CHRISTCHURCH, a parish and borough and sea-port and market-town, having
separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Christchurch, New Forest
(West) division of the county of SOUTHAMPTON, 21 miles (S. W. by W.)
from Southampton, and 100 (S. W. by W.) from London, containing, with the chapelries
of Bransgore, Hinton, and the tythings of Street, Bure with Hinton, Humwith
Parly, Iford with Tuckton (in Westover liberty),
and Winkton with Burton, 4644 inhabitants. This
place is of great antiquity, and, from some relics discovered
in the church, is supposed to have been of Roman
origin; by the Saxons it was called Twyneham- Bourne
and Tweon-ea, from its situation between two rivers.
The earliest historical notice of it occurs in the Saxon
Chronicles, which records its occupation by Ethelwold,
during his revolt against his kinsman, Edward, the
Elder. In Domesday-book it is mentioned, under the
name Tkuinam, as a burgh and royal manor, containing
thirty-one messuages. Its present name is derived
from its church and priory, founded prior to the Con-,
quest for a dean and twenty-four Secular canons, and dedicated
to the Holy Trinity, which was rebuilt in the reign
of William Rufus, and dedicated to our Saviour Christ, by
Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, and formerly dean
of the priory; it was largely endowed by Richard de
Rivers, Earl of Devon, to whom Henry I. gave the manor.
Earl Baldwin, son and successor to Earl Richard, placed
canons regular of the order of St. Augustine in this priory,
which nourished till the dissolution, at which time its
revenue was £ 544. 6. Some portions of the walls that
enclosed the conventual buildings are still remaining:
the ancient lodge is now occupied as a dwelling-house,
and the site of the refectory may be traced by the
remnants of its walls. The town was fortified by
Richard de Rivers, who either erected or rebuilt the
castle, of which there are some remains to the north of
the priory} these consist chiefly of the ruins of the,
keep, on the summit of an artificial mount, the walls of
which are more than ten feet in thickness, and part of
the range that comprised the state apartments: the
Norman style of architecture prevails and the arches
of some remaining windows are divided by Norman pillars.
Christchurch is situated on the borders of the New
Forest, and between the rivers Avon and Stour, which
uniting their streams at a short distance below, expand
into a broad sheet of water and fall into Christchurch
bay, in connexion with which they form a harbour.
The current of the Avon, to the east of the town,
is intercepted and divided into two parts by an island,
from each side of which a bridge to the opposite bank
of the river forms the continuation of the road to
Lymington: on the site of several houses, destroyed by
a fire within the last few years, a new street of respectable
houses has been erected: the town is not lighted,
nor regularly paved, but is amply supplied with
water. The harbour is accessible only at high tides to
small vessels drawing not more than from five to six
feet of water, the entrance being obstructed by a bar, or
lodge of sand, extending from Hengistbury Head, on the
Hampshire side, where Hengist, King of the Saxons,
landed, to St. Catherine's Cliff, in the Isle of Wight, and
occasionally shifting its position, according to the prevalence
of successive rains, or sea-storms, attended
with southerly winds. In this harbour, as in the
neighbouring port of Pool, there is high water twice
at every tide: this peculiarity arises from the situation
of the coast with respect, to the Isle of Wight, and
from the projection of the point of land on which
Hurst Castle .is situated, which, by obstructing the free
passage of the water at the influx of the tide, occasions
its rise in the bay and harbour to take place earlier than
at Portsmouth and Chichester, by three hours and a
half at the full and change of the moon; and, by confining
the water which has spread over the channel and
Southampton water, its reflux is sufficiently violent
to cause a second rise in Christchurch bay of nearly
three feet. The river 'Avon was made navigable to
Salisbury in 1680, but the accumulation of sand has
rendered the navigation useless. The salmon fishery,
which formerly afforded employment to a considerable
number of the labouring class, has very much declined:
there are two breweries; and many females are employed
in the knitting of stockings, and in the manufacture
of watch-spring, or fusee, chains, the latter of
which has been lately established. The market is on
Monday: fairs are held on Trinity-Thursday, and October
17th, for cattle and horses. The government is
vested in a mayor, recorder, two bailiffs, aldermen, and
common council-men, in all twenty-four; but the officers
of the corporation do not exercise magisterial authority,
the town being wholly within the jurisdiction of the
county magistrates. The borough was summoned in
the 35th of Edward I. and the 2nd of Edward II., but
made no subsequent return till the 13th of Elizabeth,
since which time it has regularly sent two members to
parliament: the right of election is claimed by the
resident householders paying scot and lot, but is at
present exercised exclusively by the members of the
corporation, who are in the interest of Sir George H.
Rose: the mayor is the returning officer. Courts leet
and baron are held here.
The living is a vicarage, with the perpetual curacy
of Holdenhurst annexed, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Winchester, rated in the king's books at £ 16, and
in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester.
The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and anciently
the collegiate church of the priory, is a magnificent
cruciform structure, partly in the Norman style, and
partly in the early and later styles of English architecture,
with a finely proportioned and embattled tower at
the west end, which was erected by the Montacutes
earls of Salisbury, in the fifteenth century. The piers
and arches of the nave, which is of Norman character
are bold and simple; the clerestory is of later date'
the northern entrance is a fine specimen of the early,
and the chancel of the later, English style. The altar
is decorated with a rude, but interesting, representation
of -the genealogy of Christ, carved in the style of the
age in which the church was founded: to the north
of it is a beautiful sepulchral chapel, built in the
reign of Henry VII., by the celebrated countess of
Salisbury, who, in the 70th year of her age, was beheaded
by Henry VIII.; and at the east is a spacious chapel,
dedicated to the Virgin Mary, erected in the fourteenth
century by the ancestor of Lord Delaware, over which is
a large room, called St. Michael's loft, which, since 1662,
has been appropriated to the use of the grammar
school; there are some other chapels of fine execution,
chiefly in the later English style. The west front, principally
in the early style, in which a large and handsome
window has been recently inserted, is ornamented with
a figure of Christ in a canopied niche: the length of
this church is three hundred and eleven feet, its breadth
at the western extremity sixty feet, and along the
transepts one hundred and four feet. There is a place of
worship for Independents in the town; and at Burton, a
mile and a half to the north, is a Roman Catholic
chapel. The free grammar school is of uncertain foundation:
in 1707, it had an annuity of £25 for ninetynine
years, payable from the Exchequer; since the
expiration of which, in 1805, the amount of various
benefactions, vested in the South Sea funds, produces
an income of £15 per annum, for which ten boys are
instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, by a
master, who occupies the room over the chapel at the
east end of the church. A Natienal and a Lancasterian
school, recently established, are supported by subscription;
and there are several charitable bequests for distribution
among the poor. An intrenchment, six hundred
and thirty yards in length, extends across the isthmus
which connects Hengistbury Head, with the main land;
and near its northern extremity is a large barrow, in
which human bones and an urn have been found. On
a ridge of hills, about a mile and a half to the north
of Christchurch, and a mile to the west of the Avon,
called St. Catherine's hill, are traces of an exploratory
camp, fifty .five yards square, round which are six small
tumuli; and near the base of the hill are ten large
barrows, one of which has been discovered to contain
human bones. To the north of the camp is. an elliptical
earthwork, of which the greater diameter is thirty-five,
and the less twenty-five, yards: the remains of other
intrenchments may be traced in the vicinity.