Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/147

 BLACKHEATH HUNDRED

��HASCOMBE

��sold the manor In 1723 to Leonora Frederick and her son John Frederick who was created baronet in

����FRIDIRICK, Baronet Or a chief azure <with three doves argent therein.

��THBTLIWAIT*. Or a bend azure "with three fheons or therein.

���GODMAN of Park Hatch. Party ermine and erminees a chief in~ dented or and therein a lion paaant vert.

��the same year." Early in the 1 9th century Hascombe became the property of Robert Thistlewaite through marriage with Selina Frede- rick, 83 daughter of Sir John's younger son Thomas, who succeeded his brother in the baronetcy. Sir Henry Ed- mund Austen of Shalford bought it of their son and sold it in 1841 to Joseph Godman of Park Hatch, grandfather of the present lord of the manor.

The old manor-house was at Place Farm, south-east of the church and north of Has- combe Hill.

The church (not mentioned in Domes- CHURCH day) of ST. PETER" is situated in the midst of lovely wooded scenery in the fork between two roads near a cluster of houses. The churchyard is planted with fine trees and shrubs, and is approached through a modern lych- gate.

The church was entirely rebuilt in 1 3th-century style in 1864 from designs by Mr. H. Woodyer, in Bargate stone, with Bath stone dressings. It is small, but very thoroughly finished in every detail, and con- sists of a nave, a small western tower, with shingled spire, a chancel with a polygonal apse,a south chapel and a south porch. Almost the only relic of the old church is the I Jth-century chancel screen, which has, however, been elaborately decorated in colour. The narrow lancet windows are filled with glass by Hardman, and on the walls of the apse are carved the angels of the seven churches, each holding a stone candlestick. There are an alabaster reredos and sedilia, a credence- table, and a squint from the south chapel, which con- tains the squire's pew and is screened off from the nave. The stone pulpit has a carved figure of St. Peter. The font of Sussex marble has a small square bowl on a square-banded pedestal and plinth, and bears the inscription on its western face, ' The gift of Richard Holland, rector, j69<D.' It somewhat resembles in form two Sussex fonts not far away, at Lurgashall and North Chapel, also of Sussex marble, and bearing date 1661. In 1890 the nave was

��decorated in colour, the subject being the Miraculous Draught of Fishes.

The old church must have been a curious and singularly attractive little building, judging by the drawing preserved in Cracklow's Churches of Surrey (1824). The late Mr. J. L. Andre has also left a careful sketch of the church taken from the south- east, Cracklow's view being from the north-west, accompanied by a small block plan to scale, from which its dimensions can be approximately re- covered.

It was built of Bargate rubble, and the walls were plastered externally. It consisted of nave, about 40 ft. by 20 ft. internally, and short chancel with a semi- circular apse about 1 5 ft. in length and 1 7 ft. in width. On the north of the nave, somewhat un- usually, was the principal entrance, protected by a timber-framed porch with arched opening and foliated barge-board of 14th-century character. A little to the west of the middle of the nave roof (which was covered with Horsham slabs) rose a timber bell-turret with shingled spirelet, containing two bells (re-cast at the re-building), this turret being described by Cracklow as 'a loft of timber,' viewed from within the nave. At the west end there was a gallery erected in 1784. The south door was a plain round-headed opening of mid lath-century date, and two very perfect little windows of the same date remained, one in either wall, in the eastern part of the nave. (In Mr. Andre's sketch the stove pipe is seen projecting through that on the south.) In the apse were two lancets of early 13th-century character, while to the west of that on the south side was a two-light tracery window of the first half of the 1 4th century, and another of similar date and style in the eastern part of the nave hard by. A plain opening filled with a wooden frame had been pierced in the west wall about 1 800, and another in the western part of the south wall, high up, to light the gallery.

The earliest monuments are to Richard Holland, rector, and to his wife, who died respectively in 1 694 and 1664. The ancient family of Didelsfold is re- presented by later memorials.

All the church plate is of igth-century date, one chalice being engraved with seven kneeling angels and the Agnus Dei, the River of Life, the Holy City, the twelve angels and the names of the tribes of Israel and of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, &c. No less than 300 precious stones (including those men- tioned in the Apocalypse) have been employed in the jewelling of this remarkable cup, which was the work of Mr. J. A. Pippet, of the firm of Messrs. J. Hard- man & Co., Birmingham, who also executed the wall-paintings in the church. Underneath the foot is ' Vernon Musgrave Rector of Hascombe A.D. 1889.'

The bells are all modern.

The registers of baptisms date from 1 646, of mar- riages from 1658, of burials from 1659.

No church is mentioned in the ADV Off SON Taxatio of 1291, but Henry Hussey died seised of the advowson in 1305." It belonged to the successive lords of Has- combe till early in the igth century, when Algernon

��M Feet of F. SUIT. Mil. 9 Geo. I j Recov. R. East. 9 Geo. I, m. 13, 16.

28 Brayley, Hilt. ofSurr. v, llj ; Recov. R. East, i Geo. IV, m. 6.

��* Commonly so called. Salmon, An- tiquities of Surr. (ed. 1735), called it St. John's. In 1535 Arnold Mellersh desired by will to be buried before the

��high altar in the church of St. Michael, Hascombe.

Harl. MS. 5193, fol. 26.

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