Crondall () is a village and large

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the Hart district, in the north east of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

in England, in the Crondall

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

surveyed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086. The village is on the gentle slopes of the low western end of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...

range, and has the remains of a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

. Despite the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

Winchester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...

(or its Dean and Chapter) held the chief manors representing much of its land from 975 until 1861. A large collection of Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian coins found in the parish has become known as the Crondall Hoard. In 2021 the parish had a population of 1724.

Toponymy

Various earlier spellings have the intuitive, post-Norman spelling of "u" instead of "o" and the village is still pronounced as it has been for centuries by rooted residents or by those who correctly abstract the sound from 'front': in the 10th century 'Crundelas' was recorded; throughout the 14th century it was 'Crundale'. An

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

was a chalk-pit or lime quarry, and the word has survived in the name of Crondall. The remains of one quarry can still be seen as a large depression on the golf course.

History

Pre-Norman

Crondall's southern boundary is the

along which ran the prehistoric Harrow Way, an ancient unpaved route in Britain which ran from the Cornish tin mines to

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

in Kent. Near this stretch of today's

Pilgrims' Way A pilgrims' way or pilgrim way is a standard route that pilgrims take when they go on a pilgrimage in order to reach their destination – usually a holy site or place of worship. These sites may be towns or cities of special significance such a ...

is evidence for

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

settlements: an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

earthworks at Caesar's Camp. Remains of Roman settlements have been found close beside the Harrow Way near Barley Pound. Evidence for Roman occupation can be found in the fields as broken tiles and artefacts. In 1817 an intact Roman mosaic pavement was found by a ploughman, 200 yards north of Barley Pound Farm and which is commemorated by a tapestry in the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

. Coins from the third century were found in 1869. King Alfred the Great bequeathed the Hundred of Crondall to his nephew Æthelhelm in 885. In 975 it was handed over by King Edgar to the monks at Winchester and remained in their hands until 1539. At this time

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

dissolved the monasteries and within two years Crondall was controlled by the new Dean and Chapter of

. Crondall remained in their hands until 1861, when it was taken over by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

Crondall Hoard

The Crondall Hoard of one hundred and one old French and Anglo-Saxon coins, two jewelled ornaments, and a chain was found in 1828. Some of these date to the fifth century and ninety seven of the coins are now in the possession of the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

at Oxford. The hoard was deposited after c. 630; of its 101 gold coins, 69 were Anglo-Saxon and 24 were Merovingian or Frankish.

Crondall Hundred

The map of Hampshire in the 1722 edition of

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that relates la ...

's ''Britannia or Geographical Description of Britain and Ireland'' shows symbols for major habitation in Farnborough,

Cove A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast ...

, Ewshot,

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

and Crookham in the Crundhal (Crondall) hundred, a strategic collection of lands with a meeting place at which the wealthy and powerful would convene as needs require, and which came to hold Hundred Courts, a level above the

Manorial court The manorial courts were the lowest courts of law in England during the feudal period. They had a civil jurisdiction limited both in subject matter and geography. They dealt with matters over which the lord of the manor had jurisdiction, primar ...

s. The Hundred of Crondall was divided into ' Manors', Itchell, Ewshot, Crokeham/Crookham Well, Feldmead, Dippenhall, Farnborough and Aldershot. These Manors are all mentioned in the records of

. All the land within the Hundred was administered by a steward landowner at Crondall on behalf of "the monks of St Swithen" and later on behalf of the cathedral.

Evolution of the estate

By the early 19th century the cathedral as manorial owner owned the pick of the surrounding five tithings, the last three of which came to be villages: Crondall, Swanthorpe, and portions of

Dippenhall Dippenhall is a rural hamlet (place), hamlet in the civil parish of Farnham in the Waverley (district), Waverley district of Surrey, England. The nearest town, Farnham, is about to the east. History The manor of Dippenhall was mostly included ...

, Church Crookham and Ewshot. This contrasted with lesser agricultural fertility land, much of which was

common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

and which was no longer connected with the manor.

Itchell Manor

The Giffard/Gifford of Itchel(l) family acquired a coat of arms in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Itchell Manor's gardens (house demolished 1954) were laid out by Capability Brown. A greenhouse, built 1840, is still in use and a Tudor Gateway remains. John Gifford died seised of the manor in 1563, leaving a son George, then aged 10 years. A third part of the manor passed to his widow who married William Hodges of Weston Sub Edge. In 1579, shortly after George Giffard came of age, Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, desiring to add it to his neighbouring estate of

Dogmersfield Dogmersfield is a small village lying between the towns of Fleet and Hartley Wintney in Hampshire, England. The M3 motorway and railway stations at Fleet and Winchfield provide routes to London. Places of interest include the village church, w ...

