Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/575

 GODLEY HUNDRED

��PYRFORD

��William Beauchamp in trust for Richard Bonsey, Richard Roake, John Collyer, and John Scotcher, each of whom was to enjoy a fourth share, and who, as lay improprutors, had the right to appoint the curate." Manning gives the date of this conveyance as 1682 but it was probably a few years later, since, as has been shown, the small tithes at least were held by Godfrey Lee as late as 1684. In 1725 the advow- son was in the hands of ' four lay impropriators.' " In 1 804 Henry and Edward Roake, Richard Fladgate, and Henry Collyer were the lay impropriators, John

��Collyer having purchased Bonsey's share and Richard Fladgate that of Scotcher. 57 As late as 1879 the south seats in the chancel were occupied by the Roake family and those on the north side by the Collyer and Fladgate families. 4 * Throughout the 1 9th century the patronage remained in the hands of landowners at Horsell. 48 It is at present held by Mr. John Pares of Southsea. The curacy was styled a vicarage by the Act of 1868."

Smith's Charity is distributed as in

��CH4RITT

��other Surrey parishes.

��PYRFORD

��Pirianford (x cent.) ; Peliforde and Piriford (xi cent.) ; Purford (xvii cent.).

Pyrfbrd is a small parish formerly a chapelry of Woking, on the Wey, 7 miles north-east of Guild- ford, and rather less from Chertsey. It is bounded on the north by Chertsey and Byfleet, on the east by Wisley and Ockham, on the south by Ripley, on the west by Woking. It contains 1,869 acres, and measures rather over 2 miles from east to west, rather less than 2 miles from north to south. It is traversed by the Wey navigation, by part of the natural river which helps to form its eastern boundary, and by the main line of the London and South Wes- tern Railway. The upper or western part of Pyrford is on the lower Bagshot Sand, the lower or eastern part is the alluvium, sand, and gravel of the Wey Valley. A few palaeolithic and neolithic flints have been found, but in no great quantity. Pyrford Stone is a Sarsen stone from the Bagshot beds standing not far from the Warren. It is put up on end artificially, but while it may very well be one of the few ancient standing stones in Surrey, nothing is known of the date of erection. The parish is well wooded, picturesque, and out of the world. Historically Pyr- ford is interesting as having been included in Windsor Forest, according to the charter of the Conqueror to Westminster ; while by the evidence of Domesday 3 hides here were in the forest. The subsequent attempts to extend Windsor Forest over all Surrey were met by the contention that no part of the county was anciently in the forest ; which is untrue in the case of Pyrford, and presumably therefore untrue in the case of places not named in Domesday lying between Pyrford and Windsor. In the Domesday Survey it is rated in Godley Hundred, the only place named in that hundred not held by Chertsey Abbey. Subsequently it seems sometimes, but wrongly, to have been considered as in Woking Hundred, probably because ecclesiastically it was in the parish of Woking.

The church stands upon the brow of a steep bank above the broad meadows and the River Wey. From whichever direction it is approached a hill has to be climbed, thus giving an unusually detached and isolated aspect to the tiny building. Tall elms and a thicket of silver birches and young saplings, through which a winding path ascends to the church, make a beautiful setting for the shingled spirelet, grey walls,

��and long, low, red-tiled roofs, as viewed from the south-west ; and close to the little gate of the church- yard is a noble old oak. Near the church are some old red-brick houses with good chimney-stacks.

The Inclosure Award was made 29 September 1815, under an Act of the same year. 1 Certain waste land was put into the hands of trustees to provide fuel (peat) for the inhabitants.

The schools (provided) were taken over in 1891 and new buildings erected ; the first school had been built in 1847.

There was a duck decoy in the low ground near the old river when Manning and Bray wrote. It had been disused before their time and revived. Evelyn mentions it in his Diary, 23 August 1681. It is now disused again.

Sherewater Pond, on the borders of Pyrford and of Chertsey parishes, was an extensive mere on the Bagshot Sand, and was drained and planted at the time of the inclosure. Aubrey la and Brayley," follow- ing him, have confused it with a pond by the Guildfbrd road on Wisley Common, drained by Peter seventh Lord King at rather an earlier date. Shere- water Pond is marked on Rocque's map ; Sherewater Farm is close to it, just north of the London and South Western Railway line.

In 956 King Eadwig granted land at MANORS the Pyrian ford, described as PTRFORD

or Pirford on the Wey in Surrey, to Eadric to hold free of all services save the trinoda necessitas? Pirford was held under King Edward by Harold, 4 and was among the lands which the Conqueror reserved for himself at the time of the Conquest. 6 He, how- ever, granted it to the monas- tery of St. Peter Westminster 6 certainly before 1070, for the charter is addressed to Stigand as archbishop. At the time of

the Survey it was held by the abbey. Before Harold held it it had been assessed for 27 hides ; afterwards it was assessed for 1 6 at Harold's pleasure. There seems to have been some doubt as to whether it had been really fixed at so much, and in 1086 it paid geld for

���WESTMINSTER ABBIT. Cults St. Ptar'i crosttd ktyt or.

��* Manning and Bray, op. cit. i, 162, 163 (quoting from inform, received from Rev. E. Emily ; ice Woking).

<* Bp. Willii, Viiitatioo.

7 Ibid.

��" Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 166.

69 Clergy Liltt.

60 Act 31 & 31 Viet. cap. 117.

1 Blue Bk. Incl. AviarJs.


 * Hist, and Antiq. of Surr. iii, 197.

43 1

��'Hist, of Surr. ii, 14.7. 8 Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 136. V.C.H. Surr. i, 306. Ibid. z8z.

'Ibid.; Dugdale, Man. Angl. i, 301, 307 ; Cott. MS. Fault A. iii, foL 112*.

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