Pamber

"PAMBER, a parish in the lower half division of Basingstoke hundred, county Hants, 5 miles N.W. of Basingstoke, its post town. The village, which is of small extent, is wholly agricultural. The Vine hounds meet at Pamber Forest. The impropriate tithes, belonging to the Provost and Fellows of Queen's College, Oxford, have been commuted for a rent-charge of £270. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Winchester, in the patronage of Queen's College, Oxford. There is no parish church, but the inhabitants frequent the ancient chapel of the Benedictine priory, formerly a cell to the Abbey of Cerasy, in Normandy. This chapel, upon the suppression of alien priories in England, was given by Henry VI. to Eton College, and afterwards by Edward IV. to the hospital of St. Julien, at Southampton; and eventually became the property of the Provost and Fellows of Queen's College, Oxford, who have expended upwards of £2,000 on its restoration. It is dedicated to SS. Mary and John, and with its ivy-mantled tower and chancel, forms a rare specimen of antiquity. The interior has an effigy in carved oak of a Knight Templar."

[From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]