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 when he became the Headmaster of Rugby School. In 1647, a Latin poem by Robert Matthew contains a probable reference to cricket being played by pupils of Winchester College on nearby St Catherine’s Hill. If authentic, this is the earliest known mention of cricket in the county of Hampshire. At one time Winchester was one of the Lord's schools, competing in a trilateral cricket tournament with Eton and Harrow; and for this reason the first cricket eleven is still known as "Lords" (with or without the apostrophe). Since 1855 Winchester has not taken part in this, instead playing Eton alternately