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BINSTED (or Benestede, as it is written in Domesday Book) means “a holding of land.” The first stone church, probably begun about A.D. 1140 and dedicated to the holy Cross, served the people of one or two farms in a clearing on the top of the ridge of the “Upper Greensand.” The underlying rock, or maim- stone, has the character of a limestone not too hard to he easily worked, and it furnished the main building material.

The first church was probably contained in the space of the present nave and part of the chancel, before the arches were formed. However, the population of the district was expanding rapidly, and a large church (1180-1195) was obtained by adding the north and south aisles, piercing or rebuilding the inner walls with the arches, and adding side chapels to both north and south of the chancel, so giving the church the shape of a cross. The present south chapel is the original Lady Chapel (or “Maiden” Chapel as it is traditionally called), but the one on the north was later rebuilt, as will appear from the description to follow.

The tower was also added about this time of the first enlargement. A little later, probably early in the Thirteenth century, the chancel was extended by about fifteen feet to the east, and the space lighted by the “Early English” lancet windows in the side walls.

The arches in the chancel arc of the traditional round form known as Norman or Romanesque; those in the nave are slightly pointed showing the transition toward the pointed “Gothic” style.

The circular columns in the nave have square scalloped capitals (now much repaired) and moulded circular bases standing upon square plinths. The south arcade is more elaborate than the slightly older northern one, and is about two feet higher. The original capitals were embellished with various carvings which have been damaged and removed, but one of these (a monk’s head) awaits restoration at the present time.

The Norman church must have been very dark; its narrow windows were probably mostly of the type of the two most easterly windows of the north aisle, or the high windows (the “clerestory”) of the nave; they were probably furnished with wooden shutters (wind-doors) before glass became generally available. Services in such churches had often to be illuminated by torch-light. Larger glazed windows in the east end of the chancel, the Maiden chapel, and the south aisle, were added at various later times from the Fourteenth century onwards.

The district served by the church in the Fourteenth century included not only the original manor of Binsted (or Binsted Popham), but also those of Binsted St. Glare (mentioned in documents of A.D. 1201), Westcourt or Westcote, and Millcourt. In A.D. 1331 Richard de la Bere, the owner of Westcote, obtained

from King Edward III a license to assign the rent from certain lands for the support of a chaplain who would say Mass daily in the church for the repose of the souls of “Richard de Westcote” and his descendants. For this end, he had built two new chapels on the north of the chancel, one of which occupied the site of the earlier north transept, and the Chantry chapel (for the daily mass) adjacent on the north.