Stoke Charity is a small village that lies within the Wonston civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Winchester, which lies approximately 6.1 miles (9.9 km) south-west from the village.
Stoke Charity is a small parish of only 1,841 acres, three of which are water supplied by the Test, a tributary of which forms the northern boundary line between Stoke Charity and Hunton. The village lies in the north close to the river, and from here the parish is one long southward sweep of rolling country, rising to its highest point at Waller's Ash and continuing onwards to Kings Worthy parish.
The road from Wonston, the parish which lies due west, runs downhill into Stoke Charity village, and passing by some farm buildings on the left becomes the uphill village street. On either side are thatched and half-timbered cottages grouped most thickly at the top of the hill where the road branches to Hunton, Micheldever and Winchester. The village school, built in 1815, is at the corner formed by the branching of the roads to Micheldever and Winchester, and on the right higher up the branch to Micheldever is the rectory. This is in part a sixteenth-century timber building to which in the latter part of the seventeenth century additions were made, including a very good panelled entrance hall with a carved cornice. In a field opposite the rectory is the church of St. Michael, and in the meadow called 'Pretty Meadow' north-west of the church, the sixteenth-century manor house originally stood. To the left of the site of the manor house is a large fish-pond supplied with water from the Test tributary. Old Farm, which is probably the farm attached to the original manor house, lies in the meadows east of the church. Stoke Farm lies well away from the village on the left hand side of the road to Winchester, while across country to the west is West Stoke Farm.
The soil of the whole parish is loam with a subsoil of chalk, and the chief crops are wheat, barley, and turnips.
William Cobbett, 'the homespun politician of Surrey, visited Stoke Charity in 1829 and in his Rural Rides (1830) used 'that obscure village' as an illustration of the decay of parishes in the early nineteenth century. 'Formerly,' he says, 'it contained ten farms, but now only two which are owned by Mr. Hinton Bailey and his nephew, and therefore may probably become one. There used to be ten well-fed families in the parish, these taking five to a family made fifty well-fed people. And now all are half starved except the curate and the two families' (i.e. the farmer and his nephew). The blame for this miserable state he attributed not to the landowners but to 'the infernal funding and taxing system which of necessity drives property into large masses in order to save itself, which crushes little proprietors down into labourers and … make them paupers.'
Stoke Charity is a small parish of only 1,841 acres, three of which are water supplied by the Test, a tributary of which forms the northern boundary line between Stoke Charity and Hunton. The village lies in the north close to the river, and from here the parish is one long southward sweep of rolling country, rising to its highest point at Waller's Ash and continuing onwards to Kings Worthy parish.
The road from Wonston, the parish which lies due west, runs downhill into Stoke Charity village, and passing by some farm buildings on the left becomes the uphill village street. On either side are thatched and half-timbered cottages grouped most thickly at the top of the hill where the road branches to Hunton, Micheldever and Winchester. The village school, built in 1815, is at the corner formed by the branching of the roads to Micheldever and Winchester, and on the right higher up the branch to Micheldever is the rectory. This is in part a sixteenth-century timber building to which in the latter part of the seventeenth century additions were made, including a very good panelled entrance hall with a carved cornice. In a field opposite the rectory is the church of St. Michael, and in the meadow called 'Pretty Meadow' north-west of the church, the sixteenth-century manor house originally stood. To the left of the site of the manor house is a large fish-pond supplied with water from the Test tributary. Old Farm, which is probably the farm attached to the original manor house, lies in the meadows east of the church. Stoke Farm lies well away from the village on the left hand side of the road to Winchester, while across country to the west is West Stoke Farm.
The soil of the whole parish is loam with a subsoil of chalk, and the chief crops are wheat, barley, and turnips.
William Cobbett, 'the homespun politician of Surrey, visited Stoke Charity in 1829 and in his Rural Rides (1830) used 'that obscure village' as an illustration of the decay of parishes in the early nineteenth century. 'Formerly,' he says, 'it contained ten farms, but now only two which are owned by Mr. Hinton Bailey and his nephew, and therefore may probably become one. There used to be ten well-fed families in the parish, these taking five to a family made fifty well-fed people. And now all are half starved except the curate and the two families' (i.e. the farmer and his nephew). The blame for this miserable state he attributed not to the landowners but to 'the infernal funding and taxing system which of necessity drives property into large masses in order to save itself, which crushes little proprietors down into labourers and … make them paupers.'
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