Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/350

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��order, also has some old stones, but the abaci are entirely modern.

There are four windows in the north wall of the nave, but no traces of a doorway. The western of the four windows is a single light with a semicircular rear arch, probably contemporary with the early windows in the chancel, but that next it to the east has a wooden lintel inside, and is perhaps of the later ijth-century date. The north-east window, of two pointed lights, may be a 15th-century insertion, and the fourth window, a little to the west, is also of two lights, and perhaps late 13th-century work. The complete renewal of all the outer stonework makes any dating doubtful. The west window is a modern triplet of lancets, and there is no trace of a west doorway.

The modern wooden arcade between the nave and the south aisle is of three bays with pairs of posts carrying the plates of the nave and aisle roofs, and the only old feature in the aisle is the south doorway, which has chamfered jambs and a two-centred head, probably of I 3th-century date.

The porch is constructed of wood with plaster panels resting on low flint and stone walls.

The bell-turret on the west end of the nave is finished with a small octagonal shingled spire.

Two panels of English alabaster carving are pre- served in the church, both of the 1 5th century, and probably from the Nottingham workshops. One, in the vestry, is part of a representation of the Nativity, and the other, on the south wall of the chancel, very much repaired, shows the Annunciation.

The font has a 13th-century moulded base from which rise a modern circular stem and four small detached shafts supporting a modern square bowl. All the other internal fittings are modern, the lectern being in the form of an angel with the book-rest on its wings. It was presented in 1898 and was carved in London.

There are eight bells in the turret which were cast by Warner in 1894.

��The oldest piece of plate is an Elizabethan cup of 1568 which is kept at Maiden. It is not quite 3^ in. high, and probably one of the smallest Elizabethan cups in existence. There are also two plated patens, a plated cup, flagon, and salver, two brass almsdishes, and a pewter flagon dated 1635.

Of the four books of registers the first contains baptisms from 1656 to 1754, marriages 1656 to 1756, with a gap between 1749 and 1756, and burials from 1656 to 1751. The second book con- tains baptisms 1754 to 1791, and burials 1752 to 1812, the third has marriages, not on printed forms, from 1756 to 1811, and the fourth contains bap- tisms from 1791 to 1812.

The church of Chessington has JDrOrfSON always been a chapel to Maiden, and

was confirmed with that church to j Merton Priory by Eudo de Maiden ** (of whom Peter de Maiden [see manor] was the cousin and heir).

In 1265 the priory made over the advowson of the church of Maiden to Walter de Merton, 70 who assigned it as part of the endowment of Merton College, which has held the advowson both of Maiden and of the annexed chapelry of Chessington ever since. In 1279 a vicarage for Maiden and Ches- sington was ordained by Nicholas of Ely, Bishop of Winchester." In a survey of church lands taken 1649-58 the chapelry of Chessington is stated to be worth 60 per annum, and the commissioners appointed to make inquiries recommended that the chapelry should be divided from Maiden and made a parish by itself. 71 This suggestion was, however, never complied with.

In 1595 the tithes of sheaves, grain, and hay in Chessington were conveyed by Thomas Vincent to Edward Carleton, together with the manor of Bere- well in Kingston, 78 and a lease was still held by the owners of that manor in 1774.'*

Smith's Charity is distributed as in .. .

other Surrey parishes.

��CUDDINGTON

��Codintone (xi cent.) ; Cudintone, Codington (xiii cent.) ; Codynton or Codyngton (xiv cent.).

Cuddington measures nearly 4 miles from north- west to south-east, and is scarcely a mile in breadth. It contains 1,859 ac res, and extends over the usual variety of soils, the southern part being upon the chalk downs, the centre on the Woolwich and Thanet beds, the rest upon the London clay. There is no village of Cuddington ; Henry VIII pulled down the church, the old manor-house, and the village, to make Nonsuch Palace. 1 It appears possible from its position that the destroyed church and village were in this neighbourhood, and if this was the case they were placed in the usual situation, close to the foot of the chalk, either on the chalk itself or on the Thanet beds. There is no instance, on the northern side of the chalk-hills, where the parishes extend from the chalk on to the clay, of the old church and village

��being on the clay. It is unlikely that Cuddington was differently placed from the others, but no map older than the time of Henry VIII exists. The Manor Farm is on the chalk and the Thanet sand, and may show the neighbourhood of the old manor- house.

The South Western Railway line from Wimbledon to Letherhead crosses the parish, with a station at Worcester Park, opened in 1859 > anc ^ l ^ e London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway line to Epsom passes through it. This was first opened as the Croydon and Epsom Railway in 1848.

The early history, and the history of the inclosure, are summed up together in the story of Nonsuch Palace.

After the destruction of Nonsuch in 1671-2 the land in the parks was thrown into farms, of which more than one had evidently existed before outside

��88 A. C. Heales, Rec. of Merton Priarji, 27. 7 Ibid. App. p. Ixxix.

ft Percival, Stat. of Merton College, 130.

��Surr, Arch. CM. xvii, 101, 10 > Feet of F. Surr. East. 37 Eli*. < Ibid. Mich. 14 Geo. III.

266

��1 Most of the parks were on the clay 5 the site of the palace was on the Thanet and.

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