Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/535

 GODLEY HUNDRED

��BYFLEET

��ef the nave is of two bays, the middle pillar being circular with a moulded capital, and the pointed arches are of two chamfered orders. West of the arcade is a modern lancet window. Of the two south windows the first is a modern one of three lights and tracery under a pointed head ; the second is a 15th-century window of three trefoiled lights under a square head, the middle light being wider than the others ; it has modern mullions and sill. Between the windows is a small trefoiled niche formerly a piscina, which was found at the restoration of the church beneath the ruins of the chancel. The west doorway is modern, of 13th-century style. The north aisle has a single-light window at each end and two two-light windows in the side wall.

The walling of the south wall of the nave is of conglomerate and of the west wall of roughly squared blocks of Heath stone. The roof of the nave is old, with plain collar beams which were formerly plastered. Over the west end is an old bell-turret covered with modern boarding, including the upper half of the west gable ; the vertical face of the turret is seen inside the nave with its old timbers ; it is capped by a modern wood spire covered with oak shingles.

The west porch probably dates from the 141)1 cen- tury ; its sides are open, with five square bays divided by hollow-chamfered mullions ; the entrance has a pointed arch formed by two solid pieces of wood with hollow-chamfered edges ; the barge-board of the gable over is foiled with rounded points, the middle foil being of ogee shape.

The altar table and font are modern ; but the pulpit is a I jth-century one with carved and moulded panels.

The church contains no ancient monuments.

There are three bells ; the oldest, which is the second, has this inscription in capitals on the shoulder : 4 + Fraternitas fecit me in honore beate Mareie ' ; it is said to have been brought from the abbey of Chertsey, to which Bisley formerly belonged, and was probably cast early in the 1 4th century. The treble is by Thomas Swaine 1781 and the tenor by William Eldridge 1710.

The communion plate includes a silver cup of i 570 with a cover paten of 1569 ; the cup is a finely chased example, but somewhat misshapen ; there are also a plate of 1795 and a small paten of 1872.

��The first book of the registers is a vellum copy beginning in 1561 and contains baptisms to 1672, burials to 1669, and marriages to 1670; also some briefs for 1 66 1 and tithe rents of 1625 ; the second book has baptisms from 167310 1755, marriages 1673 to 1753, and burials from 1673 to 1757 ; the third contains burials from 1678 to 1812; the fourth has marriages from 1754 to 1807 ; the fifth, baptisms and burials 1760 to 1806, whence all three are continued in the later books; there are also a few loose sheets with accounts of 1673 and from 1682 to 1773.

The site of the church is about half a mile east of the village in an isolated position. The churchyard is small and surrounds the buildings ; there are several large trees on its boundaries, and near the porch is a yew-tree.

The church of Bisley was in the JDrOfTSON possession of the abbey of Chertsey before 1284,3$ in that year Geoffrey de Lucy was patron and held it of the abbey." Later the church came into the king's hands, prob- ably at the same time as did the hamlet of Bisley. Presentations by the king or by the Prince of Wales date from the year 1346." A pension of 3 Ib. of wax and an annual rent of i8</. remained due to the monastery from the church of Bisley. 15

In 1620 the grant to Sir Edward Zouch of the manor of Bisley included the advowson, rectory, and church, and, in addition, the I SJ. rent to Chertsey Monastery," which at the Dissolution had been surrendered to the Crown. The rectory and advowson remained in the hands of the lord of the manor until the latter half of the 1 8th century, since when the patronage appears to have changed hands. Henry Foster held it in 1800, the trustees of John Thornton in 1810," and in 1889 the trustees of Mrs. P. Smith. It is at present in the gift of trustees. Smith's Charity is distributed as in CHARITIES other Surrey parishes. In 1506 Isabella Campion of Bisley left Brachmead in Chobham for the repairs of Bisley Church." In 1711 the Rev. Andrew Lament, D.D., rector of Bisley, left jioo to be invested in land for the benefit of the poor of Bisley. The land is known as Queen Lane. The Dead Hill estate, producing about 16 a year for the poor, was left at an unknown time."

��BYFLEET

��Biflet (xi cent.) ; Byflete (xiv cent.).

Byfleet is a village 5 miles south of Chertsey, 2 miles south-west of Weybridge Station. The parish, roughly triangular in form, is bounded on the north by Chertsey and Weybridge, on the east by Walton-on-Thames, on the south by Wisley and Pyrford. It measures 3 miles from east to west and a mile and a half from north to south at the eastern border, becoming narrower towards the west. It con- tains 2,04; acres of land and 30 of water. The soil is mainly the drift sand and gravel and alluvium of the

��Wey valley, but on the east it abuts upon the rising ground of the Bagshot Sands which form St. George's Hill in Walton parish and Cobham Common. The natural River Wey and the artificial navigation both pass through the parish, and much of the ground is low and easily flooded by the former. The main line of the London and South Western Railway passes through the western part of the parish, and there is a station, Byfleet and Woodham. There are about 40 acres of common. Maps of the 1 7th century mark an iron mill on ths old river where Byfleet corn mill

��" Chan. Inq. p.m. iz Edw. I, no. 16 ; Exch. K.R. Misc. Bks. z;, fol. 4.9.

14 Cal. Pat. 1346-9, p. i; Egcrton MS. 1031.

��Exch. K.R. Misc. Bks. z;, foU 13 5 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, $6. " Pat. 18 Jas. I, pt. vi, m. i. W Int. Bks. (P.R.O.).

399

��18 Tablet in church, contemporary.

19 Dr. Lament left also 50 to be invested in land for the minister* of Bisley for erer (tablet in church).

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