Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/122

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��date, but they have been much restored and are largely of new material. That on the south side appears in Cracklow's view very much as at present.

The timber bell-tower, standing on huge oak posts worked into a series of hollow mouldings, rises from the floor of the nave at its western end and occupies the western bay of the arcades, its width across the nave (20 ft. 6 in.) being considerably greater than from west to east (l I ft. 6 in.). It is spanned both ways by arched braces, those on the sides being much lower and forming complete four-centred arches. The framework of the bell-chamber above and of the spire is ancient, and the whole forms a most interest- ing piece of mediaeval carpentry, the date of which may be placed at about 1500." The bell-cage is coeval.

The present west window of the nave, a dispro- portionately large one of five lights, replaces a simple two-light opening, having been inserted, together with its glass, quite lately as a memorial.

All the roofs of nave, south aisle, and chancel are of massive oak timbers, the spaces between the rafters being plastered. Such roofs are difficult to date pre- cisely, but these may well be as old as the beginning of the 1 4th century.

The chancel screen is a restoration, incorporating parts of one of 15th-century date, and great part of the oak seating is of the same period, the bench-ends being of a plain square shape, with a moulded cap- ping. The pulpit is an interesting example of Jacobean date, retaining its sound-board, suspended by a scrolled iron rod.

No ancient paintings are now visible, but in the works of 1845, on removing the whitewash, traces of a Crucifixion were found over the east window of the chancel, and a diaper of flower pots with lilies and roses on the north side of the nave. These were un- fortunately covered up again, and in recent years the chancel walls have been elaborately painted with diaper patterns and figures. All the glass now in the church is modern.

The altar is raised on three steps above the chancel, the latter, however, being on the same level as the nave.

Few churches in Surrey have such an interesting font. It is in Bargate stone, tub-shaped, with a broad shallow base of recessed section round which winds a

��cable-moulding, the upper part of the bowl having an arcade of eight circular-headed arches on square piers with small square imposts incised in a very shallow fashion. Within each arch is a Maltese cross on a long stem. A similar ornament was added to the ancient font in St. Martha's Chapel (q.v.) in 1 849 by Mr. Woodyer. The date of the font is about 1 1 oo, and its design in the matter of the arcade and crosses is remarkably like that of the early font in Yapton Church, Sussex.

The most ancient monument within or without the church is to a yeoman family, the Didelsfolds, dating from 1670. The monument of Francis Dor- rington is of 1693. In the churchyard is a slab said to cover the grave of the last of the glass manufac- turers. A few incised marks may be found on the pillars of the south arcade and on one of the splays of the opening in the north wall of the chancel. The parish chest is of 1687.

The registers of burials date from 1658, of bap- tisms from 1 66 1, and among other items of interest contain several certificates for touching for the king's evil.

Besides three pieces of 1819, 1820, and 1821, there are a silver chalice and paten-cover of 1570, and a pewter tankard-shaped flagon dated 1664. A curious pewter almsdish and a pewter plate have been lost between 1839 and 1876.

Of the three bells the treble and tenor are by Bryan Eldridge, of 1631 and 1625, and the second is by William Eldridge, 1714.

The advowson belonged to the ADVQWSON lords of Shalford Manor, and is men- tioned in the grant of that manor to John son of Geoffrey. 14 Richard son of John in- herited the advowson, which formed a part of his widow's dower, and at her death descended to the successive Earls of Ormond, lords of Shiere Vachery, 36 till early in the 1 6th century, when Edmund Bray presented to Alfold. 57 Either he or his descendants seem to have sold it, and it afterwards continually changed hands. In 1 68 1 Elizabeth Holt, and in 1694 Christopher Coles, presented, and in 1711 it was in the gift of Jacob Whitehead. William Elliott pre- sented in 1 80 1, and the Rev. William Elliott in 1817. The present patron is Sir Henry Harben of Warnham.

��BRAMLEY

��Bronlei, Brunlei, Brunlege, Brolege (xi cent.), Bromlegh, Bromley, Bromle, (xiii cent.).

Bramley was originally a part of the ecclesiastical parish of Shalford, with a separate chapel since probably the nth century at least, for there may be work of that or the I2th century in the church, and it would seem to be one of the three churches in Bramley Manor in 1086. It was a distinct civil parish from Shalford before it was ecclesiastically separated in 1844. The parish lies south-east of Guildford, about 3 miles. It is about 5 miles north to south, and 2 miles from east to west, but

��tapers towards the south. It contains 4,510 acres of land, and 34 of water. It is bounded on the north by Shalford, on the east by Wonersh and Cran- leigh, on the south by Hascombe and Dunsfold, on the west by Godalming and an outlying part of Dunsfold. The soil is the Lower Greensand over the great part of the parish, this soil rising into hills of some elevation on the borders of Godalming parish to the west. Southwards occurs a rather wider outcrop of Atherfield clay than is usually seen in the neighbourhood, but the Wealden clay is in the south-east.

��84 The timber towers of Dunsfold and Thursley (q.v.) in Surrey, of the same date and character, should be compared

��with this ; probably they are all the work of the same gild.

85 See under Shalford.

80

��86 Egerton MSS. 203 2, fol. 131 ; 2033, fol. 72 ; 2034, fol. 72, 113 ; Feet of F. Surr. 10 Hen. VU, 31.

8 ? Egerton MS. 2034, fol. 159.

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