coley Park, Reading,  Solicito to the Treasury and Secretary Mint, who built the more modern part of the Manor House at North Baddesley. Lady Dance-Holland died in 1811 and the estates then came to the Chamberlayne family, who still hold them.

The Church
 

This has been left to the last, partly because it is fitting to have the best things last - it is a beautiful little shrine - partly because it is impossible to understand the history of any English parish church unless you know something of the history of the parish of whose life it has been the centre for so many hundred years and should be still.

It stands, as has been pointed out before, at the highest point of a long narrow ridge running due east and west, with a steep slope to the north. There is a never-failing spring in the field just below to the north. There is, of course, no evidence for a statement that it stands on the site of an ancient British temple but the eminent Victorian architect Sir Gilbert Scott was consulted to give advice on the proposed restoration of the church and in his report, published in the Hampshire Chronicle in 1879, he says 'It may always be assumed in default of proof to the contrary, that every medieval church stands on the site of a Saxon one; that almost every Saxon one occupies the site of a Romano-British temple; and that every church took the place of a heathen temple.' This opinion was again published by the Rev. P W N Gaisford Bourne, Vicar of North Baddesley 1901-08 in his book 'The Memorials of Old Hampshire'. All one can say is that it looks like an early site. The annual valuation of the benefice in 1291 in what is called Pope Nicholas's Valuation was five pounds and continued in that sum for over a century.

The church is dedicated in the name of St.John the Baptist; it consists of a nave and chancel of equal width, l5ft. 9in.; the nave is 33ft. 2in. in length, the chancel l9ft. l0in.; there is a small engaged tower, 5ft. l0in. by 5ft.2in.. The nave roof, though of the same width as that of the chancel, is slightly the higher of the two; its timbers are modern. There is a porch over the South door. The modern vestry is on the north side of the chancel. The chancel was rebuilt at some time in the 15th century, and the junctions with the older masonry can be clearly seen. The chancel walls are built with good-sized pieces of Bonchurch or some kindred stone, and have a chamfered plinth at the base, which is wanting in the nave.

he south door is of plain work, probably of the 15th century, of two continuous hollowed chamfered orders with a four-centred head. The porch may be contemporary with it, and has low stone walls on the east and west carrying a timber framework with uncupped ogee-headed openings. Its south gable is filled in with brickwork.

It is to be noted that in the porch floor, near the north-east angle, is part of an octagonal shaft of 12th century date ornamented with zig-zag, perhaps a relic of the former church. Its present position nearly buried in the floor may be due to its reuse as the pedestal of a holy-water stone here. There is a Purbeck marble coffin slab in the porch by the door.

When entering the church not many people notice on the right had door post there is an outline of a hand. This is said to be the "Hand of God" and it was customary for parishioners to put their hands on the imprint.

The Font, which stands a little to the east of the South door of the nave, is of Purbeck marble, with an octagonal bowl, stem and base. The details of the base suggest a 14thcentury date.

The Nave has no architectural details earlier than the latter part of the 14th century, But the North and South walls may well be older than that time. The West wall of the nave and the West tower were built in 1674. The nave has two windows on the north, the eastern of the two being a modern copy of the other. This is of late 14th century date, and has a square head with two trefoiled lights and a quatrefoiled over. In the South wall are two windows, the eastern of which is a very charming specimen of late 14th century work, of two cinquefoiled lights with a six-foiled opening in the arched head, and an external label with angels at the springing.
The other window west of the doorway is of two lights under a square head, and set high in the wall to light the West gallery and of 17th or 18th century date. In the nave floor opposite the door is a large marble slab, 8ft. 3in. by 3ft. 9in., with indents for an inscription plate and a heart-shaped sinking. The 15th century parish chest has a hollowed-out tree trunk for the lid and its contents are now in the Hampshire Record Office at Winchester.

The Screen between chancel and nave is inscribed "T.F. 1602," for Sir Thomas Fleming, and is a very good piece of work of the date, panelled below, and with an open balustrade above carrying a carved and moulded top-rail. The head of the central doorway is framed in between the posts some two feet below the top rail and the space below is filled with small balusters. Local tradition has it that this screen came from North Stoneham, and Sir Thomas Fleming's initials would not be against the theory. The width of the nave and chancel at North Stoneham is 7in. less than at Baddesley, but there is some new work at the ends of the screen, and the width of the old work is almost exactly l5ft. 2in., which would fit the Stoneham position.

