The village lies in the Forest of Bere and  practically in the centre of the parish on the top a hill where the main road runs from Clanfield to Lovedean. All the houses are on the east side of the road and a pretty little farmhouse lies in the middle of the village with the house by the name of St Catherine's just beyond, which has long been owned by the Barnes family.

The Farmer Inn sits opposite and the blacksmith a little further up the hill practically at the top is the vicarage and on the opposite side the church of St Katherine which lays a little way back from the road. From the churchyard a view of Windmill Hill can be seen. Here the road runs north from the village and makes a rapid descent to the road to Clanfield.

Rising to 425 ft is Catherington Down and with a rapid drop it is now a prime position for the Portsmouth Water company though a village pond used to be here.

Catherington Well was son on the farm that belonged to the Kinche family and was 350ft deep, the water being absolutely pure due to it passing through a natural chalk 'filter'. The water was brought to the surface by treadwheel  which was operated by humans as opposed to a donkey. Piped water, and gas and electricity did not come to the village till the end of World War Two.

The church at Catherington with the war memorial in front

The church of All Saints is Norman being built at the end of the 12th century  and extensive repairs were carried out in 1883, to a total cost of £3,086. There are many modern monuments here of the NAPIER family but the only tomb that has architectural interest is that of Nicholas Hyde and his wife which is set against the east wall of the north chapel. It is an altar type tomb that is adorned by two figures, an arched panel has the inscription on the wall above. Above this is a cornice carried on Black marble columns with capitals surmounted by figures of Justice and Wisdom. The arched panel have effigies of Time and Death. The base of the tomb has kneeling figures of six sons and four daughters and a shield bearing HYDE is in the pediment .

The village pond		The old school

The roof is timbered and is believed to be from the 14th century while a mural depicting St Michael weighing souls can be seen on the north wall and is thought to have been painted in 1350.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS

Catherington House a is today a Diocesan Retreat

ADDITIONAL LOCAL HISTORY TAKEN FROM
"CATHERINGTON: The Church&Village" a Visitors Guide by Christopher Beardsley, Vicar

The village of Catherington stands on a chalk spur of the South Downs and retains an atmosphere of rural peace and tranquillity despite the tentacles of Greater Portsmouth's suburban development which have stretched to Clanfield in the East and the Lovedean valley to the west.

Catherington Vicarage (Photographs by C.H.T Marshall  from the Steve Pethybridge Collection.) Kindly contributed by Steve Pethybridge

Little is known of the early history of the place. The early tribes who lived in the area as hunters were succeeded by Celts who tilled the soil and kept livestock. Traces of their method of cultivation can be seen in the shape of terraces or 'lynchets' on the slopes of the downs throughout Southern England. The lynchets at Catherington Down are wider than usual probably due to subsequent ploughing by the Saxons. Its early origins are also found in the first known reference to the village, where it is called Cateradaune, possibly a form of the British Cat(h)-era-dun, people of the hill fort. Later spellings include KATERINGETON (12th century), KATERINTON (13th centuly), CATRINGTON (15th century) and KATHERINGTON or KATTERYNGTON in the 16th century.

The Romans found the area cultivated and surrounded with heavily wooded valleys or 'deans' (Horndean - the forked valley or deer valley, Lovedean is believed to have been named much later).

Catherington is not mentioned in Domesday but was included under the heading of 'Ceptune' and formed part of the manor of Chalton until the end of the eleventh century.

During the Middle Ages the population increased, clearances were made in the woods and Clanfield emerged as a village, the name meaning the cleanly-felled place. Further clearance gradually took place until the eighteenth century when the 'Enclosures' began and the huge open fields were divided by quickthom hedges. In the middle of the century plantations of beeches were made and this continued until mid-Victorian times. The timber they produced was widely used during both World Wars, leaving few mature trees
standing.

Apart from some rebuilding of farms and cottages there was little change in the village during the nineteenth century; a map drawn in 1816 is still correct one hundred years later but there was a decline in the population as people moved from rural industries to factories. There were 1,199 people in the parish in 1801 and 944 in 1831.

