Cheriton
county:
coords:
Hampshire
SU5828
otherwise: Chiriton, 1162; Cheritona, 1208; Cheriton; Cheritona, 1218
CHERITON
The analogy of names in Devon and Kent makes it likely that this is hypothetical Old English 'Ciricetun'='church farm', ie: farm by a church or one whose produce was devoted to the upkeep of one. However, there is a conspicuous long barrow on the hillspur just east of the village (in addition to the gravemounds of the victims of the battle of 1644), and we may wonder whether 'cirice' is not an anglicization of hypothetical Primitive Welsh 'cru'g'='barrow' as it is in the similar name 'Churchill' (O). The fact that the tumulus is in Hinton Ampner parish is not necessarily a bar to this, as it is only 0.75 miles from Cheriton church, and the hamlet of 'Hinton Marsh' is actually in Cheriton.
The place is described in text Cobbett 1830
Period - 19th century, early
CAME from Alresford to Hambledon, through Titchbourne, Cheriton, Beauworth, Kilmston and Exton. This is all a high, hard, dry, fox-hunting country.
... I had to go through Cheriton; a little, hard, iron village, where all seems to be as old as the hills that surround it. ...
At Cheriton I found a grand camp of Gipsys just upon the move towards Alresford. I had met some of the scouts first, and afterwards the advance guard, and here the main body was getting in motion. One of the scouts that I met was a young woman, who, I am sure, was six feet high. There were two or three more in the camp of about the same height; and some most strapping fellows of men. It is curious that this race should have preserved their dark skin and coal-black straight and coarse hair, very much like that of the American Indians. ...
...
... Cheriton and Kilmston and Hambledon and the like have been beggared for the purpose of giving tax-eaters the means of making 'vast improvements, Ma'am'.
...
I learned, too, that GREAME, a famously loyal 'squire and justice, whose son was, a few years ago, made a Distributor of Stamps in this county, was become so modest as to exchange his big and ancient mansion at CHERITON, or somewhere there, for a very moderate-sized house in the town of ALRESFORD! I saw his household goods advertised in the Hampshire newspaper, a little while ago, to be sold by public auction. ...
Shown on an old map by Harrison 1788
- settlement, hamlet - Fawley Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1780s
Shown on an old map by Morden 1695
- settlement, village - Fawley Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1690s-1720s
Shown on an old map by Ogilby 1675
- settlement, village - Hampshire
Shown on an old map by Blaeu 1645
- settlement, village - Fawley Hundred - Hantshire
Shown on an old map by Speed 1611
- settlement, village - Fawley Hundred - Hantshire
Shown on an old map by Norden 1607
- settlement, village - Fawley Hundred - Hamshire
Period - 1590s-1600s
Shown on an old map by Saxton 1575
- settlement, village - Southamtoniae
