Local History

The Pentons are first recorded in the Domesday Book, though nearby Neolithic and Roman archaeological evidence suggest much earlier human settlement. In 1087 the population of Penton Mewsey can be estimated as about 105. In 1788 it was 194, rising to 210 in 1851. The 1921 census recorded 209 inhabitants. Today it is some 300.

The name Penton derives from Penitone - a farm held at a penny rent.  Mewsey is a corruption of Maisy, after the Calvados, Normandy, family of that name which enjoyed the lordship of the manor in the 13th century.  Grafton recalls that from the Conquest until 1372 the revenue of its manor was the property of the Abbey of Grestein, near Honfleur.  One can deduce from the fact that Penton is common to both settlements the probability that before 1066 they were a single economic unit.

Set some four kilometres north west of Andover Penton Mewsey, wrote the Rector in the 1890's, is built along the bottom of a little tongue-shaped valley running nearly north and south, the slopes of which are much sharper when facing west than to the east. This valley is stopped at its southern end by a line of hill which projects into the basin of the Anton.  Penton Mewsey developed along Chalkcroft Lane as a linear settlement in the bottom of the valley, whereas Penton Grafton developed as a scatted hamlet on the western slope of the valley accessed by Penton Lane.

Until the 1920's the Pentons were predominantly agricultural communities, supporting the sheep and corn husbandry typical of the north Hampshire downlands.  They remain surrounded by farmland and farming that is currently entirely arable.  Riding and three associated livery stables are now important village based commercial activities.  A mediaeval charity, Ewelme Almshouses, of Ewelme, Oxfordshire, has owned a substantial part of Penton Grafton Parish (includes Weyhill) continuously since 15th century.

Holy Trinity Church is mid-14th century and is Decorated in style, though much restored in the 19th century.  The quality of its window tracery has been admired by architectural historians.  Both font and bellcote are original, the latter one of only eight examples in England and equally rarely retaining its original pair of bells.  The south chancel door is possibly of fragments from the earlier church recorded in Domesday.

In 1638 two prominent Penton yeomen, Peter Noyes and John Bent set sail with other members of their families from Southampton for New England.  Noyes came back in 1639 to collect ten others to return to found Sudbury, Massachussets.  Noyes (or Noyce) and Bent descendants still occasionally return to the Pentons seeking their English origins.  Other old Penton family names are Wale, Hutchins (or Hutchence), Guyatt and Leggatt.

Penton Manor Farmhouse, attractively set amid open space on three sides, has a thick north wall with ashlar quoins and is possibly mediaeval in origin.  Three recently uncovered oak window frames, blocked up during the time of window tax, are dated as mid-16th century.  The house was then updated in Georgian and Victorian times, when it was a farmhouse.

Penton Lodge, set in parkland on high ground sloping down to Foxcotte Lane, was built by William Cubitt (founder of the famous construction company and a 19th C. Andover M.P.) for himself in 1852 on the site of an earlier probably Georgian building.  It has contemporary east and west lodges.

Penton Close (the former Rectory) noted by Pevsner as grandly Victorian dates from 1833.  It is flint and yellow brick with many gables, dormers and elaborate hood moulds.  It was reputedly designed by the wife of the then Rector, Christopher Dodson.   He attained notoreity as Chairman of the Andover Workhouse at the time of its scandal in 1846.

Anyone further interested in any aspect of the history of the Pentons (which also include Weyhill, Clanville and Nutbane) or with additional information, is encouraged to contact John Isherwood at ji@dmac.co.uk