Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/391

 COPTHORNE HUNDRED

��contemporary vestry, 8 ft. square, the blocked door- way of which remains. It seems to have been of two stories, and a shallow cupboard recess remains in the outer face of the chancel wall at some height from the ground. A wide arched recess on the inner face of the wall, now mnch modernized, has served as a cupboard and probably as an Easter sepulchre. Two pieces of dog-tooth ornament are built into the wall above the site of the destroyed vestry. In the south wall of the chancel are a modern trefoiled piscina and three sedilia with marble shafts.

A scroll-moulded string-course runs round the chancel below the windows, much repaired, but some of the original work remains. In the north-west corner is cut a double squint from the transept at a very acute angle ; it has two openings separated by a mullion towards the chancel, and the eastern opening commands the site of the high altar, while the other gives a view of the sedilia. There are no arches across the openings to the transepts, but they were doubtless inclosed by screens in former times. The north transept has an inserted 1 5th-century east window of three lights under a traceried head, the tracery and outer stonework being modern, while the inner jambs and hollow-chamfered rear arch are old ; between it and the squint is a small square recess with chamfered edges, and north and south of the window, but below the level of its sill, are plain chamfered image-brackets. The modern extension of the tran- sept is used as a vestry.

The south transept has a modern east window of three lights resembling that of the chancel, and a south window of four lights with a four-centred head and moulded label, also modern ; and there are 14th-century arches opening to the aisles from both transepts, each of two wave-moulded orders. The chancel arch is of 1 3th-century date, with two moulded orders and a string at the springing, the chamfers of the western jambs being stopped below the string with a pretty shell ornament ; the wall is very thick and probably older than the arch, but the ashlar courses on its west face run through from the arch to the respond of the south arcade of the nave at the level of its capital ; the broken courses below are probably due to the former existence here of a recess behind the south nave altar. To the north of the chancel arch the facing ranges neither with the jambs of the arch nor with those of the north arcade, but appears to be of later date than the latter, against which it ends with a straight joint. Above the springing level of the chancel are shallow arched recesses to the north and south, now apparently quite modern, but perhaps representing entrances to the rood-loft. They now contain painted figures of our Lady and the Angel of the Annunciation.

The north arcade of the nave has four bays, the western bay being modern, cut through a wall which was previously blank. The other three bays are early 1 3th-century work, the east and west responds being semi-octagonal with moulded bases and capitals, while the first pillar is round with a moulded base, and a capital enriched with a line of beautiful trefoil foliage; the second pillar is octagonal and has a moulded capital without carving. All the bases are modern, but the rest of the arcade is old, the arches being two-centred, with a chamfered inner order, and an outer order with an undercut keeled roll towards the nave, and a chamfer towards the aisle, hollow in the

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eastern bay. The levels of the bases rise from west to east in this and the south arcade, following the rise of the ground, as commonly happens in old churches, the necessity of a level floor being a tenet of the modern ' restorer ' only.

The south arcade is of four bays ; the responds are semi-octagonal, the middle pillar octagonal, and the other two circular ; all have moulded bases and capitals, the former renewed in modern times ; the arches are pointed and of a slightly more elaborate section than those of the other side, the edge roll of the outer order having a side fillet and an additional small roll or bead. The west respond and part of the arch are partly buried in the stonework of the tower which cuts into it, and are somewhat distorted, per- haps by a settlement of the newer work. The curious treatment of the inner order of the arches has been already remarked upon. Of the three north windows in the north aisle only the middle one is old, of I 5th-century date, with two cinquefoiled lights, and the north doorway is modern or modernized, with mouldings of 1 5th-century style.

The north porch appears to be of the late I 5th or 1 6th century, and has a pointed archway and a plain square-headed west window ; the lower part of the porch is of brick, the rest of flint and stone. In the south aisle only the doorway is old, of simple 15th-century style, and there is a modern vestry at the west end of the aisle.

The tower is of three stages, the western angles are strengthened by pairs of deep buttresses, and the stair rises on the north-east corner ; at the south-east a buttress cuts into the south arcade, and the tower arch has a low four-centred head with jambs of two orders, and moulded with a series of rolls and hollows of very dry detail. In the wall south of the arch is a large recess 1 4 in. deep with a four-centred arch, and a seat or ledge about 3 ft. above the floor. The stair is entered through a four-centred doorway within the tower, opening to a rib-vaulted passage leading to the stair foot.

The west doorway is a modern one with a four- centred arch in a square head, and over it outside is an inscription in memory of Edward Rickards, 1893. The window above is of four lights divided by a transom, the lights below the transom and also in the head are cinquefoiled ; the arch is four-centred and filled with perpendicular tracery ; it is all now of modern stone except the rear arch and jambs. In the north wall inside, higher up, is a wide recess with a rough four-centred arch, entered from the stair, and showing marks of use as a ringing-gallery. In the second stage is a modern west window of two trefoiled lights under a square head ; the bell cham- ber is lighted by windows of three plain lights with four-centred heads ; the parapet is embattled and the roof pyramidal ; the stair turret stands up above the parapet and has a pointed roof.

The chancel has a modern open-timbered cradle roof covered with tiles ; at the crossing the roof is of collar-beam type. The transepts have panelled ceilings ; the north transept is covered with Horsham stone slabs and tiles, the southern with tiles only. The nave has a modern collar-beam roof with trusses, the king-posts of which have capitals and bases ; in it, on the north side, are two gabled dormer windows, each of three lights, and one on the south side. The aisles have lean-to roofs, that on the north covered

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