Japanese Proverb

Helen Keller

The Hampshire church treasure Hinton Ampner, is found in the ancient church of All Saints, where vestiges of Anglo Saxon work can be glimpsed in the mainly Norman structure.

Hinton Ampner Church of All Saints, sits on it’s hilltop gazing out to Gander Down, in one direction it looks to the Meon Valley, in the other, across the Civil War battlefield of Cheriton, where two thousand Royalists soldiers lie now resting peacefully. This church treasure is an interesting find in that it reminds us of a time in England, when a year of Civil War had passed and more was yet to come, in particular for the villages of Hinton Ampner and Cheriton. Look for the vestry door surrounded by an arch which could be late Saxon or early Norman in period, it being a slender tall affair. The door itself is of no great note but a plaque on the door aged with a rich patina, tells us that Nicholas Lacy gave it to the church in Feburary 1643, the year before the Battle of Cheriton in which so many Royalists soldiers were slaughtered in the valley below the church. The Civil War in early 1643 was focused away from the southern counties and when local man Nicholas Lacy gave the church it’s vestry door, Leeds had just fallen to Parliamentarian forces and there would soon be a victory for the Royalists at Hopton Heath. What Nicholas Lacy would not know in Feburary 1643 though, was, that within six months the focus of the war would switch to the southern counties, as Lord Hopton had orders to subdue the enemy in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. The orders were changed yet again and the focus became Hampshire, when the Royalists seized back Winchester and Hopton moved to join with these forces. The Civil War was creeping closer to Cheriton, until eventually, in early 1644, Waller set up headquarters in the old manor house at Hinton Ampner, behind the church of All Saints, ready to halt Hopton’s army.

So why did Nicholas Lacy give the door in February 1643?

The parish records tell us that on the 4th February 1643, a Nicholas Lacy was buried. Whether it was ‘the’ Nicholas who was buried and the door willed by him or whether it was a son, Nicholas Lacy who was buried and the door given in memory, is not known but the times were troubled ones for the villages of Cheriton and Hinton Ampner and this door was erected in the midst of the problems the country was facing.

Rabindranath Tagore

The breakfast was every bit as good as we remembered from our first visit. The breakfast room was rather full due to the wedding guests from the day before. Thankfully the kids had worn themselves out and were quiet during breakfast.

We set off to Portsmouth to visit the Mary Rose Museum. The journey went smoothly but there was a bit of a saga when we tried to purchase the admission tickets. There were clearly only three of us but we were sold four tickets!! There was then a delay whilst someone (in fact two someones) came to sort out the problem and refund the money. Eventually we got past the ticket desk and had our bags searched as we entered the dockyard. We were surprised to see HMS Victory had changed colour and we wondered if she was in the middle of being repainted and what we were seeing was the undercoat. It was only when we came out of the Mary Rose museum that I noticed a sign that explained what we saw was her new paint scheme. During conservation work in 2013-14 up to 72 layers of paint had been removed to reveal that the paint scheme that she had been wearing for years was not the one she had worn at Trafalgar; the new one is.

The Mary Rose is now completely unwrapped and there are no drying pipes or screens obscuring the view giving a full view the ship. The exhibition blew me away. The ship is alternately illuminated to reveal the ship and then darkened to show living displays to various areas that bring ship to life. On arrival at the top level of the exhibition we found that the view of the ship was completely open without even the Perspex.

We had lunch in one of the dockyard cafes before moving on to Hinton Ampner which is a National Trust property that on our last visit had been only partially open due the roof being damaged in gales. We thought we might enjoy the gardens first but we soon changed our mind when it started to rain leading us to proceed into the house. The upstairs is very much a work in progress as repairs continue but it was good to see the upstairs rooms which had been closed on our previous visit. By the time we had finished our tour of the house the sun had come out and we toured the gardens in glorious sunshine with the colours enhanced by the rain. We took time to enjoy the gardens before returning to the hotel to chill out before dining in La Place. Whilst we were ordering our meal the French waiter told Mr C he was a lucky man to be dining with two beautiful ladies.

We stopped briefly in the Old Gaolhouse (A Weatherspoons pub, what were you thinking…) before returning to the hotel for the night.

Count Maurice Maeterlinck

The church of ALL SAINTS has suffered from ‘restoration’ more severely than many of its neighbours, (fn. 14) but is still of great interest as preserving its pre-Conquest plan and a few details of that date. It has a chancel 15 ft. 8 in. wide by 21 ft. long, and a nave 21 ft. 10 in. wide by 47 ft. with walls 2 ft. 6 in. thick of flint rubble with ashlar dressings.

There are three bells, the treble inscribed: ‘Serv God I W 1603.,’ the second ‘Fere God I W, 1603.,’ and tenor ‘In God is my hope, 1610.’ The latter is by the unidentified founder I.H. (possibly John Higden), the other two by John Wallis of Salisbury.