Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/51

 GODALMING HUNDRED

��CHIDDINGFOLD

��the southern wall. The western lancet has a sill- transom, below which is a low side window, at present glazed, but the rebate and hooks for the shutter remain. In the same wall, to the east, are a good trefoil-headed piscina of c. 1260, and the original piscina with oak credence shelf, nearer to the altar, which has been turned into an aumbry. This wall and the east wall have a chamfered plinth and the original buttresses, with their stone water-tables, in good preservation.

The work to the chancel was either altered soon after its erection, or, more probably, resumed after suspension for lack of funds or some other reason. Then, in about 1260, the north chapel was built, and the present east window put in the chancel. It will be noted that the wall between the chancel and chapel is thinner than the outer walls, which seems to indi- cate that the two had been planned at the same time, although built with an interval. The eastern part of the partition wall is blank ; the western has two pointed arches of two orders a chamfer and a hollow resting upon an octagonal column and semi- octagonal responds, only the column having a capital and base of plain section. The space to the west- ward was pierced in 1870 with another smaller arch, thus making a second column in place of the respond. The windows of this chapel are practically new, except that in the east wall, which has been renewed upon the old lines. It is of two trefoiled lights with a quatre- foil in the head. The east window of the chancel, very gracefully proportioned, of three trefoiled lights with three trefoiled circles over, within an inclosing arch and hood-moulding, is a most valuable example of its period, c. 1260. In 1870, very reprehen- sibly, its lights were shortened about i8in. There was a circular gable-light in the east wall before 1870, of which a modern copy, as an unpierced panel, has been preserved.

The chancel arch had originally low responds, which were raised about 3 ft. when the whole arch was shifted and reconstructed in 1870. The arch itself, which is of two orders, with bold roll and hollow mouldings on its western and chamfers on the eastern face, has been rebuilt on the original lines. The outer order of the jambs has a roll moulding with good stops, and the capitals, of a fine bold section, have their abacus continued as an impost to the outer order of the arch. 68

Ip is somewhat difficult to fix a date for the tower before the alterations of 1870 masked its character, but jthe 1 7th century may be hazarded approximately, as ids windows before they were altered had segmental- ardfied heads, and there was a parapet with obelisks at the! angles, resembling that at the neighbouring church of Witley. It may have superseded an earlier stone

rer, or perhaps one of timber. The north aisle in its present form is entirely tieiv, save for the lancet of c. 1 200 rebuilt in its veit wall, and is of discordant character especially a wheel window in its east gable. Originally .us aisle had a lean-to roof like that of the north

wpel.

' The roof over the chancel is in the main that of

e i 3th century, and still retains its richly-moulded

��cambered tie-beams and king-posts. The nave roof, also with moulded tie-beams and wall-plates, is per- haps as old, but owing to the great height it is difficult to speak with certainty. The aisle and chapel roofs appear to have been renewed in 1870.

At this time also the seating and fittings generally were renewed, but a few old seats, perhaps as old as the 1 7th century, were worked in ; and in the vestry is preserved one of much older date, with scrolled tops to the ends, resembling in design the remarkable late 13th-century nave seats at Dunsfold hard by. A Jacobean communion-table now stands in the vestry. There is a 13th-century font, disused, besides the modern one.

The church contains few ancient monuments, but in the churchyard is the grave of the mother of Dr. Young, the author of Night Tkoughti.

The registers date from I 563.

Among the church plate are a cup and paten of 1 66 1 (probably a thank-offering by Dr. Layfield on his reinstatement in the rectory after a long perse- cution by the Puritans), and a handsome silver flagon of tankard shape, bearing the hall-marks of 1 747.

Of the eight bells one is probably of the second half of the I Jth century, and is inscribed in black letter :

Sancts. Trinitas Ora Pro Nobis

The second is by Richard Eldridge, 1622 ; the third by Bryan Eldridge, 1656 ; the fourth by Samuel Knight, 1699 ; and the tenor by William Eldridge, undated. Of the three modern bells one is by Mears & Stainbank, 1 870 ; two by Warner & Sons, 1 894. The church is not mentioned in JDrOWSON the Domesday Survey. Chidding- fold was then parochially part of Godalming, of which it was later a chapelry. It was in existence late in the 1 2th century, for circa 1 1 80 Ralph de Lechlade granted the church of Chiddingfold with the chapel of Piperham (i.e. Hasle- mere) to his clerk, Geoffrey de Lechlade, to hold for an annual pension of I Ib. of wax ; and a vicar was instituted in 1 1 85.'' Again, a few years later, Savaric, Archdeacon of Northampton, bestowed the church and chapel upon Richard son of Richard for a similar rent to Ralph de Lechlade. 70 A pension of 2 marks was conveyed, after the death of Ralph, to Thomas de Chebeham by Philip, Canon of Heytesbury, of which prebend Godalming was a member." In a survey of Godalming Rectory taken in 1 2 20 Chiddingfold is still called a chapel, the chaplain being appointed by the rector of God- aiming, to whom he paid loot, yearly, while the pound of wax was still due to Godalming Church. 71 In 1291, however, the church of Chiddingfold with its chapel was assessed at 20." The right of presenta- tion rested with the Deans of Salisbury, until it was transferred to the Bishop of Winchester when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners acquired Godalming Rectory in l846(q.v.).

In 1852 the advowson was transferred from the Bishop of Winchester to the Bishop of Lichfield, 7 * and, finally, in May 1872, was exchanged with the Crown, in whom the right of presentation is now vested. 75

��88 The work recallt that of the chancel rch of the tame date in Clympinj Church, ussex.

69 Rig. of St. Osmund (Rolls Ser.), i,

��268, 301-3 ; Winton Epis. Reg. Wood- lock, fol. ii, i z.

7 Ibid. 301.

f Ibid. 297.

15

��7 Ibid.

7* PofH Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), zo8. 1* Lund. Go*. 4 June 1852, p. 1578. 7 s Ibid. 5 May 1873, p. 2265.

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