But
for all that the most interesting thing in the town remains the church.
This is a cruciform building with a tower over the crossing, and is
as, we have it, of Norman foundation, though it seems to stand upon a
Roman site, coins having been found when the old nave was destroyed in
1832 and Roman brick and cement and foundations. The church we see,
however, dates absolutely from the late twelfth century, and is
nowhere, it would appear, older. Unhappily much is far later, the nave
being really a modern building and even the central tower has been
entirely taken down and rebuilt, and indeed all periods of English
architecture would seem to have left their mark upon the church between
the end of the twelfth century and our own day. The manor of Havant
belonged when Domesday Survey was made to the monks of Winchester. But
it is not of them but of William of Wykeham we think here, for his
secretary, Thomas Aylward, was rector of this parish and in 1413 was
buried here in the north transept, where his brass still remains,
showing his effigy vested in a cope. He was not the only notable rector
of Havant, for in 1723 Bingham, the author of the "Antiquities of the
Christian Church," was holding the living when he died.
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