Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/436

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��acquired by Sir Clinton E. Dawkins, K.C.B. Captain the Hon. Ronald H. Fulke-Greville bought it in 1906. The manor of High Polesden was in 1 784 united with the reputed manor of Polesden Lacy in Mickleham, and is now commonly called Polesden Lacy.

The church of ST. NICHOLAS CHURCHES has a chancel 34 ft. 8 in. by 1 7 ft. 6 in., north vestry, south chapel 1 9 ft. by 1 8 ft. 8 in., nave 5 2 ft. 8 in. by 1 8 ft. 9 in., north aisle 48 ft. 10 in. long and 19 ft. wide. The south aisle forms a continuation of the south chapel, and is of the same width for 3 5 ft. 6 in. in length, the remainder of the aisle at the west end being of the original 5 ft. 9 in. in width. There is a west tower 1 6 ft. 6 in. wide by 1 5 ft. 6 in. deep. All these dimensions are internal.

The church is mentioned in Domesday, and it is not improbable that the present nave is of the same size as that of the nth-century building, and may have some of the original stones incorporated in its walling. The first addition to the plan was a south aisle and the existing arcade between the years 1 140 and 1150, and about one-third of this narrow aisle still remains at the west. Some thirty or forty years later a north aisle followed. Two of the pillars of the north arcade are octagonal, but the middle pillar is square on its east side and semi-octagonal to the west ; it is evident that the two western bays were completed first, with the semi -octagonal east respond, and that the intention was to make this respond into an octagonal pillar when the two other bays were added. The octagonal pillars have two whole and two half scallops on each face of their capitals ; it will be seen that the scallops on the middle pillar were similarly treated with a view to the ultimate splaying off of the eastern angles to complete the octagon. This was, however, not done, and the scallops were continued round a square-edged block forming the east half of the column. The reason was perhaps the difficulty experienced in bringing the arches, cut in the older and thicker wall, on to the octagonal abaci of the capitals. It is probable that the west tower was also an addition of the end of the izth century. The next increase was in the chancel, which is a most valuable instance of dated 14th-century work, an inscription on its east wall recording that it was built in 1341 by Abbot John de Rutherwyk, of Chertsey.

Late in the 1 4th century a south porch with a parvise over was added. When, late in the 151)1 century, a large south chapel was set out, the eastern half of the aisle was pulled down and the new south wall brought out to the width of the porch, which was included in the chapel by the removal of its east wall and the abolition of its upper chamber. It is not certain whether the tower was ever carried higher in masonry than at present ; but if so it was pulled down to its present level and the existing timber structure and spire built in its place some time in the 1 5th or following century. A small archway at the west end of the north wall of the chancel is also of late 14th-century workmanship ; it is very narrow, and presumably opened into a small chapel, perhaps made by lengthening the north aisle eastward.

The westernmost bay of the north arcade is now blocked ; this is said to have been done to form a vestry there (now removed), and dates probably from the beginning of the last century. The narrow aisle was pulled down and the present wider one built

��about 1845, when the former late 15th-century windows appear to have been re-used. The vestry is also a modern addition ; and time and weather have necessitated the repair partly or wholly of many of the windows and other external stonework.

The east bays of both arcades of the nave have been altered, probably to accommodate a rood-loft passage, and are both higher and wider than the rest.

The east window of the chancel is an original one (c. 1341) of three ogee trefoiled lights under a two- centred head filled with net tracery ; the jambs and arch are double-chamfered outside, and the latter has a moulded label with large bearded head-stops, nick- named locally ' the Parson and the Clerk,' of very coarse rough work, and later in date than the window. The easternmost of the three north windows (which are all coeval with the chancel), is of two cinque- foiled sharply-pointed lights with a quatrefoiled span- drel in a two-centred head. The second window is like it, but has been closed up with stone, doubtless when the vestry was added; the third window is a cinquefoiled single light like the others, but somewhat differently drawn, and perhaps due to a later altera- tion. Below it is a low-side window. To the west of it is a late 14th-century arch with semi-octagonal jambs, moulded bases and capitals, and a- moulded two-centred arch of two orders a wave mould and a double ogee with a wide hollow between. A modern doorway between the second and third windows opens into the vestry, which has a two-light east window and a north doorway.

In the south wall is a piscina with old chamfered jambs stopped out above the sill, and a modern tre- foiled head. The two south windows are like those opposite, and at the south-west is a wide late 1 5th- century arch to the south chapel.

The chancel arch is entirely modernized, and has plain chamfered jambs, the chamfers on the east side having splayed stops, and on the west side broach stops ; the arch is pointed and of two chamfered orders, the inner springing from moulded corbels.

The north arcade of the nave has four bays; the east respond is square, and of modern stonework with a chamfered abacus ; the first arch is of square section, and is pointed. The first pillar is octagonal with a base-mould of two rounds, and a chamfered sub-base, and the scalloped capital is octagonal with a cham- fered abacus ; the second pier is square on its east side, and half-octagonal to the west, the base is as that of the other pillar, but is not continued round the east side ; the capital is scalloped, with the irregu- larity in the spacing of the scallops already referred to on its north and south faces ; the third pillar is partly buried in the filling of the western bay, and it is octagonal, like the first ; and the west respond is wholly buried. The arches are pointed and of a single chamfered order, and the filling of the western bay is pierced by a modern window of two plain pointed lights.

The south arcade also consists of four bays, and has a modern square east respond, and an east arch wider and higher than the rest ; the pillars are circular, and the west respond corresponds with them ; the bases are square with a moulding following the form of the pillars, and leaf spurs at the angles ; the scalloped capitals are square above, and have chamfered abaci ; and the arches are semicircular of a single square order.

The north aisle is lighted by two north windows,

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