Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/414

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��The church of ST. PETER consists of CHURCH a chancel 23 ft. 3 in. by 136. 7 in., with a vestry (and organ-chamber) to the north of it, nave 3 3 ft. by 17 ft. 6 in., north aisle 8 ft. 6 in. wide and south aisle 7 ft. 2 in., south porch, and a west tower of wood. All the measurements are internal.

The nave and chancel are of 13th-century origin. The south aisle, despite the massiveness of its arcade, made to carry the early thick wall above, appears to be an addition of the latter half of the 1 4th century. When the west tower was added is not evident ; but its inner timbers are old, although the outer boarding and the windows, &c., are modern. The church was repaired in 1877, when the north aisle and vestry were built.

The east window of the chancel is a modern one of three lancets, but has an old round-headed rear arch and quoin stones ; the north-east and south-east windows are single lancets, apparently original, but restored ; below the latter is a plain pointed piscina with a modern basin.

The second south window has modern tracery of two lancets with a circular piercing over, but its head and jambs are old. The priest's doorway west of this is old, and has a pointed head of a single chamfered order ; its western jamb inside is partly cut away for a squint from the south aisle. A modern arch opens to the organ-chamber on the north, and the chancel arch is also modern. The roof of the chancel is a modern one with plain panelling below.

The south arcade of the nave has two bays with a large circular column and chamfered responds, the moulded base of the column is modern, and its capital (an octagonal one) is of late 14th-century character like those of the responds ; the arches are two-centred and of two orders, the outer small and hollow-cham- fered, the inner large and plain. The wall east of the east respond is carried by a low arch, in order to allow for the squint to the chancel. The north arcade is a modern copy of the other, but has a small pointed arch east of the east respond. The north aisle is lighted by two three-light north windows and a two- light window at the west, all with modern tracery.

The south aisle (the walls of which are compara- tively thin) has an east window of two trefoiled ogee- headed lights ; the sill and mullion are modern, but the rest appears to be of the I4th century, as does also the piscina in the south wall of the aisle, which has a trefoiled ogee head and a quatrefoil basin.

The two south windows are modern, that east of the doorway has three lights, and the other two are both under square heads. The south doorway of two orders has simple continuous mouldings and a two- centred arch ; it is of the date of the south wall. The west window of the aisle is also old, of two cinquefoiled lights under a two-centred segmental head.

The original west wall of the nave has been almost all removed for the tower, and what is left at the angles slopes back above to the side walls. The four legs of the tower inclose a space about 1 1 ft. square, and are tied together by cross braces in a most picturesque way. About 5 ft. outside them on the north, west, and south are the smaller timbers of the

��ground story with upright studs boarded horizontally. On the second stage these are roofed over and covered with oak shingles ; on the north and south are plain rectangular windows, and on the west a doorway. The main posts run up to form an upper stage for the bells, which is boarded, and lighted by plain square windows, and capped by an octagonal wood spire. The south porch is a modern one of wood. In the north-east window of the north aisle is a little 1 5th- century glass, including the arms of Newdigate. The walling of the older portions of the church is of Bargate stone with sandstone quoins, and the timbers of the nave roof are old, covered with stone slates. The aisles have modern lean-to roofs. All the furni- ture is modern, including the octagonal stone font. Under the tower is an old wooden chest, cut from a single log ; it is quite plain and has three locks.

The only old monuments are a small brass inscrip- tion in the chancel to Joan wife of George Steere, a former rector, died 1634 ; a small lead plate on the west respond of the south arcade to Margaret wife of Henry Darrell of Scotney, died 1 6 1 6, probably a coffin plate ; and one or two 18th-century mural monu- ments.

There are six bells, all by Thomas Mears, 1803.

The communion plate comprises two cups, two patens, and a flagon of 1891 now in use, and disused a cup and paten of 1699, a metal paten of 1886, and a metal flagon.

The registers date from 1559, baptisms; 1560, burials ; 1565, marriages. They contain some notes, and the churchwardens' books have interesting matter in them.

The rectory was rebuilt north of the old site in 1880.

In the 1 2th century Hameline, ADVOWSQW the natural son of Geoffrey of Anjou, and Earl of Surrey in right of his wife Isabel de Warenne, granted the church of Newdigate to the Prior and monks of St. Mary Overy, South- wark, 80 and the right of presentation remained with them throughout the Middle Ages. 81 Licence to ap- propriate was granted to the prior by Edward II, but a vicarage does not seem to have been ordained there. 8 * Newdigate rectory was included amongst the temporalities of the monastery in the estimate made under Henry VIII, and was then said to be worth 8 1 8/. 4<z'. 83 At the dissolution of South- wark in 1539,** the advowson passed into the king's possession, and the benefice has remained in the royal gift up to the present day. 8 *

There was also a chapel of St. Margaret in Newdi- gate, referred to in Newdigate wills of 1482, 1516, and 1521. It is described in 1 5 1 6 as in the church- yard of Newdigate. Salmon says that one of the Newdigates pulled it down.

nu jvirnv! Smith's Charity is distributed as in other Surrey parishes.

The village club and reading-room was built by the widow of the late Mr. W. Farnell Watson of Henfold, Capel, in 1901, in memory of her husband, whose estate extended into Newdigate.

The Rev. George Steere, rector, gave in his life- time a school-house to Newdigate, and by his will,

��Cott. MS. Nero C. iii.fol. 188 ; G.E.C. Pierage, Surr. ; Symmes, Coll. for Hist, of Surrey, B.M. Add. MS. 6167, foL 257.

��81 Index Winton Epis. Reg. Egerton MSS. 2031-4, iv, 51, 101, 117, 168.

82 Abbrcv. Rat. Orig. (Rec. Com.), zoo.

3*4

��88 Vahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 6z.

84 Dugdale, Man. vi, 169.

85 last Bks. P.R.O.

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