Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/450

378 perhaps early, in the sixteenth century. Priest Hawes, at no great distance from the above, has been a considerable establishment, but the little now standing appears of about the same period as Green Lees, with some fragments of older work.

274. .—The existing house and farm buildings of Filsham, conjectured p. 303 to be identical with Wilesham, exhibit externally no vestiges of antiquity. The manor of Filsham claiming at this day to extend over or into many parishes, some at a considerable distance, eastward and north-eastward, we may reasonably infer, that Wilesham must in early times have been an important property. But the circumstance, that the residence and the actual lands of Filsham are situated within the parish of St. Leonard, seems to restrict the search for the site of the Domesday Church of Wilesham to the small district comprised within the above-named ancient parish, where, we are fully assured, a church did formerly exist.

275. .—Chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch, and tower, with no external entrance and without stairs, at west end of aisle. Tower arch Norm., but tower seems to have been partially or entirely rebuilt. South door, and perhaps south wall also, E.E. The tooth ornament appears once at the top of a hollow moulding on each side of this door, but is not repeated. Windows principally Perp. Nave remarkably spacious. Evidently the aisle was formerly more considerable than at present, and might originally have been the nave, but the pristine arrangement is now uncertain. Church contains a large, but much dilapidated, oak chest.—Remains of the gatehouse and the doorway of the old mansion of Ratton are preserved, being of different dates, the doorway, which is the earliest, being perhaps Perp. Some vestiges of the ancient residence of Langley, or Langney, exist in the present building; but the circumstance that those vestiges form part of a dwelling renders difficult an accurate examination of the original plan. A portion is visible, which may have been the chapel, still exhibiting more or less perfectly a twolight window at the end, and a single light one on each side, which seem to be Dec. That the position of this portion is more nearly north and south, than east and west, is not conclusive against its supposed destination, see the description of Sore Place, under Plaxtool in Kent.

276. .—Chancel, nave with a small chapel projecting on the northern side, and a larger addition on the southern, modern north porch, and shingled bell-cot over the west end. The southern adjunct was an aisle two bays long, reaching to the buildings of the priory, but has been reduced in dimensions. Chancel Norm., with alterations, the chancel arch being destroyed, and perhaps work of all subsequent styles may be observed.—On the site of the priory the only ostensible relics are the entrance of a mansion erected on the spot after the secularization of the religious establishment, some few old stones visible in more recent masonry, and some pieces of ancient wall forming part of the present residence. For a full account of all the buildings and remains at Wilmington see (Suss. Arch. Coll. IV, 37.)

277. .—The surviving portion of this church comprehends only the chancel, with north and south aisles, not equalling the former in length. A substitute for a bell-tower has been formed at west end of north aisle. In high chancel are, piscina with a stone shelf, of which the front is carved; also three sedilia on same level separated by Sussex marble shafts: all cinqfoil headed, and diapered at the back. In south chancel a perfect piscina, and three sedilia like the others, but that the cinqfoil heads differ, and the backs are plain; canopies mutilated. In east wall a quadrangular niche. One of the tombs in this aisle is diapered like piscina and sedilia in main chancel, beside other enrichments.