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For the Wykehamist and for the historian of Winchester as a school the records of these estates are probably the least interesting of the College ’ s muniments . For others , for the economic historian and the local historian and the genealogist , they are the most interesting of all . Court rolls , estate accounts , surveys and leases are the building blocks from which historians reconstruct the history of local communities ; the fact that they have been preserved with such care for the College ’ s estates , over so long a span , means that the story of those who lived on them can be traced in much greater detail than is usually the case . The Winchester College muniments provide an enormously rich source for the history of village societies spread over a wide region of southern England , and of families living in them over successive generations . They also offer excellent material for the study of estate management , land litigation , and the past courses of agriculture .

Alfred , minister of King Athelstan ( 924-939 ). The fourth is perhaps the most interesting of all . Beautifully written in a ‘ square miniscule ’ hand , and purporting to grant lands at Micheldever to the Abbey in the name of Alfred ’ s son , Edward the Elder ( 899-924 ), it is a forgery of the late tenth or early eleventh century . It is almost certainly based on an original , genuine charter , whose terms the forger ingeniously enlarged with the aim of buttressing the Abbey ’ s claims to privileges and rights of jurisdiction through the whole hundred of Micheldever .

A sixteenth century skin bag preserves the memory of another fascinating fraud , this time one relating to a genuine College estate . The bag contains an ingenious mixture of genuine and forged deeds ( many with their seals still with them ), known as the ‘ Fanstone forgeries ’. These are the evidences

There are some special gems among them . The four Anglo-Saxon charters that come from Hyde Abbey are the oldest and the rarest items . Three appear to be entirely authentic : King Edmund ’ s grant to the Abbey of the manor of Pewsey ( Wilts , 940 AD ), Cnut ’ s grant of the manor of Drayton ( Hants , 1019 ( Fig 11 )), and the Abbey ’ s lease for three lives of land at Chiseldon ( Wilts ) to