In 1919 there came a reversal of this drift, improved transport and services made life in the country more attractive and a large section of the Clarke-Jervoise estate was sold in settlement of death duties. Bungalows and small houses rapidly sprang up in the east of the parish and more building took place before World War II when a variety of holiday huts were erected and later served as refuges when Portsmouth suffered during the bombing of 1940 and 1941.

The village today is widely and unevenly spaced along a lane bounded by old flint garden walls overhung by trees and stretches roughly one and three quarter miles south of White   Dirt Lane.  The name of Butts Cottage preserves an interesting link with the past. In the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries a man became liable to a fine if he did not practice regularly with the long bow and also teach his son the use of the weapon. It was usual to have the archery butts near the Church so that the man could attend service and then go to
his weekly exercise with the bow.

The Parish Hall, completed in May 2000, is situated north of the church and surrounded by a large car park. It includes a large hall, servery and committee room and is a design and build project by Day One Construction Ltd. The architect was Peter Kanavan. It replaces
the old Parish Hall (cl912), which stood in Five Heads Road.

The Vicarage stands east of the Parish Hall. Built in 1970 by J. Edwards & Son of Wateriooville, the architect was Kenneth Makins.

Opposite the lychgate stands the Victorian Church House, formerly the Vicarage.

In 1967 fragments of pottery were found in the garden of School Cottages during the digging of a trench and excavation revealed an early mediaeval rubbish-pit with a number of artefacts, cooking pots, a bronze buckle and Roman tiles. They are now in the City of
Portsmouth Museum.

Below School Cottages are the Tudor Cottages, timber-framed with brick infilling and a thatched roof. Just below them stands the new Smithy built to replace the old ones demolished in the latter half of the nineteenth century when the new drive to St. Catherine's was opened. One of the old Smithys had a curious history. In Elizabethan times it was known as the Anchor' or 'Katryngton Inne'. In 1633 it was bought for £85 by John Frie, surgeon of East Meon and by 1700 part of it was being used as a smith's shop and the inn part declined, probably because the 'Farmer' Inn opposite had become established. The present 'Farmer' was built in 1923.

Kinch's Farm takes its name from the family that lived there in the seventeenth century. In 1721 John Kinch sold the 'Dwelling House', formerly an inn, Malthouse, Bams, Stables, Garden, Orchard, Wells and Rents from Wells' to Biggs Souter for £80. It remained in his
family for a century and was destroyed by fire in 1845 but has since been rebuilt. Nearby stood a well-house which formerly contained a rare man-operated treadmill used to raise water. It was mentioned in a deed of 1692 and has now been rebuilt at the Weald and Downland Museum at Singleton near Chichester.

Below the Church is the Church of England Primary School, a typical village school founded in 1852. The extension to the school was dedicated on 29th September 1995. The Village Hall is east of the school.

Beyond the 'Farmer' Inn are 'Catherington Cottage' and 'Farm Cottage' both dating from the seventeenth century.

Catherington House stands at the comer of Five Heads Road. It was originally a farmhouse enlarged by Admiral Lord Hood (1724-1816) in the late eighteenth century and has a distinctive Tfascan porch. Francis Morgan, a retired Indian Civil Judge who bought the house in 1820, added a dining room. It then changed hands several times and was a Retreat House from 1921 until 1994 when it became the home of Kings Court School. A few rare trees still grow in the secluded garden and Judging from their age must be those Hood sent home as saplings from North America. Among well-known visitors to the House were Lofd Nelson, Earl Howe, Pitt the Younger and Queen Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV who was entertained there before her trial.

On the south side of Five Heads Road is the Farm House, a brick- built three storeyed building dating from the mid-eighteenth century. It was once the farmhouse of the extensive Parsonage Farm and belonged to the Curtis Family who are commemorated in the Church. Seven Windows were bricked up when the window tax was trebled in 1797. The name Five Heads, still preserved in the road and farm, derives from the Saxon system of land taxation which was based on five hides (or areas available for pasture and plough).

Another historic building is Hinton Daubnay, l¼ miles to the west. Re-built in 1868, it stands on the site of the home of the Hyde family, which was used to plan the famous escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester in 1651.