The Titchfield Abbey Records Project continues to transcribe the earliest records for Titchfield – those for Titchfield Abbey which was established in 1232 and disbanded with the Dissolution in 1537. The records were copied into large leather bound volumes in the 14 th century, from much earlier rolls and documents and are now deposited in the Western Collections at The British Library, London. There are 4 volumes:
- Add MS 70506 Register of Titchfield Abbey 225 folios – published Jan 2026 This hardback book is available via the Titchfield History Society website at £25 + p &p . see note at the end of this article
- Add MS 70507 – Collection of information – 110 folios – including a Description and Catalogue of the Library, Itineraries [ of travel] to other Abbeys, Finances on the accessions of new Abbots in 1348, 1370 & 1390, the Acta de Houke [ regarding an non permitted chapel in Titchfield]
- Add MS 70508 – Rentals of Titchfield Abbey – 125 folios [The document gives tenants names, areas of holdings, names of copyholds, rents paid, manorial customs , ancient custom & Baronial tenancies
- Add MS 70509 – Register of Court Rolls – 1246-1376 – 640 folios
The manuscripts are about the Titchfield Abbey Estates, this is NOT just Titchfield which consists of many manors including Swanwick, Crofton, Funtley, Chark, Lee, Tubbington, Brownwich, Hook, Chilling Abshot, and many other estates in Hampshire including Portsea, Porchester. Rowner Corhampton, Cadland, Wickor, East Cosham, Bere Forest also Wallsworth [ a lost hamlet] and Inkpen in Berkshire.
The Titchfield History Society is transcribing the documents (which needs specialist skill), translating (not only from Latin but French and Spanish) and publishing editions to ensure anyone with an interest in Titchfield and abbeys can easily access this material
With this grant of £5500 from HAT the Society can work on the second and final phase, volumes Add MS 70507 & Add MS 70509.
update January 2026 New Publication!
The Remembrance Register of Titchfield Abbey.
Translated by Tom Olding and Penny Daish.
This is a translation of a 14th century document from Mediaeval Latin. It gives lots of information not only about Titchfield Abbey but also all their manors and lands, including Titchfield, Swanwick, Abshot,Meon,Brownwich,Warsash, Brook, Curbridge,Crofton, Stubbington, Lee Marks, Charke,Newland, Warde, Posbrook,Funtley, Sarisbury, Portsea, Segensworth, Corhampton, Porchester, Wallesworth, Cadland in the New Forest and Inkpen in Berkshire. We also learn about many local places that no longer exist such as Prallingworth and South Brook.
When these manuscripts were written it was a very different world. The lives of the people at Titchfield were woven around the monastery and the manorial system. It was the time of lords of the manor, villeins, barony lands, rent days, the Black Death and the open field system where everyone had narrow strips of land. There are lists of what the people of Titchfield had to pay for weapons and equipment in the war against the Scots, pages of names of fields, meadows, and woodlands in and around Titchfield and the abbey estates, the fines due and taxes paid including tenths and fifteenths, and …..312 pages of other fascinating details .This book helps us understand how people in Titchfield lived over 600 years ago!
Accompanying the translation are introductory notes and appendices and a glossary to support the reader.
The Remembrance’, Add MS 70506, is one of 4 Titchfield Abbey manuscripts safely deposited at the British Library, the others cover different subjects and it is planned these will be published in due course.
This hardback book is available via the Titchfield History Society website at £25 + p &p .
