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The Priory Church of St Andrew the Apostle.
Hamble may mean "crooked" and Hambele was a Saxon thane who gave his name to other Hambledons. "Le Rice" is either "the rise" (the Church stands 50 feet above sea level) or "the brushwood". The Venerable Bede (AD 700) mentions the double tides of the Solent and calls the river "Holmlea". St. Andrew's Castle on the foreshore of the Common was part of the defences for Southampton which, by Tudor times, included Calshot and Netley Castles. The French raid of 1377 reached Southampton and also damaged the Church here. |
In 1109 a cell of the Benedictine monks from Thiron, near Chartres, was granted land by William Gifford, the Bishop of Winchester. They built the Priory and served the churches at Hound and Bursledon. In 1391 William of Wykeham bought their property for his college in Winchester and repaired the church for parochial use. The upper storeys of the tower and enlargement of the south windows can be dated as early as the 15th century. The priory buildings were demolished for material, however some Norman work survives in the door and west window of the tower. The upper windows have re-used Saxon mouldings. A mass dial on the south west corner of the tower dates from this period. |
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