Old Burghclere subsoil chalk and greensand. Burghclere remained in the possession of the see of Winchester until 1551. The most notable Bishops of Winchester being William of Wykeham (1320 or 1324–1404), who founded New College, Oxford, and New College School in 1379, and Winchester College in 1382, but also owned, in his own right, Earlstone manor in the parish of Burghclere. William Waynflete, Lord Chancellor of England (1456–1460) and founder of Magdalen School and College in Oxford was also particularly renowned. In 1551 Edward VI received it from John Ponet, Bishop of Winchester, in exchange for lands elsewhere. King Edward VI granted
Winchester College and allotted to "Commoners". (The distinction between "Commoners" and "Houses" is now of purely sporting significance (see Winchester College Football), and "a Commoner" now means any pupil who is not a scholar.) There are therefore now ten houses in addition to College, which continues to occupy the original 14th-century buildings, and the total number of pupils is almost 700. From the late 1970s there has been a continual process of extension to and upgrading of College Chambers. The Scholars live in the original buildings, known as College; an individual scholar is known as a "Collegeman". College is not usually referred