Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/479

 WOKING HUNDRED

��PIRBRIGHT

��east window there are six small figures of angels in 1 5th-century glass, a good deal repaired. One angel holds a harp, another cymbals, another a viol, and the fourth pipes. Of another figure only head and wings remain, and the sixth is a seraph with four wings and a feathered body, holding a crown in each hand. The heads of the main lights also contain some old glass consisting of red borders and diamond quarries. The 14th-century south-west window of the chancel pre- serves a little original glass, a lion's head, and a border of Stafford knots and vine pattern in yellow stain on a dark background. The north window of the chancel also contains part of a border of vine pattern and a lion's head of the same period. Both the south windows of the nave contain a good deal of Dutch glass of 1 7th- and 1 8th-century date, but the middle light in the head of the south-east win- dow preserves its original glazing in blue and yellow, c. 1350, and there are other fragments of mediaeval quarries.

The wood fittings of the church are modern, except for a pair of early 14th-century stall arms belonging to a set of stalls of unknown origin, worked into seats one on each side of the chancel. On the chancel floor at the north side of the altar is a brass half- figure of a priest in richly ornamented mass vestments, with the following inscription : ' Hie jacet dfls Walterus Frilende quonda* rector istius ecclie et factor hul capelle cuius aie ppicietur deus.' On the opposite side of the chancel are the brass figures of a man in

��armour and his wife, with an inscription ' Hie jacent Johe"s Weston fili' et heres Willi Weston qui obi . . ^ primo die Junii a dm m cccclxxxiii et Margareta uxor ei . . . qe obiit penultimo die Januarii a dm mcccclxxv q' afabz ppiciet . . .' The end of the brass is broken off so that the last letters of each line are missing. There are three shields, the first and third bearing the cheveron and lions' heads of Weston, while the second has the same impaling the quarterly coat of Metford of Ockham.

On the north wall of the chancel is a small brass bearing the inscription 'Orate pro ala dni Robert! Kellett quondffi rectoris isti' ecclie qni obiit xvii" die Septembris an dfli mv c xxv cui' ale propiciet' deus.'

On the south wall of the north chapel is another small brass inscribed 'ala JohTs Wexcombe hie qni tumulat' vite ppetue xpi m'ito dirigatur.'

On the north wall of the chapel is a black marble tablet to Henry Weston, 1638, and others of his family.

The tower contains four bells by R. Phelps 1719, and a tenor by T. Mears 1811. The plate consists of a cup of 1854, with a paten and flagon of r86r. The registers date from 1567.

There was a church on the manor AD7OWSON of Ockham at the time of Domes- day. The advowson has always fol- lowed the descent of the manor.

Smith's Charity is distributed as in

��CHARITY

��other Surrey parishes.

��PIRBRIGHT

��Pirifrith and Pirifright (xiii cent.) ; Purifright (xiv cent.).

Pirbright is a parish, formerly a chapelry of Wok- ing, 5$ miles north-west of Guildford. It contains 4,674 acres, and measures about 3 miles each way. It is bounded on the north by Chobham and Bisley, on the east by Woking, on the south by Worplesdon and Ash, on the west by Ash and Frimley. It is almost entirely upon the Upper and Middle Bagshot sands, and is therefore generally unproductive. It lies upon the western side of the ridge of Bagshot sand- hills, of which Chobham Ridges is the general name, and a great deal of it is open heath-land. No less than 3,070 acres, nearly three-quarters of the parish, have been acquired by H.M. War Office for military purposes, training and musketry especially. An en- campment of the Brigade of Guards is permanently maintained here, and extensive rifle ranges are laid out.

Pirbright Common and Cow Moor (the latter name appears in the boundaries of the earliest Chert- sey charter) are the names of the principal wastes.

The main line of the London and South Western Railway and the Farnham line pass through it ; and it is also crossed by the Basingstoke Canal.

The village lies in the only fertile part of the parish, between higher ground both east and west, in the valley of a small stream. A by-road leads west from the village for a short distance to the church, which stands in a large graveyard, recently extended and thickly planted with a variety of shrubs. It is long and wedge-shaped, being widest at the west, where a small

��stream runs along its southern boundary. At the east end is the grave of Sir H. M. Stanley, the African explorer, a great block of unworked stone bearing his name cut deeply on it.

The Court House, now called the Manor House, is the seat of Major Armstrong. It is a stone house of 16th-century date, but on the site of an earlier house surrounded formerly by a moat. The manorial courts were formerly opened here.

Heatherside is the residence of Mr. F. C. Selous, the famous African big-game hunter, and contains a remarkable collection of hunting spoils and native African curiosities. The Lodge is the residence of Mrs. Mangles, widow of the late Mr. Ross Mangles, V.C., of the Indian Civil Service. In the 1 8th century this house was the property of Admiral Byron, the explorer, grandfather of Lord Byron. He planted an avenue of Scotch firs, still called the AdmiralV Walk, which extends for a mile over the Govern- ment land attached to the ranges.

There is a Congregational chapel in the parish.

A drinking-fountain on the village green was pre- sented by Lord and Lady Pirbright as a memorial of the Diamond Jubilee, 1897. The same benefactors, then resident at Henley Park in Ash, presented a village hall and recreation ground in 1899, completed in 1901 as a memorial of the accession of H.M. King Edward VII. The Church of England Institute, at the Guards' Camp, was built in 1892, enlarged in 1894, and rebuilt in 1902.

Schools (Provided) were built in 1 870, and enlarged in 1889. An infants' school was built in 1902.

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