Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/371

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��Alcock. It is cruciform in plan, having a chancel, transepts, nave, and central tower. The nave is of less length than the chancel. The central tower has a tall octagonal spire of stone. The building stands to the east of the Banstead and Reigate road. It is endowed with a glebe of 3 I acres.

At Lower Kingswood is a small mission church, dedicated in honour of ST. SOPHI4 OR THE WISDOM OF GOD, built in 1891 by Mr. H. C. Bonsor of the Warren and Dr. Edwin Freshfield. Its material outside is red brick with stone dressings. It has a small chancel, with a round apsidal east end and small vestries on either side, and a nave with narrow aisles divided from the nave on each side by an arcade of two large and two small round-headed bays of Ham Hill stone ; the middle shaft is of dark- green marble, the others of stone ; all three are circular.

The lower part of the apse, to about a height of I o ft., is lined with marble of various tints, mostly dove-coloured ; the upper part is treated with mosaic, having a rose-tree pattern on dark-blue ground ; the semi-dome is lined with gold mosaic, in which is a cross in red outline between the letters i c x c N I K A. The east wall on either side of the apse is also treated in a similar manner. The floor is paved with various- coloured marbles, and which are continued down the centre passage of the nave. At the west end, beside the three entrances and lobbies, is a small baptistery also lined with marble, in which is a font of yellow marble of a cylindrical shape, with slightly wavy sides of five lobes.

The furniture of the chancel is of a dark-brown wood, inlaid with lozenges of mother-of-pearl. In the church are nine Byzantine capitals, &c., brought to England by Dr. Freshfield, of which a short description has been written by Mrs. Freshfield. The two largest are capitals closely resembling those of the Corinthian order ; they were brought from Ayasolook, the north quarter of ancient Ephesus, in which stood the Temple of Diana of the Ephesians ; they formed part of a church screen, and were erected by the Emperor Constantine. The third capital, a smaller one, belonged to a second church, of the 6th century. Two other small capitals came from the monastery of St. John of the Stadium, near the Seven Towers at Constantinople, erected about the time of the Em- peror Theodosius ; the capitals date from between the 5th and 8th centuries. The sixth capital is from the platform on which the imperial palace of Blachernae stood, in the west quarter of Constan- tinople. The seventh capital is a small one from Bogdan Serai, Constantinople, and dates from the period of the Comneni. The eighth is a beautiful little capital from near the site of the church of the Blachernae, and was probably part of an internal ornament. The ninth stone is a piece of ornament from the great triple church of the Pantocrator at Constantinople, the mausoleum of the family of the Comneni, dating probably from the nth century. A small cross over it was from another church built by the Comnenus family ; it was in the church now called the Eski Imaret Djami.

��The bell belonging to the church hangs in a detached wooden turret in the churchyard.

The chapel of ease of ALL S4INTS is situated about three-quarters of a mile west of the parish church. It is a small, unfinished building of red brick and stone, erected at the expense of Mr. J. H. Bridges of Ewell Court and the Rev. John Thornton, vicar of Ewell, in 1894, and of the style of the end of the 1 3th century. It consists of a nave of four bays, north aisle, north porch, and a temporary sanctuary and south organ-chamber ; provision is made for a future south aisle. The roofs are tiled, and at the west end is an oak-shingled bell-turret with an octagonal spirelet. The font is of various marbles ; the other furniture is more or less temporary. The churchyard is small, and has a wooden fence on the north side towards the road.

The church was apparently not ADyOIVSON situated on the royal domain at Ewell, but on the property of the Abbot of Chertsey there. A bull of Pope Clement III, which was confirmed by letters patent of John, Bishop of Winchester dated I April 1 292, licensed the abbot and convent to retain in their own hands the parish church of Ewell, to reserve the benefice to their own use, and to appoint vicars to the church. 89 In the reign of Richard I we have mention of a suit concern- ing the building of a wall on some land which the Prior of Merton, lord of Ewell Manor, claimed against William the vicar of Ewell. 90

In 1380 the abbot and convent received con- firmation for the appropriation in mortmain of the church which was of their own advowson. 9 ' In 1415 they gave the advowson to the king, 9 * reserving to themselves an annual pension of zo/., to be paid by future rectors. The following year Henry V granted the church to the Prior and convent of Newark, who continued to pay the pension to the Abbey of Chertsey until its dissolution. 93 In 1458 the endow- ment of a vicarage took place under the direction of Bishop Wayneflete, 94 and was ratified by the Prior and convent of Newark as rectors of Ewell.

After the Dissolution the advowson remained with the Crown 95 until 1 702, when Queen Anne granted it to the Earl of Northampton in exchange for the advowson of the rectory of Shorncutt, co. Wilts, 98 the Crown reserving one turn. 97 In 1703 it was pur- chased by Barton Holliday, 98 and passed with his other estates to the Glyn family. 99

Lady Dorothy Brownlow, of Belton, co. Lines., gave a sum of money to be disposed of by Henry Compton, Bishop of London, for the benefit of this vicarage ; with part he bought the tithes of the liberty of Kingswood, 100 with the remainder a small farm in Maiden, the rents of which were appropriated to the same use. In 1843 the Maiden Farm was exchanged for a house and land adjoining Ewell Church for the use of the vicar.

After the suppression of Newark Henry VIII granted to his new monastery of Bisham the ' tithes of the church of Ewell, one of the possessions of the late Abbey of Chertsey.' I01 But on the almost imme- diate suppression of that house also they reverted to

��89 Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. ii. Rolli of the King't Ct. (Pipe R. Soc. iv), i.

91 Pat. 4 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 27. 9J Close, 3 Hen. V, m. 21.

��98 Valor Eccl. (Rcc. Com.), ii, 34.

8( Winton Epi. Reg. Wayneflete, (2), fol. 52.

9i See Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.) 1614, 1633, 1663, 1676, 1696.

283

��96 Pat. I Anne, pt. in, no. 52. "Inst Bk. (P.R.O.), 1722.

98 Close, 2 Anne, pt. i, no. 15.

99 See rectory. IM Ibid.

101 L. and P. Hen. fill, xii (2), 1 3 1 1 (22).

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