Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/107

 GODALMING HUNDRED

��and Jane Payne, inherited Rokeland, which ultimately passed to Thomas Clarke, 147 who sold ' the manor of Rokeland ' and a house called Rokehouse to Thomas Carrill in I585- 1 * 8 Six years later the Carrills alien- ated Rokeland to John Westbrook, 149 whose descendants held it for nearly a century. 140 In 1674 Richard and William Westbrook sold it to Thomas Smith of Witley, 151 with which manor it has since descended.

The church of ALL S4INTS stands CHURCHES upon a gentle slope on one side of the village. The churchyard is beautiful and has some fine trees; and the cottages at the south- eastern angle, with the church stile, combine to make a most picturesque and oft-painted group, the square tower and slender spire of the church appearing be- hind. There are many lyth and 18th-century grave- stones in the churchyard.

The church is built of local sandstone rubble, with dressings of the same or Bargate stone ; brick and Bath stoc.e have been partly used for modern additions. Horsham slabs still remain upon the roofs, together with ordinary tiles, and the spir e is covered with oak shingles.

The church consists of nave, 44 ft. 6 in. by 1 8 ft. 6 in. with north and south transepts (the south, which is ancient, being 1 3 ft. 9 in. by 1 5 ft. 6 in.), central tower (about 14 ft. square) and spire, chancel, 26 ft. 6 in. long, by I 5 ft. 2 in., and north chapel known as the Wit- ley Manor Chapel, originally lyft. by 156. The nave is the oldest part of the building, and probably the plan and main structure of this date from the last quarter of the 1 1 th cen- tury. The central tower, tran- septs, and chancel belong to the next period, 1 1 90, while the north chapel was added and other alterations made in the first half of the 1 4th century. There is a porch on the south of the nave, patched work of 19th-century date, and another giving access to the north transept of more recent date. This transept has been thrown out on an enlarged scale, and a short aisle and vestry built in 1890 on the north of the nave. Before these extensions the insertion of ' churchwarden ' windows, &c., in the early part of the I gth century, and a severe ' restoration ' in 1 844 had robbed the church of some of its interest.

Externally, the most ancient feature is the south doorway within the porch, which preserves its jambs and their plain heavy nook-shafts, with cushion capitals, of date c. 1080. Part of the abacus is plain except for a small moulding, but the rest, of a slightly later date, has been carved with another moulding and the star-pattern. 16 * The original semicircular arch has been replaced by a rude pointed one, apparently of early igth-century date. The substance of the nave walls, which are unusually lofty for a church of

��WITLEY

this size, is of the latter part of the nth century, but no windows of this period are now visible, they having been replaced by large two-light openings of 'church- warden ' character. The west window and the doorway below are apparently of 15th-century date. On the gable of the south porch, which is a modern antique, is an ancient oak barge-board, perhaps as old as the latter part of the I4th century, but belonging originally to a demolished house in the village.

The south window of the south transept is a ' churchwarden ' insertion, but in the west and east walls are small narrow lancets, dating from about 1 1 90. The eastern is set with a pointed-arched recess on the inside, indicating the position of the chapel altar. This transept retains its original roof of somewhat acute pitch.

Above the crossing rises the tower, of solid dignified square form, in two stages, without buttresses. It is built like the rest of the church of local rubble, with Bargate stone quoins and other dressings. At the south-east angle is a circular stair-turret of modern

���Sca-le of feet

WITLEY CHURCH

��GROUND PLAN

��date, and in the lower stage are lancet windows with pointed heads. A string-course of half-round section separates the stages, and upon this stand, in each face, two round-headed openings divided by a broad mul- lion : these are chamfered and rebated. The tower is crowned by a coped parapet resting upon a corbel, and at the angles are small obelisks or pinnacles, evidently 1 7th-century additions ; the corbels of the parapet being variously moulded and coeval with the tower.

The shingled spire is of 1 4th or 15th-century date. Altogether this tower is one of the most interesting studies in early masonry in Surrey. Within it rests upon plain pointed arches, worked in clunch, and having steeply chamfered imposts and narrow chamfers to the piers.

In the south wall of the chancel, at its western end, is a trefoiled lancet, which old photographs show to

��147 In the above-mentioned survey Thomas Clarke's name is inserted in the margin as heir of Richard son of Walter Roke.

��148 Close, 27 Eliz. pt. viii.

""Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 33 Eliz.

150 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccclxxiii,

��141 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 26 Chat. II. "'Illustrated in V.C.H. Surr. ii, 448.

��74-

��6 7

�� �