Medstead / Medsted / Medstyd

No entry found for Medstead / Medsted in the Domesday survey [cf. infra about a church in in Alresford being the one for Medstead]. The Victoria County History (Hampshire, vol. 3, 1908) notes: "Though so completely modernized the building probably preserves the dimensions of its twelfthcentury nave and chancel (the lengthening of the nave excepted), the oldest work now existing being the north arcade of the nave, c. 1160, of two bays with semicircular arches of a single order chamfered on the angles, square scalloped capitals, and round columns with moulded bases, the whole liberally whitewashed over [...] The font, near the south door [cf. infra], which is to the west of the older blocked doorway, is also modern". According to the Parish web site [www.standrews.hampshire.org.uk/church.htm] the Domesday Book (1086) mentions three churches in Alresford, one of which is likely to have been in Medstead, perhaps a chapel-of-ease to St. Mary the Virgin, the mother church in Alresford [now Old Alresford] since early times: "At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, it is likely St. Andrew's was a small, two-celled chapel built of either flint or wood. The siting of the chapel, close to two burial mounds dating from 1000 BC and an Iron Age ring fort, suggests it may have been built on an existing ritual site. It appears likely the Church was substantially enlarged or replaced around 1160, to which the oldest work now existing, the North Arcade of the Nave, has been dated. At this time the church was widened by 5 feet 7 inches by the addition of a north aisle. [...] In 1850 the church ceased to be a chapelry of Old Alresford [...] and Medstead became an independent parish with its own incumbent." That appears to be the date of the modern baptismal font in this church, located in the north aisle [NB: the font was moved in the 20th century from its original position near the south entranceway]. The font consists of an octagonal basin decorated with symbols on alternate faces of the rounded sides, raised on a moulded octagonal pedestal base. The wooden cover of oak, four scroll ribs meeting at an acorn finial; probably of similar date. [NB: we have no knowledge of separate baptismal registers for this church, so there may not have been a font in it until 1850].