The Pulpit is also of early 17th century date, with inlaid panels and octagonal tester; an hour-glass stand was formerly fastened to it.

The Chancel has a 15th century East window of three cinquefoiled lights, and on the north and south single square-headed windows of the same date, each of two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over between pierced spandrels. To the east of the South window is a blocked four-centre Priest's doorway, and there are no sedilia or piscina. The tiled roof was repaired by the Trustees of the Chamberlayne Estate, as lay rectors, in 1950. The inner, wooden, roof is of wagon form with moulded ribs and shields at their intersections. In the chancel, is a Bible (2nd issue of the 1611 Authorised Version, 1620) which contains a very interesting "Genealogy of the line of our Saviour Jesus Christ observed from Adam to the Blessed Virgin Mary" compiled by John Speed, historian during the reign of Charles I. The Bible was given by Thomas Tomkyns, incumbent, who was blind and is buried under the aisle of the nave.

Against the North wall of the chancel is set a raised tomb with panelled sides and Purbeck marble top-slab. It is clearly not in it's original condition, and appears to have been moved at some time. The slab, 6ft. 5½in. long, is complete, but the panelled sides have been shortened to fit it, showing that the slab was no part of the original tomb.

The side has three quatrefoiled panels with shields bearing the cross of the Hospitallers, and a fourth panel quatrefoiled with a capital T as in the North window of the Chancel, and between each pair of such panels a narrower panel with a small quatrefoil above a shield charged with three chapes on a bend. The tomb is clearly that of a Hospitaller, and of the first half of the 15th century, but the arms do not help to an identification of a person. It has been asserted that this is the grave of Galfridus de Tottehale (Rector of North Baddesley 1317-1367), and that he was Grand Prior of the Hospital. But the coat of arms is not Tottehale's, which was a fesse; and he was not Grand Prior.

The same coat of arms together with a number of "T" monograms (as below) in old glass is in the East window of the Chancel, the tinctures being gules with the bend or and the three chapes azure. The rest of the window is in memory of Emmeline Smith died October 2nd 1923 and depicts St. John the Baptist, The Virgin and Child and St. Swithun.

The South window also contains the coat of arms with fishes and a Chalice and Paten in old glass and the rest, placed there in 1926, is in memory of Catherine Drummond. The communion cup and cover of 1618, and a standing paten of 1716 inscribed 'For Ye Communion Table at Badsly 1716' were stolen in 1990 and have since been replaced.

The mural monument in the north-east angle of the chancel is to John More, 1620, and his son who died two years later, aged 20, erected by his daughters Dulcibella and Anna. The inscription is on a tablet framed by Tuscan columns carrying a rounded pediment with heraldry, and below it is a medallion with a putto on a skull, holding a winged book in his right hand. Behind the monument are medieval wall paintings of large "T" shaped monograms - revealed in 1964 when the monument was removed for cleaning. In the chancel floor are five slabs of the Dunch and More families.

A detailed photo of the cherub at the base of the tablet that is sitting on a human skull.

The West Gallery was built, according to the Churchwardens' accounts, in 1822. The linenfold panelled front is modern, given by a former incumbent (the Rev. V.A. Busbridge), when the original organ was built in the gallery. On the panelled front of the gallery are hung the King's Arms with a plate on the back bearing the names of the Churchwardens, John Forster and John Browne, 1660, but the Arms were repainted in 1806.

The arms of King George III on the front of the gallery

The West Tower, the top of which is only just above the ridge of the nave roof, is of red brick with an embattled parapet and narrow slits in the upper stage and was built in 1674. Below, a West window of 15th century style has been inserted, and above it is a panel with the initials of the Churchwardens for 1674, Simon Tredgold and Thomas Compton. A panel in the South wall bears the initials of Major Dunch, and the Arms of Dunch impaling More. The Eastern arch is tall, narrow and round-headed, and access to the bells is by ladder only. The roof of the tower was restored and all the timbers (including the belfry floor) were renewed, in 1949, at a cost of £265. There are two bells, the treble being a blank and the second inscribed 'R.B. 1595', possibly the initials of Ralph Blencowe, the then incumbent. They are hung to shallow stocks which have a long projection at one end to which the bell rope is fastened.

