Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/239

 REIGATE HUNDRED

��BETCHWORTH

��From the fact that a church is mentioned in Domesday and that a capital or base of a pre-Conquest shaft is to be seen built into a modern window, 108 it is practically certain that there was a Saxon church, and that of stone. It probably had a fairly large nave and a short, narrow chancel, which, as in the case of Godalming, was, after the Conquest, transformed into a low tower, with a new chancel built out to the eastward. One of the arches of this tower, with two square orders and cushion capitals having chamfered abaci, was rebuilt when the tower was shifted, and now opens from the tower into the south aisle of the nave. Its character suggests the date of c. 1080. Early in the 1 3th century the church was greatly enlarged. The nave received first a south aisle of c. I zoo, and perhaps slightly later one on the north side. A clearstory was added on both sides, with ir- regular circular windows, 109 the chancel was rebuilt or extended eastwards, an aisle or Lady chapel being added on the south, all within the first quarter of the 1 3th century, to which date the three lancet windows in the north wall of the chancel and the arches open- ing to the south chapel belong. They are pointed, of two orders, the outer square-edged, and the inner chamfered, on octagonal and circular capitals and heavy round columns with shallow octagonal re- sponds. The present chancel arch is of this date, but would appear to have been rebuilt higher and wider at the restoration of 1850; the arches immediately adjoining it in the nave were made at this latter date, to give access to the transept and the rebuilt tower. Piers and arches are of three recessed chamfered orders, the moulded imposts, of a characteristic section, which take the place of capitals, being returned round the chamfers, as at Wotton and elsewhere. The chancel has a slight inclination in the axis of its plan towards the north, and its walls diverge as they go eastward to the extent of I ft. The present east window of geometrical tracery is modern, and re- places one of 15th-century date shown in Cracklow's view ; and similarly the east window of the Lady chapel, also of 15th-century date, was in 1850 ex- changed for one with net tracery. This change, though ill-judged, may have been in the nature of a restoration, as one at least of the three windows in the south wall of the chapel retains ancient tracery of this character (c. 1320). Its companions, right and left, do not appear in Cracklow's view, but may have been blocked up at that date, 1824.

The nave arcades are of about 1200, with circular and octagonal piers and responds, having moulded capitals and bases of varying sections, supporting pointed arches of two orders with narrow chamfers. The aisles are narrow in proportion to the wide nave, and were perhaps even narrower originally, as all the windows in their walls are of later date. Probably they were at first mere passages, 6 ft. or so in width, and were widened to the extent of about 2 ft. (as a break in the west wall of the south aisle seems to indicate) early in the 1 4th century, when the Lady chapel windows were inserted. The newer windows, which no doubt replaced early lancets, were not all made at the same time : those in the south wall of the south aisle are two-light tre-

��foil-headed openings, with a cusped vesica-shaped quatrefoil over, under a plain hood-moulding (c. 1320) ; while the single-light windows in the west wall of both aisles, and two similar openings in the north wall of the north aisle, having cusped ogee heads, are slightly later, c. 1330, and a remarkably beautiful two-light window in the eastern part of the same wall, having net tracery and a scroll section hood moulding, is of the same date. Another two-light opening to the westward between the two single-light windows, also an admirable example of its period, dates from about 1 390. It has cinquefoiled heads under a pointed segmental arch, and the terminals of the hood-moulding are carved into heads, which ap- pear to represent cowled canons perhaps in refer- ence to the connexion of the church with the priory of St. Mary Overy, Southwark.

The western porch is modern, and contains nothing worthy of remark : that on the south side is also modern, replacing one of brick. Most of the features of the tower, externally and internally, date only from its rebuilding, in a new position, in 1850; but, owing to the poor quality of the stone used, the tower has already assumed a deceptive appearance of antiquity. Its belfry lights in Cracklow's view are apparently of 1 5th-century date, while the present are of early 1 3th- century design.

The roofs appear to be modern throughout, but the timber ceiling over the tower, with heavily- moulded beams, is of 15th-century date, and appears to have been shifted with the tower. In the chancel are the remains of a piscina : there must have been three or four more in pre-Reformation times. A holy-water stoup of 14th-century character is to be seen near the south doorway. The pulpit of marbles and glass mosaic, needless to say, is new, so also are the font, the chancel stalls, the lectern and stone reredos sculptured with the Last Supper. Into the modern seating of the nave are worked some panels carved with the linen-fold pattern, of early 16th-century date. In the vestry is pre- served a remarkable chest, hewn out of an oak trunk of great size, roughly squared, and bound round with seven massive iron straps. It bears a general resemblance to the similarly fashioned chests at Newdigate and Burstow in this part of Surrey ; and while there is no reason why they should not be of very early date, yet they may equally be quite late.

There are no old wall-paintings or glass, but nearly all the windows are filled with modern stained glass of varying merit. The chancel has recently been panelled in oak.

On the north wall of the chancel has been placed the brass, originally in the floor, to Thomas Wardys- worth, vicar, dated 1533. In style it closely resem- bles the palimpsest fragment of a priest's brass at Cobham, Surrey. 110 The figure is in Mass vest- ments, and holds a chalice, in which is the Host, inscribed in Roman letters IHC. The inscription, which is in black letter, reads

HIC 1ACET DffS WILtMUS WARDYSWORTH QUONDAM VICARIUS HUl' ECCUB QUI OBIIT V DIE JANUARH ANNO DSl MCCCCCXXXIH. CUIUS ANIME p'pICIETUR DEUS. AMEN

��" Illustrated in V.C.H. Surr. ii. It consists of a series of square-edged bands or fillets, one above another.

H* Resembling the early ijth-century

��clearstory lights in the neighbouring churches of Merstham and Chipstead. Cf. also Rustington, Lancing, and Ineld, Sussex.

171

��110 Dated c. 1510 by Mr. Mill Stephen- son, Surr. Arch. Coll, XT, 34, but perhapt twenty years later.

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