Timeline

~500 The first English speaking people came up the river Meon: they were goatherds and shepherds. The name of their settlement was Ticcan-feld, which meant ‘the pasture of the kids’ (young goats).
680 The first church was built; it probably consisted of a small chancel, a high nave and a large porch, which is now the bottom of the tower.
982 A charter of King Ethalred (called the unready) mentioned a small religious establishment in Titchfield.
~1004 Titchfield belonged to King Edward the Confessor.
1086 The Domesday Book described a large village at Titchfield, with a mill and a market.
1100 In the last half of this century a south aisle was added to the church and the fine West doorway was built.
1200 About this time the Saxon porch was built up to form a tower. The chancel was lengthened to its present size.
1232 Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester gave Titchfield to the premonstratensian canons, who began building the Abbey.
1283 The canons of Titchfield Abbey were given the right to nominate one of their own members as vicar of St. Peter’s church.
1300 The Abbey built its own chapel on the south side of the chancel.
1349 Many Titchfield people died of the bubonic plague during the Black Death. Richard II and Queen Anne stayed at Titchfield abbey.
1393 The date of the oldest bell in the church.
1400-15 Henry V stayed at the Abbey on his way to France, where he won the Battle of Agincourt.
1429 Henry VI gave Titchfield the right to hold fairs.
1445 Henry VI gave Titchfield the right to hold fairs.
1537 Titchfield Abbey was suppressed and came into the hands of Thomas Wrothesley. It was rebuilt as Place House.
1581 Thomas, the third Earl, succeeded his father: he was a patron of Shakespeare and one of the founders of Virginia.
1594 The monument to the Earls of Southampton was built in the church.
~1603 The Ironmills was built.
1611 The River Meon was blocked from the sea at Titchfield Haven and the building of the canal was begun.
1624 Death of the third Earl of Southampton.
1625 Charles I and Queen Henrietta stayed at Place House.
1628 The date of the second bell in the church.
1647 Charles I taken prisoner at Place House by Colonel Hammond.
1662 Samuel Pepys came to Titchfield.
1672 The Vestry minutes (kept at Winchester public records office) begin.
1673 The Communion plate was given to the church.
1675 The date of the treble bell. Charles II stayed at Place House. The tower of St. Peter’s was strengthened and at this time the west door was blocked.
1741 Place House was sold to the Delme family.
1769 The date of the tenor bell.
1781 Place House partly demolished.
1783-84 Henry Court worked at the Ironmills. The population of Titchfield was 2949 in the first census.
1801 The turnpike road from East Street to Fareham was built.
1810 The market hall was moved from the square (now at the Weald and Downland open air museum, Singleton West Sussex).
1820 The west door of the church reopened.
1831 Titchfield Mill was rebuilt.
1834 The church clock was repaired at a cost of £30.00, and a vestry built in the Southampton Chapel at a cost of £35 15 shillings and 1 pence.
1840 St. Peter’s extensively repaired.
1850 The Iron gates at the West door were given by the Vicar W Threasher.
1851 The enclosure of Titchfield Common.
1859-60 Extensive reconstruction of the church left it much as it is now. The Norman south aisle was demolished. The work was paid for by the Hon. the Misses Baring.
1866-67 The Ironmills closed. The railway was built through Segensworth to Swanwick station. The bells were recast.
1870 The church’s south porch was pulled down and a new vestry was built.
1888 A new weather vane was put on the spire.
1896 The first bus service was started through Titchfield.
1905 Electricity was installed into the church.
1913 The by-pass road to Southampton was built.
1919 The ruins of Place House were acquired by the Ministry of Works.
1928 Major restoration of St. Peter’s instigated by the Rev. N A L Miller. The floor of the Nave was removed; the rooves of the Chancel, north aisle and Southampton Chapel were restored. The foundations of the south wall of the Southampton Chapel were reinforced. The tower was restored, the bell frame foundations were made good and the bells re-hung.
1929 Titchfield Tannery was closed.
1932 Fielder’s Brewery was closed.
1950-79 The Johnston Vestry was constructed in the south aisle.
1961 The by-pass road to Gosport was opened.
1978 The Southampton monument was restored.
1990 The old Vicarage was sold and the Chapter rooms built.