Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/250

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��baptisms from 1685 to- 1797. The fourth has marriages on printed forms from 1757 to 1798, the fifth continues marriages from 1798 to 1812, and the sixth has entries. of baptisms and burials from 1798 to 1812.

The churchyard is small, surrounded by tall trees, and on the east side is a modern wooden lych-gate.

Close to the church on the south, and at a lower level, stands the rectory, an old building of several periods, the middle being probably 16th-century work, and of timber construction. Additions were made by Flamsteed the astronomer, formerly rector here, and by several later rectors. To the west of the house is a rectangular site surrounded by a moat still full of water, on which ancient foundations are said to exist ; it is at present a rose garden, and adds greatly to the beauty of the grounds of the vicarage.

The church of Burstow was prob- ADVOWSON ably built by the Archbishop of Canterbury on his land at Burstow, as it was always a peculiar of the see of Canterbury. 11 ' In 1 121, when the earliest mention of the church occurs, Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury, granted it to the Cluniac priory of St. Pancras at Lewes. 116 In the confirmation of its charters made to this house from 1 1 29 to 1 1 7 1 it appears as holding Burstow Church. 117 It is not apparent how long the monks continued to do so, but it is possible that the archbishop reclaimed it towards the end of the I3th century, as from

��1286 onwards the alien priory of Lewes was liable to have its possessions seized when there was war with France. 118 Presentation was made to Burstow by the king in the 1 4th century during voidance of the see of Canterbury. 1 " The church came finally into pos- session of the Crown in 1536, being given up by the archbishop with his manor of Burstow Park.'* Ex- cept during the time of the Commonwealth, when the right of presentation was vested in the Lord Pro- tector, 1 " the patronage has since that time remained in the Crown, presentation being now made by the Lord Chancellor. 1 " The living ceased to be a peculiar to the see of Canterbury in 1851, when it was united to Winchester. By the rearrangement of dioceses in 1878 it was joined to Rochester. One eminent man, John Flamsteed, the famous astronomer, was rector of Burstow from 1684 to 31 December 1719, when he died.

Smith's Charity is distributed as CHARITIES in other Surrey parishes.

In 1684 Ralph Cooke, rector of Burstow, left money to buy large upper coats for a widower and a widow yearly.

In 1718 John Flamsteed, rector and Astronomer Royal, left money to buy new coats for two poor Christian people.

In 1728 Mrs. Margaret Flamsteed, widow of the rector, left money for clothing for two poor women.

��CHARLWOOD

��Cherlewude (xiii cent.) ; Cherlwude (xiii & xiv cent.) ; Chorlwode (xiv cent.) ; Charlewood (xviii cent.).

Charlwood is a parish on the Sussex border. The village is 7 miles south-west-by-south from Reigate, and rather more south-west from Dorking. The par- ish is bounded on the north and east by Horley, on the south by Rusper in Sussex, on the west by Newdi- gate. An outlying portion is surrounded by Newdi- gate and Rusper, and another by Leigh and Horley. The main part of the parish is about 4 miles from east to west, and 3 miles from north to south. The whole contains 6,875 acres - The Mole forms part of the eastern boundary, and tributaries of the same river run through the parish. The soil is entirely the Wealden Clay, but in the middle of it a ridge of Paludina Limestone makes a very considerable eleva- tion, rising to 385 ft., called Stan Hill, Norwood Hill, and Horse Hill. The same ridge continues to the south-west of the village, as Rug or Russ Hill, and reaches about the same height there. Between the two parts of the hill is a depression through which a tributary of the Mole runs past Charlwood village.

The village is compact, and of a considerable size for the district, but farms and cottages are widely scattered also over the parish ; on the ridge mentioned there are

��several considerable gentlemen's houses built in recent years. The parish is agricultural, with some brick works, and there is a large nursery garden, of Messrs. Cheal & Son, near Lowfield, in Charlwood.

Charlwood Common was a large village green by Charlwood village, but is now all inclosed except a small recreation ground. Hookwood Common still open ground, 2 miles north-east of Charlwood village ; Johnson's Common and White's Common were roadside wastes, now inclosed.

The Brighton Road, through Reigate and Crawley, passes through the parish. The part between these two towns was the first road in Surrey made under a Turnpike Act. 1 The object was to make a way for riding out of the Hastings Sand of Sussex over the clay on to the hard ground in Surrey. But to save the causeway from being cut up by wheels posts were to be fixed along it, so that it might be passable only for horses.' It was not made a driving road till the reign of George II. The main Brighton line just comes into a corner of Charlwood parish.

The bones of an elephant have been found in Charlwood, 8 and similar finds not exactly recorded are said to have been made. Remains of human antiquity are not on record, but about 18903 vessel of Paludina Limestone (Sussex marble) was found on the

��f.C.H. Surr.ii, 3.

119 Anct. Chart. (Pipe R. Soc.), 14.

WV.C.H. Surr. ii, ii ; Cal. of Doc. France, 509. 118 f.C.H. Surr. ii, 68.

C/. Pat. 1348-50, pp.353, 355. 400, 424, 434.

lx Stat, of the Realm, ii!, 712, 713.

ln Surr. Arch. Call, rvii, 97.

��" Inst. Bk. (P.R.O.) ; Clergy Liilt.

1 Stat. 8 Will. Ill, cap. 15.

3 Reigate is on the sand, and Crawley on the clay is close to the edge of the sand. The Wealden roads used to be quite impassable in bad weather. There is a letter at Loseley (undated) from Sir Robert More to his father, Sir George, at

l82

��Loseley, from some place near Horsham, saying that he could not drive home In a coach with his wife the nearest way because it had rained ; but that he would go to East Grinstead, whence he could find a road to Reigate by God- stone, and would come home that way. 8 Topley, Geology of the Wcald^ 195.

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