, purchased the estate. After 1628 the estate passed through several hands and in the 18th still had these closes/farmstead localities technically in its freehold: The Hyde, Little Potter's Fore, Earlins, Two Downs, Tanley, Green Park, Park Corner, Dean's Piddle, Old Hop Garden.

Civil War

All Saints' Church in Crondall was a minor parliamentary outpost for much of the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

, guarding the western approaches to Farnham.

Tithe map

A Tithe Map of The Hundred of Crondall, dated 1846, is housed at the Hampshire County Archive in Winchester.

Industry

Crondall has for centuries been rich farming land. A great variety of soils appear in the area because it lies on the edge of the

London Basin The London Basin is an elongated, roughly triangular sedimentary basin approximately long which underlies London and a large area of south east England, south eastern East Anglia and the adjacent North Sea. The basin formed as a result of compr ...

including

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

and heavy fertile

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

. There are many natural springs in the area that were used as watercress beds and for growing osier trees for

basket weaving Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...

. Some of the baskets were incorporated into the balloon baskets and airship gondolas used by S.F. Cody in his early aviation experiments at Farnborough. For two centuries up to the Second World War, the area was also renowned for

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whic ...

. For many years Crondall had a

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a clay pit, quar ...

that supplied

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

s and brick to local towns.

Architecture

Barley Pound motte-and-bailey

Barley Pound is a large ring-motte with four baileys and is one of the best examples of a ring-and-bailey fortress in

. The fortification may be the "Lidelea Castle" which was mentioned in the ''Gesta Stephani'' for 1147, when it was besieged and captured by King Stephen. After its return to Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester it was abandoned in favour of Farnham Castle. Archaeological work has uncovered evidence of an 8-inch thick wall along with a masonry keep. To the east is Powderham Castle which was a siege-castle to Barley Pound. It was founded by the Bishop of Winchester and built during

The Anarchy The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Duchy of Normandy, Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adel ...

in the reign of King Stephen. It was originally an earth and timber ringwork fortress. Excavations on the mound have discovered post-holes and flints which may indicate former buildings.

All Saints, Norman Church

The 12th-century Norman parish church, All Saints, which operates as part of the Parish of Crondall and Ewshot, has been called 'The Cathedral of North Hampshire'. It replaced a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church on the same site and the Saxon font remains from that period. The east end of the nave dates to 1170. The original bell tower was poorly designed for the weight of the bells it housed and by 1657 the whole tower had to be dismantled to prevent its total collapse. In 1659 a new brick tower, modelled on St Matthews in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...

, was erected at the NE corner of the original structure. Among notable interior features are an early

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

of 1370, the dogtooth mouldings of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

arch and the imposing arcades and foliate capitals of the nave. To date All Saints has undergone two major restorations, the first in 1847 by the architect Benjamin Ferrey and the second in 1871 under the guidance of Sir George Gilbert Scott. In 1995 the "National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies" (NADFAS) declared All Saints to be one of the finest examples of architecture of its style in the country. There have been reported sightings of the ghosts of Parliamentarian soldiers, including a mounted Roundhead in full battle dress, in the churchyard, following the use of the church as a minor outpost during the English Civil War.

Other buildings

Throughout Crondall there are many well-preserved old houses and cottages. The Plume of Feathers pub is an example of

Tudor architecture The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture in England and Wales, during the Tudor period (1485–1603) and even beyond, and also the tentative introduction of Renaissance architecture to Britain. It fo ...

and was a resting stop on the turnpike to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Oak Park Golf Club

The Oak Park Golf Club was a

golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety o ...

near Crondall,

Farnham Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in the South East of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Oak Park Golf Club was operated by Get Golfing, who acquired it as part of their purchases from Crown Golf in 2020. The golf club closed in 2021 after Get Golfing terminated their lease with the landlord, Crondall Properties.

Notable visitors and residents

A panoramic view of this part of

may be gained from Queens View looking from East to West across Crondall. It takes its name from the fact that

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

admired this view whilst inspecting troops garrisoned at nearby

"Home of the British Army".

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

is reputed to have stayed in the Plume of Feathers in October 1645, when the siege of Basing House was in progress. Notable residents have included Field Marshall

Edwin Bramall Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Edwin Noel Westby Bramall, Baron Bramall (18 December 1923 – 12 November 2019), also known as "Dwin", was a British Army officer. He served as Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom), Chief of ...

, former Head of the British Army and

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

veteran, and motor racing journalist Denis Jenkinson.

Statistics

* According to the 2001 census, 3463 people lived in Crondall. * There were 1478 households in the ward. * The parish covers 10.7 square miles (27.7 km²).

References

External links

Crondall at genuki.org

Crondall through the ages, name derivation
– Hampshire Gazetteer

Hampshire County Archive

Stained Glass Windows at All Saints Crondall, Hampshire

page

an

Crondall Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Proposals
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire