The geology of Nursling is mostly gravel bordered by peat in the west. There is a gravel peninsula going in to the peat in the flood plain at Weston.

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Mesolithic and Bronze Age

The first evidence for occupation is the Mesolithic, near the railway station. We have a Bronze Age Settlement in front of the church where there are bronze working and storage pits, one with a bronze axe. Other Bronze Age settlement was found at Adanac Farm and the railway station area.  At the area of Testwood Lake a Bronze Age wooden walk way was found similar to those found in the Fens. A Bronze Age spear head was found at Toot Hill and a hoard of bronze axes was found near the B&Q roundabout: they were mostly seconds.

 

Iron Age

There is an early Iron Age settlement behind the church.

The Middle Iron Age is represented by the hillfort at Toot Hill and possibly two circular earth works under the M27 that were not excavated but seen in 1940 aerial photographs.

There are rare Late Iron Age burial mounds at Adanac farm. One had a sword, spear and shield. Iron Age coins and pottery have come from the Roman settlement. The Test may be the boundary of the Atrebates and the Durotriges as coins of these tribes have been found at Nursling and Romsey.

 

Roman

A coin hoard of gold and silver Iron Age and Early Roman coins are said to have been found on Mouse House field at Weston but coin experts have put doubt on this. Several test pits in the field were dug but no coins were found from the Roman occupation but an Iron Age coin did turn up during metal detecting at the same time as the excavation. The Roman settlement of Ona stretches from the railway station in the north and the B&Q roundabout in the south to the River Test in the west. The eastern boundary is not known.

A Roman road runs east–west possibly connecting the Roman potteries and the Roman crossing for the Isle Of Wight at Stone in the west with Bitterne and Winchester in the east. The course is known in the east at North Baddesley and was found running under Webber’s Garage (Nursling) and it has also been seen at Tatchbury in the west.

If a line is drawn between the two, it crosses the River Test via the gravel spur running into the Test flood plain, making a short crossing of the Test. Crawford found three crossings in this area near Ruddy Mead, Nursling.

Roman pottery has been found in fields behind Nursling church representing manuring of the fields. 

Wessex Archaeology found a possible Roman wharf at Testwood Lakes. 

The Roman settlement starts in the 1st century and was at its height in the 2nd-3rd centuries and begins to shrink in the 4th-5th centuries. It is difficult to date the end of the Romans settlement. There is late Roman pottery on the site, some of it hand-made. From the rear of the church a coin was found that at first was thought to be Saxon, but when shown to the coin experts their opinion was that it was a very late Roman coin but it was so crude it could have been mistaken for Saxon coin. This might even be a British made 5th century coin. A modern boundary ditch on the Roman site had a Roman ditch under it but we have no evidence of Saxon occupation apart from the name of a possible Saxon settlement of Weston.

 

Saxon

We do have slight evidence of continuous land usage.

Excavation in front and behind the church have produced evidence of Saxon hall buildings. The one in front of the church probably dates from about 8-9th centuries. The one behind the church had Michelmersh pottery in the post holes which date from the 9-10th centuries but as there is no evidence of posts in the post pits we cannot be certain when the pottery got into the post pits. It could have been either when the building was built or demolished. The site also produced a sherd of stamped pottery. Similar pottery in Southampton was dated to 7-8th centuries. The site was an old tennis court so it was levelled and had destroyed some of the evidence. There were a lot of post holes on the site which could not be dated.

When the gravel pit edge at the back of the church next to the road collapsed a late Saxon pit was exposed which produced Winchester-ware pottery and a Saxon comb. 

 

Jutish Kingdom

We now go to documents to follow our story. 

The re-examining of the documents, archaeology, and DNA studies have led to some re-thinking of the early Saxon period, even suggesting that the Saxons did not arrive, only their culture. It would take too long to discuss this now but let's take the middle ground and say that there was some Saxon migration but the latest DNA evidence does not suggest it was large.

Bede (see Appendix below) retells the account of the capture of the Isle of Wight by Caedwalla king of Gewisse. As Bede said, Caedwalla obtained possession of Gewisse so it was possibly not a peaceful takeover of the Gewisse. 

The Gewisse was a tribe that was based on the Thames around Dorchester that eventually became the kingdom of Wessex.

The first thing that becomes apparent is that Southern Hampshire was not part of the Kingdom of Wessex before 686AD but was a part of the lands of the Jutes. 

Bede tells us that Jutes have the Isle of Wight and the main land opposite the Solent along as far as the Hamble in the east. Barbara York suggests that it ran as far as Lymington in the west. We do not know how far it reached in the north but it may be as far as Winchester.  The battles claimed for the Ampfield area may be border skirmishes with the Gewisse rather than battles between Saxons and Danes.

The Jutes settled both in Kent and Southern Hampshire, in an area where Rome had invaded or re-invaded Britain.

Kent was the site of the original invasion and several other times when Rome had to reoccupy Britain.

Constantius landed in the Solent in 264 AD when he recaptured Britain from the usurper Allectus. The Jutish settlements are on Islands - Thanet, in Kent, and the Isle of Wight in Hampshire. It is unfashionable today to suggest this may be a Roman resettlement of tribes to protect borders rather than a threat from the Saxons. A date of 350-450 AD would be possible. One interpretation of Bede’s story of Caedwalla and the princes is that there may have been a pre- West Saxon/Gewisse abbey at the Ford of the Reeds - Hreutford. This seems strange as Bede said the Jutes of the Isle of Wight were pagan and that they were slaughtered. However, maybe they were not, but it would be difficult for Bede to explain the slaughter of Christians. It is possible that they were Britons still following Christianity. Bede, as a supporter of the reintroduced Roman Christianity, might have regarded them as not really Christian.  

An entry in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and Bede for AD 661 is:

King Wulfere son of Penda [king of Mercia] ravaged the Isle of Wight and gave the people of Wight to Aethelwald,       king of Sussex. Eoppa the priest at the command of Wilfrid and King Wulfhere was the first to bring Christianity to the inhabitants of the isle of Wight. ii.

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Monastery at Nursling

Hreutford was thought to be in Redbridge and it is possible that it was actually at Nursling, the same monastery where St Boniface studied. The Roman road crossed the Test at Nursling as discussed earlier so Bede’s description of reed ford would fit this area. The Roman ford would have been in use until the bridge at Redbridge was built in the 9-10th centuries. This bridge would have blocked the access to the Test from the Solent, barring access to both Vikings and trading vessels. The Roman road was not found at Testwood Lakes when Wessex Archaeology excavated there.

St Boniface moved to Nursling in 694 AD at the age of 14 from a monastery at Exeter. Boniface showed great ability as a scholar so was sent to Nursling because of its reputation for learning and its library. Did these books come from British sources, or from the Roman mission to Kent, or from the Jutes' contact with the continent, or all three?

If Nursling was a Jutish foundation it might explain why Abbott Cynibert took an interest in the Princes. It could also explain why the monastery at Nursling disappeared; a Wessex Royal family would not want to support a Jutish Foundation or a British one.

Win was first Bishop of Winchester AD 662-663, he was also bishop of Dorchester-on-Thames and London. There is not another bishop at Winchester until AD 670 so it is highly unlikely that the Gewisse could have founded a monastery at Nursling before this date. 

The Minster at Eling was close to Nursling but on the other side of the River Test.

An alternative theory that has been put forward is that Nursling was an area name not a location and suggests that Boniface's monastery was at Romsey which would then allow another monastery at Redbridge. 

Nursling was in the Buddlesgate Hundred and was assessed at 5 hides in the Domesday Survey. The Buddlesgate hundred is an odd one as it was spread all over the Hampshire. 

The history of our area is complicated in the 6-8th centuries with conquest by the Mercians and the Gewisse.  It was not until the Gewisse captured the Isle of Wight that they were referred to as the Kingdom of Wessex. 

There is a Saxon Charter for Nursling dating from AD 877 which gives the boundaries of the estate. 

See Charter section.

 

Appendix 1 Excerpts from Anglo Saxon Chronicle  iv.

A.D. 514. This year the West-Saxons Stuff and Wihtgar, came to Britain, with three ships, at the place which is called Cerdicsora, and fought against the Britons, and put them to flight.

Wihtgar's name is thought to be an invention to explain the name of Carisbrook, Wihtgarasburh.

A.D. 534. This year Cerdic passed away and his son Cynric continued to reign for twenty-six years. And they gave the Isle of Wight to their two nephews, Stuff and Wihtgar.

A.D. 643. This year Cenwal succeeded to the kingdom of the West Saxons, and ruled 31 years; and that Cenwal ordered
the church at Winchester to be built. 

A.D. 661. This year, at Easter, Cenwal fought at Posentesbury; and Wulfere, son of Penda, ravaged from Ashdown. Cuthred, son of Cwichelm, and King Coenberht, passed away in the one year. Wulfere, son of Penda, ravaged in the Isle of Wight and gave the people of Wight to AEthelwald, king of Sussex, because Wulfere had stood sponsor for him at baptism. Eoppa, the priest, at the command of Wilfrid and King Wulfere, was the first to bring Christianity to the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight.

 

Appendix 2 Excerpt from Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People  v.

After Caedwalla had obtained possession of the kingdom of the Gewissae, he took also the Isle of Wight, which till then was entirely given over to idolatry, and by merciless slaughter endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and to place in their stead people from his own province; binding himself by a vow, though it is said that he was not yet regenerated in Christ, to give the fourth part of the land and of the spoil to the Lord, if he took the island. He fulfilled this vow by giving the same for the service of the Lord to Bishop Wilfrid, who happened at the time to have come thither from his own people.The measure of that island, according to the computation of the English, is of twelve hundred families, wherefore an estate of three hundred families was given to the Bishop. The part which he received, he committed to one of his clerks called Bernwin, who was his sister's son, assigning to him a priest, whose name was Hiddila, to administer the Word and laver of life to all that would be saved.

Here I think it ought not to be omitted that, as the first fruits of those of that island who believed and were saved, two royal boys, brothers to Arwald, king of the island,were crowned with the special grace of God. For when the enemy approached, they made their escape out of the island, and crossed over into the neighbouring province of the Jutes.Coming to the place called At the Stone, they thought to be concealed from the victorious king, but they were betrayed and ordered to be killed. This [p.253] being made known to a certain abbot and priest, whose name was Cynibert, who had a monastery not far from there, at a place called Hreutford, that is, the Ford of Reeds, he came to the king, who then lay in concealment in those parts to be cured of the wounds which he had received whilst he was

fighting in the Isle of Wight, and begged of him, that if the boys must needs be killed, he might be allowed first to instruct them in the mysteries of the Christian faith. The king consented, and the bishop having taught them the Word of truth, and cleansed them in the font of salvation, assured to them their entrance into the kingdom of Heaven. Then the executioner came, and they joyfully underwent the temporal death, through which they did not doubt they were to pass to the life of the soul, which is everlasting. Thus, after this manner, when all the provinces of Britain had received the faith of Christ, the Isle of Wight also received the same; yet because it was suffering under the affliction of foreign subjection, no man there received the office or See of a bishop, before Daniel, who is now bishop of the West Saxons.

The island is situated opposite the borders of the South Saxons and the Gewissae, being separated from it by a sea, three miles wide, which is called Solvente. In this sea, the two tides of the ocean, which break upon Britain all round its coasts from the boundless northern ocean, daily meet in conflict beyond the mouth of the river Homelea, which runs into the aforesaid sea, through the lands of the Jutes, belonging to the country of the Gewissae; and after this struggle of the tides, they fall back and return into the ocean whence they come.

But Wilfrid was expelled from his bishopric, and having long travelled in many lands, went to Rome, and afterwards returned to Britain. Though he could not, by reason of the enmity of the aforesaid king, be received into his own country or diocese, yet he could not be restrained from the ministry of the Gospel; for, taking his way into the province of the South Saxons, which extends from Kent to the south and west, as far as the West Saxons, containing land of 7,000 families, and was at that time still in bondage to pagan rites, he administered to them the Word of faith, and the Baptism of salvation. Ethelwalch, king of that nation, had been, not long before, baptized in the province of the Mercians, at the instance of King Wulfhere, who was present, and received him as his godson when he came forth from the font, and in token of this adoption gave him two provinces, to wit, the Isle of Wight, and the province of the Meonwara, in the country of the West Saxons. The bishop, therefore, with the king's consent, or rather to his great joy, cleansed in the sacred font the foremost ealdormen and thegns of that country; and the priests, Eappa, and Padda, and Burghelm, and Oiddi, either then, or afterwards, baptized the rest of the people. The queen, whose name was Eabae, had been baptized in her own country, the province of the Hwiccas. She was the daughter of Eanfrid, the brother of Aenhere, who were both Christians, as were their people; but all the province of the South Saxons was ignorant of the Name of God and the faith. But there was among them a certain monk of the Scottish nation, whose name was Dicul, who had a very small monastery, at the place called Bosanhamm, encompassed by woods and seas, and in it there were five or six brothers, who served the Lord in humility and poverty; but none of the natives cared either to follow their course of life, or hear their preaching.

But when Coinwalch was restored to his kingdom, there came into that province out of Ireland, a certain bishop called Agilbert, a native of Gaul, but who had then lived a long time in Ireland, for the purpose of reading the Scriptures. He attached himself to the king, and voluntarily undertook the ministry of preaching. The king, observing his learning and industry, desired him to accept an episcopal see there and remain as the bishop of his people. Agilbert complied with the request, and [pg 150]presided over that nation as their bishop for many years. At length the king, who understood only the language of the Saxons, weary of his barbarous tongue, privately brought into the province another bishop, speaking his own language, by name Wini, who had also been ordained in Gaul; and dividing his province into two dioceses, appointed this last his episcopal see in the city of Venta, by the Saxons called Wintancaestir. Agilbert, being highly offended, that the king should do this without consulting him, returned into Gaul, and being made bishop of the city of Paris, died there, being old and full of days. Not many years after his departure out of Britain, Wini was also expelled from his bishopric by the same king, and took refuge with Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, of whom he purchased for money the see of the city of London, and remained bishop thereof till his death. Thus the province of the West Saxons continued no small time without a bishop.

During which time, the aforesaid king of that nation, sustaining repeatedly very great losses in his kingdom from his enemies, at length bethought himself, that as he had been before expelled from the throne for his unbelief, he had been restored when he acknowledged the faith of Christ; and he perceived that his kingdom, being deprived of a bishop, was justly deprived also of the Divine protection. He, therefore, sent messengers into Gaul to Agilbert, with humble apologies entreating him to return to the bishopric of his nation. But he excused himself, and protested that he could not go, because he was bound to the bishopric of his own city and diocese; notwithstanding, in order to give him some help in answer to his earnest request, he sent thither in his stead the priest Leutherius, his nephew, to be ordained as his bishop, if he thought fit, saying that he thought him worthy of a bishopric. The king and the people received him honourably, and asked Theodore, then Archbishop of Canterbury, to consecrate him as their bishop. He was accordingly consecrated in the same city, and many years diligently governed the whole bishopric of the West Saxons by synodical authority.

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i O G S Crawford

ii Anglo-Saxon Chronicle trans by G N Garmonsway entry for 661

iii Willibald The Life of St Boniface  https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/willibald-boniface.asp

iv Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle trans by G N Garmonsway  

v Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, ed. by A.M. Sellar, [1907], at sacred-texts.com  chap XVI