Early -Modern Houghton and |Bossington

Sixteenth Century

The sixteenth century was a period of momentous change within England following Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries, including the nearby Abbeys at Romsey and Mottisfont. Some magnificent wall paintings are preserved in a tudor house within the village which attest to these major changes. They were painted in 1580 and are dominated by the arms of Queen Elizabeth I and carry the legend: God preserve in health oure noble Queene Elizabeth. Amen. ANO DOMI 1580. The royal coat of arms appeared in many churches and important houses across the country in the wake of the break with Rome and were used to demonstrate loyalty to the Crown.

In 1637 a charity was established by a George Pemerton of Winchester which provided for the poor people of Houghton. Pemerton left a farm and lands that he owned in Houghton in trust to the Corporation of the City of Winchester. The trust stipulated that various distributions were to be made annually on St. George’s day out of the rents and profits from the farm. Most were made to the people of Winchester, but “fortie six shillings and eight pence” was to be paid “yearlie for ever on St. George’s daie to the poore people of the parish of Houghton”. The charity is sadly no more. However, throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries money was indeed paid out by the churchwardens on 23^rd April every year to the deserving poor of Houghton and it continued to be paid until well into the twentieth