Three registers are in existence, the first runs from 1682 to 1816, the marriages not being entered in this book after 1754. The second, 1816 to 1967 and the third, 1967 to date. The Churchwardens' accounts are complete from 1674, the building of the West tower being noted in the first year. The Public Record Office in London has the Hearth Tax Returns for North Baddesley, 1664-5; there were 24 dwelling houses. Water was run to the vestry and the churchyard in 1949, and electricity was brought to the church in 1950 at a cost of £325 with lighting for the church installed in 1951.

A bequest left in the will of Thomas Rogers, a lay reader licensed to the parish enabled the interior of the church to undergo a major restoration.

The chancel roof was stripped of grime and dark Victorian paint and redecorated in Medieval Style. The shields at the intersections of the ribs are decorated with the Arms of the Hospitallers and the families whose connections with the church are mentioned elsewhere in this book. In addition to this work the wooden floor was lifted and replaced on a waterproof membrane. The piped organ which had been installed in 1924 at a cost of £600, suffering from the ravages of woodworm, was replaced by a Makin electronic organ. The work was completed in 1987.

The large table tombs under the Irish yew to the west of the tower are those of Robert Thorner of Southampton and his wives. Thorner died in 1690; he tenanted the Manor House during the Dunch ownership. He was the founder of the well-known Thorner's Charity and Almshouses in Southampton.

The two gravestones on the right of the churchyard gate are to one man; their history is interesting. In 1822 Robert Snelgrove, an assistant keeper on the Broadlands Estate, then belonging to the Lord Palmerston who is commemorated in Romsey Market Place, found two men poaching in Hough Coppice, near Toothill, then in North Baddesley but now in Rownhams parish. Snelgrove was only a boy and unarmed.

 One of the men, Charles Smith, a man of 29, discharged his piece at Snelgrove, who was only wounded and did not die. Smith was apprehended, and stood his trial at Winchester; he was condemned to death by Mr Justice Burroughs, and was hanged. It was a time when the game laws were very severe and Cobbett alludes to the 'judicial murder' several times; he may have written the inscription on the first stone which alludes to 'pursuit of what is called game.' But he could not know that Palmerston, whom he assails, had written to Burroughs asking for a reprieve. Colonel Evelyn Ashley, grandfather of the Late Countess Mountbatten, felt that Palmerston, as a landowner, had been unduly maligned by Cobbett; he therefore erected the other stone in 1906 giving the true facts of the case.

The Advowson
According to Marsh the living was a donative filled by the gift alone of the Patron, without presentation, institution or induction, exempt from the jurisdiction of both Archdeacon and Bishop. The Register of the Peculiar of North Baddesley was in Marsh's time in the possession of Sir Nathaniel Holland, Lord of the Manor; it commenced about 1700. It is not now to be found in the possession of the Chamberlayne family.

Donatives and Peculiars were abolished in the 19th century. The first record in the Diocesan Records of an induction to North Baddesley is in 1871. It was certainly before the Reformation a rectory; it has long been a vicarage, although two recent vicars frequently styled themselves rectors.

There seems little doubt that the Vicarage House was that known now as Glebe Cottage, which was sold by the incumbent in 1946. It is styled the Old Vicarage in the Enclosure Award of 1867. Although appearing from the road a late 18th century building, it is fact much older, a brick skin having been put round an earlier timber-framed building. It is not known who was the last vicar to live there; most of the 18th and early 19th century vicars were non-resident; early 20th century vicars lived in the Manor House. It was not until 1938 that a new vicarage was built on land given by the Patron, this was sold in 1980 and the Vicarage is now in Crescent Road, so as to be within, what is now, the main part of the Village. The Patronage has been in the hands of the Lord of the Manor since the Dissolution, and is now held by Mrs Chamberlayne-Macdonald.

• List of incumbents
  This list is due very largely to the researches of the late Mrs Suckling. The records are far from complete.
• 1304 Martin de Lavington, Rector.
  
• 1311 Richard Larcher, styled Acolitus.
  
• 1313 Thomas de Watford, presented by William de Tottehale, prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England.
  
