Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/175

 BLACKHEATH HUNDRED

��WONERSH

��side of the nave at its eastern end,* 6 and with its western wall askew, is in three stages, the topmost, which is embattled and contains the bells, being an addition of 1 7 5 1, and taking the place of a shingled spire. The upper stage is of brick and rubble, with broad brick string-courses and wide, round-headed, louvred openings. A peculiarity of the lower stages is that there are no dressed stone quoins to the angles, which are formed of thin layers of ironstone rubble, the construction resembling that of the late 12th-century church at Wisley. As however, all the openings are later insertions, it is difficult to pronounce with certainty as to its date : but it seems to have been built up against a nave of pre-Conquest date, in which traces of round-headed windows finished in plaster were discovered in 1901. This nave was probably that of the chapel built in pre-Conquest times, or at any rate before the close of the 1 1 th cen- tury. The early windows were not preserved at the restoration. Until the early years of the 1 3th century this tower was detached on three sides. It opens into the nave by a plain square- edged pointed arch, having chamfered abaci, and this may date from about 1 1 80. Early in the 1 3th century the chancel was also rebuilt, on a much wider and larger plan. The fine lofty chancel arch, of unusually bold span, shows by its mouldings that it was exe- cuted about 1 220, and there are the outlines of three blocked lancets in each of the side walls of the chancel, a piece of string-course on its north wall, and remains of a low side window or priest's door on the south, which agree with that date. At about the same time the lancet that lights the ground story of the tower was inserted, replacing per- haps a smaller and earlier opening.

Towards the close of the I3th cen- tury a chapel was thrown out on the south of the chancel, and as evidence of this the arch of communication be- tween the two, with characteristically moulded capitals, remains. The piers and arch are of the same section, of two orders with narrow chamfers, and the capital is really no more than an impost moulding breaking their junction. No- thing but this arch remains of the chapel, which was rebuilt in brick in 1793.

In about 1400 perhaps slightly earlier a corre- sponding chapel was made on the north side, opening to the chancel and tower by somewhat elaborately moulded arches, of two orders, with shafts having moulded capitals and bases. A good image-niche of this period, with ogee cinquefoiled head and carved brackets, remains high up in the south wall of this chapel, and hard by is a roughly formed squint having a piscina in its sill ; while eastward of both on the chancel side is a door, low in the wall, with a flight of steps leading to what was perhaps a charnel behind the altar, paved with tiles of various dates. This is

��shown in an 1 8th-century engraving as having a low lean-to roof of stone, just above the ground, with two small lancet slits under gablets abutting against the east wall of the chapel. This curious and rare roofing was destroyed in 1793. Another curious doorway, also of this period, now blocked, is set beneath the lancet window in the north wall of the tower. It also is very low down in the wall and is planned to open outwards : the head is pointed within a square, with a shield and foliage in one spandrel : its presence here is hard to explain, but probably it was merely inserted in the 1 8th century, being brought from elsewhere in the church, as Crack- low's view shows a small porch, now no longer

���WONERSH CHURCH FROM THE NORTH

existing, against this wall of the tower. The door to the rood-loft, also of 15th-century date, is visible, its sill being at a height of some 8 ft. from the floor, in the south wall of the tower, close to the west face of the chancel arch ; and on the opposite side, against the east wall of the nave, is some wrought clunch, which has formed the jamb of an opening at the corresponding level through the south wall of the nave. This wall, with its arcade to the aisle, was removed when the nave was gutted in 1793. A lancet to the west of the tower in the north wall appears to be modern, and the only ancient feature

��"The neighbouring church of Bramley hasa tower similarly placed and other exam-

��ples of northern towers occur at West Clan- don and (originally) Tooting : while towers

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��on the south of the nave are found at Fet- cham, Godstone, and LingticLi.

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