Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/255

 REIGATE HUNDRED

��CHARLWOOD

��north to south by 1 5 ft. east to west, nave (the present north aisle) 37 ft. 4 in. by 22 ft. 8 in., south aisle 1 6 ft. wide below the nave, and a south porch ; all these measurements are taken within the building.

The plan is of much interest, preserving the aisleless nave and the tower of a church of c. I loo, the tower having been set between the chancel and nave, with the same internal width as the former, but being externally wider owing to the greater thickness of its walls. The nave is 6 ft. wider than the tower, and the tower itself is not accurately square, being about 2 ft. less from east to west than from north to south. Its greatest inclusive measurement is 24 ft., a size which occurs so often in 12th-century towers that it has claims to be considered normal. In the beginning of the 1 4th century a south aisle 1 6 ft. wide was added to the nave, and the chancel seems to have been lengthened and probably rebuilt some thirty years later. The south porch is a 1 5th-century addition, and about 1480 a large south chapel of the full width of the south aisle was added, and arches opened to it from the old chancel and tower. It is inclosed on the line of the east wall of the tower by a screen, and was doubtless the Lady chapel. In modern times, owing to its greater convenience, it has be- come the chancel, the old chan- cel being used as an organ cham- ber and vestry. Cracklow notes that the church was repaired and a gallery erected in 1716.

A certain amount of modern repair has been done, much of the external firestone ashlar being in a bad state of decay, whilst there are several cracks over the tower arches.

The old chancel has a 15th- century east window of three trefoiled lights under an ellip- tical head with moulded labels inside and out ; the jambs out- side have a wide casement mould ; and the external label and outer order of the arch are modern restorations. On either side of the window are 15th-century image-niches about 4 ft. high with trefoiled and square heads ; they are only 7 in. deep, but the projecting brackets which formerly existed beneath them have been cut away. A fireplace is now placed across the south- east angle. The first of the two north windows, much restored, dates from c. 1330, and has two ogee trefoiled lights with a half-quatrefoil between them under a square head, the jambs and head being of one hollow-chamfered order, with a scroll moulded label and head stops, now much perished. The second north window is a 16th-century insertion of two plain lights with four-centred arches in a square head ; be- low it the wall has been pierced by a modern doorway of very poor character. An arcade of two bays divides the old chancel from the south chapel (present chancel) ; its middle pillar is octagonal, each face being concave, and has a moulded base and capital of late section ; each respond consists of rather more than half of a similar pillar, and the capitals, especially that of the west one, are set back as far as possible, in a peculiar manner, to obtain a wider arch thereby ; the arches are four-

��centred and of two chamfered orders ; and on the north side (towards the originil chancel) they have a moulded label, while there is none on the south.

The east window of the chapel has three trefoiled four-centred lights under a depressed four-centred arch ; it has been partly repaired outside. In the south wall is a small square recess with moulded edges, which has no drain and seems to be a credence rather than a piscina recess.

The first and second windows in the south wall have details like those of the east window, and are of three lights under square heads, their masonry being to a large extent old.

The ground stage of the tower has a two-light 1 5th-century window in its north wall, and arches in the other three, that to the old chancel being much altered and made up with roman cement ; it is round- headed, and springs from square imposts, being evi- dently the original opening ; while the west arch of the tower is also original, but much more per- fect, with small attached shafts with cushion capitals to the inner order ; the shafts have chamfered bases dying on the splayed plinth of the jamb ; and the

���C.1520.

15 4 Century.

��C.1500., /Aodem.

��Sca.U of Feet. PLAN OF ST. NICHOLAS' CHURCH, CHARLWOOD

��semicircular arch is of two square orders. The south arch dates from the addition of the chapel, and has semi-octagonal responds with chamfered bases and plainly moulded capitals which bear signs of 1 7th- century or later recutting ; the arch is a pointed one of two hollow-chamfered orders.

The tower stair is a modern one of wood inclosed in the north-west corner, accessible only by an external square-headed doorway. The ringing chamber has two rectangular lights on the north, a small round-headed light looking into the nave in the west, and the upper half of a blocked round-headed window on the south ; the bell-chamber or third story is lighted in each wall by pairs of round-headed lights ; those in the east wall have brick jambs, but the others are of stone in a more or less decayed condition ; the parapet has a moulded string and embattled coping of 15th-century date or later.

The early nave walls are very well preserved, except on the south, the original sandstone quoins showing at the western and north-eastern angles. The only original window, however, is that in the north wall,

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