Modern Stubbington, a third the way between Hill Head and Fareham, includes the far older village of Crofton though today's maps show only the former.
This was, however, very early in occupation for both palaeolithic and neolithic flint instruments have been unearthed in various local gravel pits and at the cliff edge around Hill Head. Roman and British pottery has been unearthed from time to time as have a rare Bellarmine jug. The Celts used the mouth of the River Meon as a boat harbour and as a fishing centre and in later years both the Jutes and the Romans settled in this valley. The Saxons, too, came here and they, in the 9th century, may have founded the very first church at Crofton where the old church now stands. Certainly a church stood at Crofton in Norman times for the Domesday survey of 1087 refers to it.
The actual Domesday reference to Crofton is as follows: - "Earl Alanus holds Croftune. Alwardus held it and might remove where he would without alienating his land. It was assessed at seven hides. It is now assessed at three hides wanting half a yardland. Here are five ploughlands. One ploughland is in demesne and eleven villagers and two borderes occupy four ploughlands and a half. Here is one church and four servants and a mill at twelve shillings and sixpence and a fishery with two salterns produce 100 pence, and twenty four acres of meadow. Also woods which furnish 5 hogs. It was worth in the time of King Edward, 8 pounds, afterwards five pounds and it is now worth four pounds. Hugo holds Stubitone (Stubbington). Godna held it of King Edward. It was then and is now assessed at 3 hides. Here are three ploughlands. One plough land is in demesne and 5 villagers and 4 borderes occupy 2 ploughlands and two acres of meadow. It was worth in the time of King Edward 50 shillings and afterwards 60. It is now worth the same but it pays 110. The name of Croftune Church is Holy Rood as stated in Liber Regis."
Thus, in those early days Crofton was the more important centre though it was, even then, only a part of the greater parish of Titchfield.
As the survey shows, Crofton had sea connections and there were sailings in the Meon estuary with a salt-drying industry. The river Meon, right up to the 16th and 17th centuries, carried on a considerable sea-ward trade. The sea water came right up almost to the very edge of the old churchyard and this caused a good deal of trouble to the priest of Titchfield for that church was for centuries the mother church of Crofton (which was a chapel at ease to it).
Crofton had no incumbent of its own and the visiting Titchfield priest was often cut off by tidal waters so that he either had to use a boat to make his journeys or to travel on horseback over rough country via Catisfield and the Anjou bridge over the river Meon near Titchfield Abbey. This hazard, however, ended when the Earl of Southampton called in Richard Talbutte, a Dutch engineer with a party of his native workmen, to dig a new channel, erect a floodgate and build a sea wall across the river mouth. Thus the river became properly channelled, the marshes were drained and, incidentally, a trade developed with Holland as a result of the Dutchmen's influence. Today, of course, the Meon is but a peaceful watery by-way.
The next references to Crofton church come in the 13th century by which time Titchfield Abbey had been founded. This establishment was set up, to the south of Titchfield village, by a group of Premonstratensian Canon in 1222 under Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester. The charter does not now exist but it apparently gave the Abbey the "pure and perpetual alms, without reservation, of the parish church of the Blessed Peter the Apostlle at Titchfield with its chapels of Crofton and Chark."(Chark Common stands southeast of Stubbington in the Rowner district of Gosport).
Upon the dissolution of the Abbey in 1537 Crofton church became part of the parish of Titchfield. The Abbey itself passed into the ownership of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and he built himself a mansion out of the abbey fabric. Now referred to as Place House, much of this mansion, including the very fine gatehouse, still survives and may be seen by the public. Various famous people including Shakespeare (whose patron the Third Earl of Southampton was) were visitors here when the house was in its heyday as a "dream house in a dream setting."
During the years when Crofton church was linked with the Abbey, an interesting development occurred. In 1331 Elias de Charleton and his wife Benedicta were granted the King's licence to alienate the Crofton manor in mortmain (a statute of mortmain is an Act of Parliament restricting or forbidding the giving of property to religious houses) to the abbot and convent of Titchfield. This grant was given on condition that one of the Abbey canons should celebrate divine service each day at Crofton for the soul of Edward II and for the Souls of Elias and Benedicta after their deaths. In this grant the chapel of Crofton was referred to as the Chapel of St. Edmund, yet in Domesday Book and again in the King's Book of the 16th century it was referred to as the church of the Holy Rood. The agreement was established and witnessed and copies were retained by Elias, by the convent and by Crofton chapel in whose aisle it was hung. It was enrolled in the registers of the Archbishop of Canterbury, of the Bishop of Winchester and at the Royal Chancery. The agreement provided that normal Sunday and Holy days were still to be held in addition to the special services and that the canon deputed to the new duties was to carry out those and those alone. During their lifetime Elias and Benedicta carried out repairs and enlargements, at their expense, to the church at Crofton, but after their deaths the abbot and convent became again responsible - until 1537.
During the Dissolution the patronage of Titchfield church and thus of Crofton chapel were exercised by the Wriothesley Earls of Southampton right up until 1887 when the right passed to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester. A document of the 16th century records that the " the Croftoners is a chapel of ease and Titchfield is its mother church". Curates were appointed to Crofton by the vicar of Titchfield until 1871 when Crofton, together with Stubbington hamlet and the village of Lee-on-Solent (formerly called Lee Britten) were made into a separate ecclesiastical parish with the first vicar, the Reverend Herbert Alder, appointed by the Bishop of Winchester. This parish became a civil parish by the Local Government Act of 1894 and the living of Crofton is now a vicarage with a house and three and a half acres of glebe within the gift of the Bishop of Portsmouth (that diocese having been formed in much more recent times).
The relative importance of Crofton and Stubbington in the 19th century is shown by this reference from a gazetteer published in 1866. Of Crofton it tells us : " It is a chapelry with a village in Titchfield parish 2 miles South of Fareham. The property is valued at £5,159 and is subdivided. The population is 809. Crofton House is the seat of the Naughtens. The living is a papal curacy annexed to the vicarage of Titchfield in the diocese of Winchester. The church is ancient, interesting and good."
All, however, that the reference books tells of Stubbington is that : "It is a hamlet in Crofton chapelry and has a post office under Fareham ".
Today, of course, Stubbington has absorbed its older neighbour and, indeed, one will look in vain on the Ordnance Map for any reference to Crofton as a village. Only Crofton House is marked and that in small print.
The vast parish of Titchfield once reached to the Hamble River ( and occupied much the same area as today's Fareham urban district in which Stubbington lies). However, as the growing needs of the various communities demanded, the ancient parish was split up and not only Crofton but also Sarisbury, Warsash and Locks Heath were formed as separate parishes in the closing quarter of the 19th century.
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