Page:Bramshill, its history and architecture (by Sir William H. Cope).pdf/17

 BRAMSHILL

BRAMSHILL, a tything of the parish of Eversley, is situated in the extreme north of Hampshire, on the borders of Berkshire, from which it is separated by the river Blackwater, which bounds it on the north. On the east it is bounded by Eversley ; on the west by the parish of Heckfield ; and on the south by Hazeley, Hartley-Wintney, and Elvetham. It contains an area of 2,083 acres, of which nearly half (926 acres) is common land, consisting of heath, moor, and fir woods. The earliest mention of it I have met with is in the Domesday Survey, in which it occurs twice. One manor is noted as in Boseberg (now Bosmere) hundred : but, by a scribal error. Bosmere hundred is in the south-east corner of the county. The rubric Boseberg Hd. had been affixed to Hugh de Port's manor of Brochemptune, just above. And the scribe did not affix the rubric Holesete Hd. (Holdshot hundred) to the next following manor of Effele (Heckfield), which immediately precedes Bramshill. He did mark it opposite the manor of Stradfelle (Stratfieldsaye), which follows. By this mistake the manors of Heckfield and Bramshill are made to appear in Bosmere hundred, where no places having any similarity in name can be found. A curious result of this error has been that when Bramshill was taken out of Bosmere, it was placed, not in Holdshot hundred" - to which it naturally belonged - but in Odiham hundred, in which it still remains. At the time of the Survey, it was held by that Leviathan of Hampshire land-holders, Hugh de Port. Two free-men held it