Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/163

 BLACKHEATH HUNDRED

�� ��William, Earl of Ulster, in 1334, when it is described as ' two watermills under one roof.' "' It is mentioned again in 1382.'"

One mill is mentioned in Gomshall in 1086. It was probably on the site of Netley Mill. In the 1 3th century there was a water-mill belonging to 4 Estcourt ' in Gomshall." 3

The church of ST. J4MES lies CHURCHES somewhat to the east of the village street. It is mentioned in the Domes- day Survey." 4

The church is second to none in Surrey for beauty and antiquarian interest. Its situation, on a bank above the stream, which flows on its northern side, with a screen of tall young elms between, and a back- ground of more ancient trees, and the wooded hillside, is very lovely ; and the churchyard, not too trim or level, with a number of ancient monumental stones and a few wooden ' bed-heads,' bounded by a low stone wall, with a modern but picturesque lych-gate on the west, makes a charming setting.

The church is built of Bargate rubble, with iron- stone rubble, flints, and miscellaneous materials, some probably derived from Roman buildings on Farley Heath, the dressings being of Bargate stone, firestone and clunch, and the south and west porches are of brick and timber. The modern vestries on the north of the nave are built of stone and brick. The roofs are tiled, except that of the south aisle, which is roofed with Horsham slabs, and the spire is covered with oak shingles. 1 * 4 A good deal of the original thin coat of yellow plaster remains on the walls. Few churches in Surrey have survived the era of destructive restoration with such small loss to their antiquity as Shere ; indeed, what mischief has been done is traceable to the ' churchwarden ' period or even earlier ; the exception to this observation is the incongruous group of vestries built against a blank, and probably very early, wall on the north of the nave.

The plan offers many interesting problems. It consists of a nave, 40 ft. 9 in. long, and 1 8 ft. 6 in. wide at the west, widening out to 19 ft. 6 in. at the east ; a broad south aisle, 45 ft. 9 in. by 1 6 ft. 3 in. ; a central tower, with floor-space of about 1 5 ft. square; a chancel, 32 ft. long by 19 ft. 2 in. ; a south chancel, opening out of the chancel, tower and south aisle, 36 ft. long by 1 6 ft. 9 in. ; a shallow transeptal recess on the north of the tower in place of the original transept ; and west and south porches, with the modern vestries, before alluded to, on the north of the nave. In addition, there would appear to have been in the mediaeval period an anchorite's cell on the north side of the chancel.

The oldest part of the church is the north wall of the nave, but whatever original features, in the shape of windows or door, it may have possessed, have been obliterated, and therefore its date is somewhat a matter of speculation. If not earlier, it may date from the last quarter of the nth century. To this nave a tower was added, probably on the site of the earlier chancel as at Albury, hard by in about 1150. The internal square of this is almost exactly the same as at Albury, and it has on its north side, in the middle stage, a very similar round-arched window,

��SHERE

with two sub-lights, originally divided by a small column, as in that tower. On the south side is a single-light opening of the same date. Three un- usually wide and long round-headed openings occur above a string-course, or set-off, in each face of the bell-chamber, and over these there was, perhaps, in the first instance, a low parapet, corbelled out, in- closing a squat, pyramidal roof, both features giving place at a later period to the timber spire. Parts of one of the first tower arches can be traced on the south side. Owing to the failure of the crossing arches because of the weight of the top story, these arches, early in the I4th century, were replaced by wide and lofty pointed ones on the east and west, and by smaller ones on the other sides. The first arches were circular and probably of two orders, with a hood-moulding. The great thickness of these tower walls 4 ft. on the ground is noteworthy.

The circular stair at the south-west angle of the tower, originally external, is now, of course, within the aisle. It retains two loopholes for lighting, and a small door with a pointed arch. On the southern side the head of one of the original flat buttresses appears above the roof, beneath the string that runs below the bell-chamber. The whole tower was probably completed soon after 1 150.

The izth-century transepts may have been roofed with span roofs at right angles to those of nave and chancel (before the aisle was thrown out) ; or, which seems on the whole the more probable, with span roofs set parallel to the axis of nave and chancel, as at St. Mary's, Guildford. In either case there would appear to have been apsidal ends to these chapels as at Guildford, and there may have been an apse to the chancel itself. Certain ashlaring with a curved face, built in as old material into the 14th-century chancel, may well have formed part of the destroyed apses. Among the few relics externally of this 12th-century work, besides the tower, are the bases of the two flat and narrow pilaster buttresses, on the south side, the western at what would have been the west end of these transepts or chancel aisles, and the eastern at the chord of the apse. These are composed of different kinds of stone clunch or firestone, and Bargate stone as though they had been altered and perhaps heightened at a later date. Another very remarkable survival consists of the curiously-shaped rafter-ends a roll set within a broad hollow almost unique in their way, in the piece of roof over this portion : this roof being in itself evidence for the second theory as to the original form taken by these chancel aisles. The fine marble font and south door- way are also of this period, but perhaps of slightly later date, c. 1 1 70. This doorway, the most beautiful of its period in Surrey,"* must have been originally placed in the unpierced south wall of the nave, and shifted out to its present position, when the aisle was built, in about 1 200. It shows very few traces of having been moved, and all the stones appear to have been correctly rebuilt. The doorway is extremely elegant in proportions and detail, and consists of a circular arch of two orders, with a hood-moulding, the outer order resting upon a Sussex marble shaft with abacus, capital, and base of the same material, the abacus being carried round the inner order, as an

��m Chan. Inq. p.m. 7 Edw. Ill, no.

��39-

��Ibid. 5 Ric. II, 00.43.

��10 Egerton MS. 2033, foL 63.

1 y.C.H. Surr. I, 298j.

Ias In Cracklow's view the roofs are

117

��all covered with Horsham slabs ; see pott.

M Illustrated in V.C.H. Surr. ii, 433.

�� �