Mmmm - this is quite puzzling because James & Elizabeth were making an effort to have their children baptized at Hound whilst they were based at Thornhill Farm, Shamblehurst, South Stoneham, and a James [senr] & Hannah PURKIS were at Butlicks/Butlakes Common 1841. I did wonder if they held occasional 'gatherings of the clans' of itinerant farming folk for family celebrations and whether the baptism of a James to the latter couple in 1822 might have been a 'late' one.
There is far greater disparity between their birthplaces and ages than usual, but at least the Hound baptisms provide a common denominator. I'm unsure how/why Bittern [sic] becomes prominent in later years, unless that was where they would have wished settlement to end their days?
Somewhere, from the depths of my brain, Hazeley Down has surfaced. My paternal grandfather was a gamekeeper on the Longwood Estate so the Owslebury/Twyford/Colden Common area south of Winchester was very familiar to my father and his siblings, who attended Owslebury School in the early-1900s. I'm now wondering if Owslebury and Hazeley might have mutated to Hurstelbury in local dialect?
