We use cookies to improve your experience, some are essential for the operation of this site.

St Michael and All Angels, Knights Enham, Hampshire

Location
St. Michael & All Angels Church, Enham Ln, Andover SP10 4DS, United Kingdom (51°13′50″N, 1°28′59″W)
Knights Enham
SU 36180 48075
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Hampshire
now Hampshire
  • Ron Baxter
  • Ron Baxter
13 August 2025

Please use this link to cite this page - https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=12162.

Find out how to cite the CRSBI website here.

Feature Sets
Description

Knights Enham is a village in the Test Valley district of NE Hampshire, 13 miles NW of Winchester on the northern outskirts of Andover. The church is of flint, cement rendered, except for the tower which is of shingled timber. It stands on the northern edge of the village. It has a nave and chancel in one with no chancel arch and a small bell turret with a tower at the W end of the nave. There are N and S porches and the S nave wall shows signs of a former 13thc. 2-bay arcade at the W end. The only Romanesque feature is a badly damaged but elaborately carved font.

History

The Domesday Survey records two equal holdings at Enham, both argued by VCH to be in Knights Enham. Each was assessed at 1½ hides, and and they were held by Alwine and Wulgifu in 1066 and by Saeric and Alsige the Chamberlain in 1086. In both cases the overlord was the king. By the beginning of the 13thc the overlordhip was held by Avice de Columbers, and from her it passed to Matthew de Columbers, who died in 1273. The heir of Matthew's brother Michael was his daughter Nicola, who married a Lisle of the Isle of Wight, and it remained in this line until the 15thc.

Meanwhile, one of the two Domesday estates was held as tenant by Geoffrey, son of Morin in the 1160s, and the Ralph Sansaver who was a joint holder of the vill at the start of the 13thc. had probably gained it by marriage to the neice and heir of Richard Morin. The joint tenant at this time was William de Torney. The later manorial history will be found in VCH.

The advowson of the church is first mentioned in 1292 as belonging to the heir of Roger de Calstone.

Features

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

The font now in the church was found outside the church, badly smashhed (Trasler) some time after 1800. It was replaced for a time by a modern copy, and this is the font described in the 1911 Victoria County History as 'modern, with a shallow bowl carved with an imitation of 12th-century detail'. Then at some time after 1911 the old font was brought back into use. It is not known where the modern copy is now.

Bibliography

M. Bullen, J. Crook, R. Hubbuck and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Hampshire: Winchester and the North, New Haven and London 2010, 364.

Historic England Listed Building, English Heritage Legacy ID: 139525

N. Pevsner and D. Lloyd, The Buildings of England. Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Harmondsworth 1967, 314.

G. Trasler, P. Gideny and M. Hess, St Michael and All Angels. The Parish Church of Knight's Enham: the Church and the Parish. 2013 (updated 2015)

Victoria County History: Hampshire. IV (1911), 377-79.