Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/538

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��Byfleet were used for paper-making in the lyth cen- tury." Aubrey states that the Earl of St. Albans owned a mill here," but this is probably a mistake." Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, did, however, live in the manor-house here. John Evelyn records a visit to 'my lord St. Alban's house at Byflete, an old large building,' on 24 August 1678. He also visited the paper-mills at Byfleet on the same day, and gives a description of the process employed there for paper-making. 66 The present mill is a corn-mill.

The manor-house known as the King's House was built by Sir Anthony Browne, keeper of the park (vide infra). It was sold with other Crown lands during the Commonwealth, as ' Byfleete house, situated about the middle of Byfleete park, upon the river of Byfleete.' 663

According to Aubrey, Queen Anne of Denmark, when the manor was settled on her by James I, began to build ' a noble house of brick,' w afterwards com- pleted by Sir James Fullerton, one of Prince Charles's trustees under the grant of 1617. It was built where the old manor-house had stood, and Evelyn in 1678 speaks of it as 'an old large building.' 58 The forecourt, garden-wall and gateway, and part of the existing manor-house are of early lyth-century date, but the house was rebuilt about 1724-34. A tile stamped with the former date and a halfpenny of the latter date, embedded in the mortar, bear out the evidence of the style. Part of it was pulled down early in the igth century.

The first mention of the PARK of PARK Byfleet occurs in 1337; it was probably not imparked before the manor came into the king's hands. In 1337 John de Chestre was granted the custody of the park and warren of Byfleet, with a robe worth a mark, or a mark, every year for his fee and zd. daily for his wages. 6 ' Norden gives an interesting account of the park in 1607 when Sir Edward Howard was keeper. It was stated to lie partly within and partly without the bounds of the forest of Windsor, and was 3^ miles in circuit. There were about 1 60 fallow deer, about 36 of antler, and 14 buck. He also adds that 'the Hooping birde, vulgarly held ominous, much frequent- eth this park.' w

In 1337 the park of Byfleet was included in the grant of the manor to the Prince of Wales, 61 and was henceforth held, with the manor, by the Crown. The grant of 1672 to Queen Catherine includes the park, but there appears to be no subse- quent mention of it. Most of it had evidently been inclosed before the inclosure award of 1800, but a small part of it has always remained as open land round the manor-house.

Grants of the custody of the king's park were made at intervals from the 1 4th to the 1 7th century. Writs of aid to cut and sell underwood were occasion-

��ally issued. 63 In 1 507 John Stoughton, late bailiff of the king's manor of Byfleet, was charged with committing waste of timber, having been ordered to cut down ' 50 great oaks worth 50^. in the king's wood at Byfleet.' 6 * In 1513 John Wheler was appointed keeper of the park, 65 but he surrendered his patent, which in 1527 was transferred to Sir William Fitz William and Sir Anthony Browne. 66 Sir Anthony Browne apparently spent much of his time there, 67 and died at the manor-house in I548. 68 In 16043 grant of the park for life was made to Sir Edward Howard, the king's cup-bearer ; 69 the reversion being granted to his brother, Sir Charles, in i6i3. 70

The church of ST. MARY THE CHURCH VIRGIN consists of a chancel 1 9 ft. 6 in. byl 2 ft. 7 in., south chapel and baptistery, south vestry, nave 42 ft. 10 in. by 17 ft. 2 in., north porch and south aisle 19 ft. I in. wide, all internal dimensions.

The chancel and nave seem to have been built early in the 1 4th century, and are of very plain detail. The dressings of the windows, &c. are all of chalk, and have a very sharp appearance suggesting that they have either been completely renewed in modern times or that the old material has been recut ; the south aisle and the remainder of the building are quite mod- ern, but the side windows of the aisle are those formerly in the south wall of the nave.

The east window of the chancel is of three lights with plain heads and intersecting tracery under a two- centred arch, and the two north windows are each of two plain lights under a two-centred arch ; below the first is a plain square recess. On the south side are two modern arches opening to the organ chamber, the eastern arch containing two plain sedilia, which seem entirely modern, and a piscina with a cinquefoiled head partly restored and a sixfoiled drain in a project- ing sill ; at the back is a modern quatrefoil piercing, and the backs of the sedilia are also pierced. The chancel arch has chamfered jambs and a double chamfered pointed arch, the inner order being cor- belled off at the springing line.

The three north windows of the nave are similar to those of the chancel, and the doorway between the second and third windows is of chalk in two cham- fered orders and has a pointed head ; outside is a modern porch of wood. The south arcade is of four bays having round pillars and responds with moulded bases and carved capitals, and pointed two-chamfered arches ; the west window of the nave is also like the others^-of two lights.

The south aisle is wider than the nave and opens by two arches into the south chapel and organ cham- ber. Its three side windows resemble those in the opposite wall, and it has a modern south doorway ; the west window is of four plain lights with intersect- ing tracery. The organ chamber has a two-light east

��146.

��('jf. MSS. Com. Rtf. xiii, App. v,

��54 Aubrey, Nat. Hist, and Antiq, ofSurr. iii, 194.

55 Hi. MSS. Com. Ref. xiii, App. v, 436.

56 V.C.H. Surr. ii, 418.

56a Close, 1653, pt. v, no. 2.

W Aubrey, Hat.Hitt. and Antiq. of Surr. iii, 194 ; Dorney House, on the wharf, is said by Aubrey to have been the place where Henry VIII was nursed as an infant. It was not, however, according to the

��same authority, the same as the manor- house of Byfleet, referred to above, known as the King's House, which probably re- ceived its name from the kings who had dwelt there earlier (See Surr. Arch. Coll. iv, pp. xxiii-iv). An exhaustive account of Byfleet Manor House is contained in Surr. Arch. Coll. XX, 153-68.

"Diary, 24 Aug. 1678.

"CV. Pat. 1334-8, p. 383.

Harl. MS. 3749.

61 Chart R. 1 1 Edw. Ill, m. 28, no. 60.

6a C/. Pat. 1377-81, pp. 216, 236,

4O2

��614; 1388-92, pp. 90, 183, 398, &c. ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rtf. vii, App. i, vide manor.

63 Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 614.

84 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxi, 45 (2).

65 L. and P.Htn. rill, i, 3675.

68 Ibid, iv, g. 3324.

"Ibid, vii, 1198; xi, 461 ; xiii (i), p. 580; xvii, 976.

61 Diet. Nat. Biog.

l) Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 169.

"Ibid. 1580-1625, p. 535 ; 1611-18, pp. 202, 598.

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