• 1317 Galfridus de Tottehale.
  
• 1367 Hugh de Alverstoke, on the death of Tottehale.
  
• 1387 John Welles.
  
• 1393 William Wylnygton.
  
• 1399 John Rusby.
  
• 1402 Stephen Edwards.
  
• 1403 William Burton, by exchange with Edwards for Northall in Essex.
  
• 1407 John Bone, by exchange with Burton for Fisherton.
  All the above were presented by the Priors of the Hospital of St. John. We have no more names of incumbents until:
  
• 1582 Ralph Blencowe. He "taught school" in the room over the gateway leading into the Old Monastery according to Richard Morley of Hursley, who was one of the pupils and died in 1672 at the age of 97. The second bell is inscribed 'R.B. 1595'.
  
• 1652 William Poore is named as incumbent of North Baddesley in the Parliamentary Returns of Benefices in Hampshire.
  
• 1680 Timothy Goodacre, also vicar of Wellow, and of Timsbury, where lie died in 1713 and is buried.
  
• 1683 Samuel Herdy.
  
• 1685 Aaron Woud.
  
• 1690 John Goldwire, died this year aged 88.
  
• 1893 Thomas Tomkyns, buried in the Nave, 1702. Blind; gave the so-called Chained Bible to the church.
  
• 1702 John Raymond. Buried in the church, 1719. From then till 1723 William Raymond, brother of John, served the church, but was not incumbent.
  
• 1723 Joshua Harrison. Minister for 48 years; also Rector of West Tytherley till his death, and was buried there in 1774.
  
• 1773 Reginald Colton.
  
• 1779 John Penton. Also vicar of Wellow. Died in Bath in 1802. He had a curate for the last 20 years who took duty for him, the Reverend John Malham, a schoolmaster of Romsey.
  
• 1802 John Marsh. Curate of Hursley, 1786 to 1820, and resided there. Historian of both parishes. Died and was buried at Hursley, 1824. (See Bibliography).
  
• 1824 Thomas Penton, grandson of John Penton. he was only 21 in 1824; had a legacy from lady Holland in 1825 of £25,000; died in Winchester, 1848.
  
• 1849 James Davies, also vicar of Chilworth and served both livings from Braishfield House where he lived and died in 1871.
  
• 1871 Ninian Hosier Barr, formerley curate of Romsey. The restoration of the church by Sir Gilbert Scott took place during his incumbency, the church being, it was said, in a ruinous condition. The restoration cost £1,500 and the seating £158. Mr Barr left Baddesley for Chilcombe where he died in 1891. Patron: Thomas Chamberlayne Esq..
  
• 1884 F.H.Baring.
  
• 1885 Edward Thomas Hoar.
  
• 1901 Percy William Nathaniel Gaisford Bounie, D.D. Published an article on North Baddesley in Memorials of Old Hampshire. Buried in tlie churchyard.
  
• 1908 William James Robert Huntoti Oliver, M.A.
  
• 1916 Christopher Douglas Hindle, M.A.
  
• 1917 Harry Hubert Heap, MA.
  
• 1923 Venion Asliby Busbridge. Buried iii the churchyard in 1939.
  
• 1936 P.R.Bntler. Resigned 1947. Buried in the churchyard in 1950.
  
• 1948 Ian Kirk Hamel Cooke, B.A..
  
• 1955 Peter John Chandler.
  
• 1964 Nigel John Ovenden.
  
• 1973 John Nicholas Seaford.
  
• 1979 Michael Sturge Milliken. Buried in the churchyard.
  
• 1984 James W Tarr.
  
• 1991 Andrew W. Doughty.
  
• 1996 Peter B.C. Salisbury. Copyright© North Baddesley Parochial Church Council

  VISIT ST JOHNS CHURCH AT BADDESLEY CHURCH WEBSITE
  
  
  Bibliography
  Memoranda of the Parish of North Baddesley in the County of Southampton. 1808. To Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bart.. by John Marsh.
  Short History of Romsey and Neighbourhood. Printed and Published by Miss Chigwell, The Library, Romsey. 1/- nett. Easter 1896.
  May I take You Round Our Church? by E.C.Earl. First Edition December 1933..

  Copyright © North Baddesley Parochial Church Council