Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/730

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��and to the south of that a chapel, nave, north and south aisles with west porches and a west tower.

A chapel at Richmond is mentioned in the reign of Henry I when Gilbert the Norman founded Merton Abbey, giving it the advowson of Kingston and the four chapels of Petersham, Sheen (now Richmond), East Molesey, and Thames Ditton. It is mentioned again in 1339, and several wills in Somerset House prove the use of the church in 1487. In a manuscript of the expenses of Henry VII is the entry : ' Item given to ye Parish Clerke of Richmond towards ye building of his new church

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In 1614 the first vestry was held, and the minutes

of the meetings are still extant. The steeple was found to be in a ruinous state in 1624, and it was rebuilt, the contract with the mason being : 'First, That he is to make the Tower tables a plaine plenth and to make the upper Table plaine with such stone as he shall find there in the churchyard and to make the rest of the battlement a plaine cooping answerable to the thickness of the wall. To make the windows according to the Plote with a champfare on the out- side and a Rabbatt on the inside or near thereabouts and to bring up the Buttresses answerable to the work and to make a Table over the heads of the windows with such stone as shall be found there and to make it plaine and strong work. The masons work to be done according to this order the church finding the materials and scaffolding stuff and tacklings for raysings and to make ready the scaffolds." An estimate of ^30 was accepted from a Henry Walden, the parish finding the materials, and 32 was paid to William Halsey for lead for the steeple. 40 4/. loJ. was the sum paid to one George Charley for a bell. The tower then erected is still standing, being the oldest part of the church, but it has been greatly restored. Six years later (in 1630) the churchwardens were requested to take a view of the steeple and report on the same at the next meeting, and also take a view for the hanging of five bells. In 1624 a gallery was made ; in 1673 rose l ^ e question of repair- ing the south aisle ; and in 1683 a south gallery was taken into consideration. In 1671 the communion table was ordered to be ' inclosed with rails and balusters 1 2 ft. in length by 7 ft. in width, with panels of wainscot and settles on both sides, and also a ' false flower (floor) under the said Table.'

In 1699, P art ly by the munificence of William III, who gave zoo towards the enlargement, the accom- modation was improved and the pulpit ordered to be removed to the ' south-east pillar between the church and chancel.' In 1701 the roof of the tower and the steeple were defective and the bell frames rotten, and these parts were restored. The building suffered some damage from the Great Storm in 1703. The church was enlarged in 1750, and the nave and aisles then erected are those still standing ; an organ was placed there by George III and Queen Charlotte in 1 770. The church was thoroughly repaired in 1822, when a new burial-ground was also added to the churchyard ; and it was again renovated in 1866 and newly reseated, whilst the organ was removed and a new one placed on the north side of the chancel. The chancel and its aisles were rebuilt and consider- ably enlarged in 1904.

In the Free Public Library is preserved the carved oak head of a monument or a doorhead which is

��said to have been on the north wall of the church in 1669 and was transferred to the west door in 1702 and removed from the church in 1864, being finally presented to the library in 1 907 ; the carving is allegorical of Death and the Resurrection; on one side cherubim are represented as winds blowing upon human bones, and on the other a cherub with a trumpet, bones below, and a sun with rays ; in the middle is a winged skull, cross-bones, &c. There is also a frag- ment of 17th-century panelling carved with a vertical wreath of foliage and fruit, and having enriched mouldings ; this is probably a piece of the 1671 panels of wainscot set about the altar.

The chancel has an east window of seven lights and tracery and a three-light window in either side wall. In the north wall a doorway opens into the vestry and an archway west of it into the organ-chamber. An arcade of two bays divides the chancel from its south aisle and a similar arcade divides the aisle from the south chapel. The aisle is lighted by a traceried east win- dow of five lights, and the chapel by one of four lights, and two south windows, each of three lights, whilst it has an outer doorway in its west wall. Moulded arches open into the chancel and its aisles from the nave and aisles.

The nave is divided from either aisle by an arcade of five bays with plain Doric columns and spanned by wood lintels with moulded cornices. Above is a clear- story lighted by wide segmental-headed windows with wood frames. The north aisle is lighted by five round-headed windows of red brick with keystones, and plain stone strings at the springing level. The wall is of stock brick and has a moulded brick cornice.

A doorway at the west end of the aisle opens into a semi-octagonal porch lighted by round-headed windows and with a round-headed doorway in its north-west wall. The south aisle is lighted by five similar windows, but the three middle lights are included in a slightly projecting portion above which is a pediment to the wall, and on either side of it a plain parapet with a stone coping. At the west end is a square porch with a round doorway in its south side.

The tower is of three stages ; the archway opening into it, which is of three chamfered orders, is old, but the rest of its stonework as well as the outside facing of flint is all modern. A stair turret is carried up in its south-east corner, and its two western angles are strengthened by diagonal buttresses. The west door- way has a four-centred arch in a square head with shields in the spandrels and with a moulded label. The second stage is lighted by a plain rectangular window in its north, west, and south walls, and on the north is a clock. The bell-chamber has two similar lights in each of its north, east, and west sides, and one to the south ; the parapet is embattled. The gabled roofs of the new work (chancel, &c.) are covered with tiles ; the nave and aisle roofs are slated. An oak screen spans the chancel arch. The font is modern.

The church contains a large number of monuments mostly of the 1 8th and igth centuries, but a few of Elizabethan date. One at the east end of the north aisle is a brass set in a grey marble panel ; on it are the figures of a man and woman kneeling. Behind. him are four sons, and behind her four daughters; Over the sons is a shield with the arms A cheveron between three skeins of cotton. The inscription

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