Little that is notable remains to us
in either place, only the charming fifteenth century tower of King's
Worthy church and a fourteenth century font therein.
Much the same must be said of Itchen Abbas, Itchen A Bas, where the
road falls to the river, the small Norman church there having been both
rebuilt and enlarged in or about 1863, while an even worse fate has
befallen the church of Itchen Stoke, two miles further on, for it has
disappeared altogether. Nor I fear can much be said for the church of
New Alresford or the town either, for apparently, owing to a series of
fires, it has nothing to show us but a seventeenth century tower, a
poor example of the building of that time, the base of which may be
Saxon, while the windows seem to be of the thirteenth century.
New Alresford would seem only to have come into existence as a town in
the end of the twelfth century, when it was re-established by Bishop
Godfrey de Lucy (1189-1204). The old road did not pass through it as
the modern road does; for as Mr Belloc seems to have proved the
Pilgrim's Way, which descended to the river at Itchen A Bas as we have
seen, crossed the ford at Itchen Stoke, Itchen Stakes that is, and
proceeded east by south where the workhouse now stands, coming into the
modern road again at Bishop Sutton.
Pages:
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429