Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/444

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��The entrance to the vestries, opposite the south doorway, has plain square jambs and semicircular arch, the stones being old on the nave side, and is the original north doorway of the nave much altered.

The walls of the main building are of flint plastered over, except in the case of the west wall, and the gable over it is of weather-boarded timber running up to a square bell-turret which has a pointed, shingled roof. All the other roofs are tiled, and the nave and chancel roofs inside are panelled with modern board- ing ; but two of the tie-beams are old, and a third one has been cut away.

The modern stone pulpit is lined with 17th- century carved panels, and other carved woodwork of the same date has been used in the vestry door.

The font is circular, with a peculiar clumsy outline, the bowl being held 'together by cleverly-designed modern straps of iron and copper. All the other fittings are modern.

There is one bell in the turret, but it bears no mark by which its age can be told.

The plate is modern.

The registers date from 1636, but are imperfect in the earlier part.

The churchyard is small, with entrances on the east and west sides. At the west end of the church is a very fine yew tree of great age, and to the north there are two large cedars, besides other trees.

In 1306 the advowson of the church of Little Bookham was in-

��ADVOWSQK

��eluded in the fine confirming the grant of the manor to Ralph de Camoys and Margaret his wife by Mary de Braose," and the presentation of the living has continued with the owner of the manor from that date down to the present day. In 1535 the rectory was valued at 10 161. 6d.* from which was deducted 9/. %d. for procurations and synodals paid to the Archdeacon of Surrey. In 1657, a project having been formed for uniting this parish with that of Great Bookham, the jurors commissioned to make necessary inquiries reported the living to be worth 50 a year." This scheme was, however, abandoned.

Smith's Charity is distributed as in CHARITIES other Surrey parishes. Sir Benjamin Maddox, lord of the manor, who died in 1717, left the rent of certain tenements in All Hallows Lane, London, one-half to the rector and his successors, four-eighths in equal parts for the repair of the church and churchyard fence, the use of the poor, the repair of roads and bridges, and to the parish clerk 'for the better setting and singing of psalms in the church,' and for reading the testator's will on some Sunday between All Saints and Christmas."

The tenement is now a stable in All Hallows Lane, let for twenty-one years at l^o, which is duly paid in the proportions stated."

Three almshouses were erected by Edward Pollen in 1730. They do not seem to exist at the present day.

��" Feet of F. SUIT. 34 Edw. I, no. 1 34.
 * Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, j.

��7 Surr. Arch. Coll. xvii, IO2. M Char. Cam. Rep. ziii, 47$.

��S ' J Information from Mr. C. A. Cook, Charity Commissioner.

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