page_title: East Worldham
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: East Worldham / History
caption_attribution_description: English: East Worldham Village Hall
context_page_description: East Worldham is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 1.9 miles east of Alton; and 1.9 miles south-west of Wyck. Hartley Mauditt and West Worldham are nearby, which, along with East Worldham, form the Parish of Worldham. The village is just east of the A31 road and contains St Mary's Church and the Three Horse Shoes pub, amongst other buildings. Worldham Golf Course located just to west and Dean Farm Golf Course just to the east. For centuries the village and surrounding parish were owned by Winchester College.
context_section_description: Archaeological findings in the fields between West and East Worldham reveal that the area has been visited and inhabited since at least the Palaeolithic era. An Iron Age Hillfort, dated to around 100 BC, lay on the summit of King John's Hill, to the east of East Worldham. The Romans built a road from Chichester to Silchester which passed below the hill over what is now Green Street and Pookles Lane.
  The village is believed to have been part of "Werildeham", mentioned in the Domesday Book. There have been multiple spellings of the name, including Werildeham; Wardham, 11th century; Wirldham, 12th century; Verildham, 13th century; Verilham and YV'erlham, 14th century; and Wardelham, 16th century. 
  For several centuries, the manor of East Worldham was held by the Venuz (or Venuiz) family, associated with marshall service, a sergeantry connected with the custody of the forests of Woolmer and Alice Holt. According to Samuel Tymms, "Robert de Venuz held the manors of East Worldham, in Hants, and Draycote, in Wilts, by the sergeantry of performing the office of Marshal. These manors, by the Domesday Survey, are said to be held by Geoffrey le Marshal. From the proximity of the period there appears little doubt but that this Geffrey left two daughters and coheiresses, married to Robert de Venuz and Gilbert le Marshal, which latter seems to have acquired the office indicated by his name, not however without a dispute from his co-inheritor, whose lands being held by virtue of serving the office, would entitle their holder to fill it." A dispute arose concerning the inheritance of the manor in the early part of the 14th century. The Patent Rolls noted that, as the result of a trial in 1329, it passed, on the death of Margery, widow of John Venuiz, to the Burghersh family. There is also a recorded release by Thomas, son and heir of John de Venuz, to Sir John de Burghersh, knight, of all his right in East Worldham manor. Thomas Chaucer married Matilda, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Burghersh, nephew of Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, becoming the owner of the manor.
  Documents indicate the Gurdons or Gordons occupied the village from at least the 13th century when Sir Adam de Gurdon held property. In 1472 the Gurdon holding was purchased by Winchester College who would increasingly grow to dominate the parish over the next 500 years. The Sandals holding later merged with the Gurdons and documents exist indicating the existence of the Sandals in 1255 and another in 1329, witnessed by a John de Sandale. For centuries, village life centred on the old farm holdings of the Manor; the Shelleys, Freres, Sandals and Gurdons (now merged into Old House Farm), and the Heathers, Clays, Porters, Park, Smiths and some descendants of these families continue to live in the village today and many old farm buildings still exist. The naturalist and ornithologist Gilbert White immortalised the localities of the region, including East Worldham, in his The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789).
  By at least the mid-19th century, East Worldham and most of the parish of Worldham was owned by both Winchester College and the Dutton Estate. From the early 1860s when Dr. Fell became vicar in the village, East Worldham underwent dramatic change, which the renovation of the church and additions of hop kilns to the local farms and the building of new cottages, most of which form the urban landscape of the village today. In 1892 Mr Hall of Alton, financed the "lowering of the gradients of Worldham Hill by smoothing out four sections", a steep hill which had caused many problems to the local inhabitants as it lay along the main road to the village. The first Parish Council meeting took place in 1894 in the schoolroom.
  In May 1944, a Junkers JU188 was shot down by a Mosquito nearby and its debris was scattered across the nearby village of West Worldham, including the church wall. Later, the inhabitants had to be evacuated when a bomb fell into the field opposite Manor Farm, and had to be defused and removed by the Royal Engineers.
  In 1962, the Dutto
caption: East Worldham Village Hall
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