Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/52

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��CHARITIES

��Henry Smith's Charity applies to this parish, and was augmented by an annuity of 1 01., paid by the parish officers since the sale of Poors' Land for the benefit of the new work-

��house circa 1 794, but this has not been paid for many years. Ballard's (before 1850) and Callingham's (1898) chanties are for the repair of graves, the residue distributed to the poor, &c.

��COMPTON

��Contone (xi cent.).

Compton parish, 2 miles north-west of Godalming, 4 miles west by south of Guildford, is about 2^ miles from north to south, I J miles from east to west, and contains 1,995 acres. The northern part of the parish extends over the narrow chalk ridge of the Hog's Back, the main part is in the Green Sand, with a considerable outcrop of the Atherfield Clay in the eastern part. On the west the land rises to- wards the high ground about Puttenham Heath. Compton Common lies east of the village. North- east of the village, south of the Hog's Back, are two eminences in the sand, one Budburrow Hill, now crowned by the mortuary chapel, the other Rowbury Hill, near the house of the late Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., called Limnerslease. These are apparently referred to by Aubrey (167 3) and Coxe (circa 1726) as Robin Hood's Butts, and connected with an apocry-

���COMPTON : OLD INN

��16

��phal story of a French invasion, and defeat of the invaders. The time indicated is that of the invasion of Louis of France in 1216, but there was no battle at Compton, and the hills are natural. It is said that skeletons were found here, but if so they were only interments of probably Anglo-Saxon date. Neo- lithic flint implements and flakes are not uncommon on the north side of the parish.

In the wood to the north-west of the village, at the foot of the Hog's Back, are very extensive caves, excavated in the Green Sand. Within the memory of the last generation sand was brought from them for sale to builders in Guildford, and they were probably excavated for the sand ; but local tradition also con- nects them with the smuggling trade, and calls them Smugglers' Store-houses. It is not impossible that they were used for such a purpose, as the extensive cellars under several old farm-houses and cottages below the chalk ridge in Surrey pretty certainly were used.

The parish is wholly agricultural, except for one recently introduced in- dustry. The late Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., who resided at Limnerslease, to the north of the parish church, and Mrs. Watts started a pottery and terra- cotta-making school, which continues.. The pupils trained at it were em- ployed in the decoration of the mortuary chapel in the cemetery, which Mr. Watts built. This is in brick and terra- cotta, from his own de- signs, on the side of the hill, about half a mile from the church. The style is a sort of neo-Byzantine.

There are one or two ancient timber houses of some interest in the (vil- lage, which chiefly cpn- sists of a winding street straggling away to the south of the church. One of these, formerly the in?, a good deal 'restored ' stands on a raised bap , so high above the roi ! that a basement story f ' stone is entered by a doc f. on the street, the ground! floor being approached by another door on the bank above. The first floor and 1.

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