Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/76

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��extended laterally and to the westward, the north transept has been prolonged, and the north chancel rebuilt on a larger plan, all within the 1 9th century in 1840 and 1879. It consists therefore now of nave, 68 ft. 9 in. by 20 ft. 6 in. at the east end and

1 9 ft. 5 in. at the west end ; aisles of different lengths,

20 ft. wide; transepts about 12 ft. 3 in. wide and originally 14 ft. 9 in. long ; central tower 16 ft. 6 in. square ; chancel 40 ft. 5 in. long by 1 7 ft. 3 in. ; and north and south chancel aisles, respectively 35 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft. 9 in. and 34 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft.

We owe it to Mr. Ralph Nevill, F.S.A.' 80 (who, with the late Sir Gilbert Scott, carried out the last enlargements), and later to the painstaking and acute observation of Mr. S. Welman," 1 that a very complete architectural history of the building can be put together. Probably there are at least twelve periods of work to be traced in the walls of the present church. The nucleus around which it has grown lies in the centre, the eastern half of the nave representing the simple aisleless nave of the pre-Conquest church, and the central tower its short, square chancel. This would give a nave of about 32 ft. by 20 ft. ; the chancel, which had an inclination towards the north, being 1 6 ft. 6 in. wide and in length originally about a foot longer. This Saxon church had walls averaging 3 ft. in thickness, and disproportionately lofty about 25 ft. as was commonly the case in work of this period. Until 1879 the original chancel arch, a plain circular-headed opening about 10 ft. wide, of one order, with plain chamfered imposts, remained as the western arch of the present central tower ; but, against the wish of Mr. Nevill, this interesting feature was then removed, and a wide and lofty pointed opening put in its place. The outline of the gable wall above this arch (upon which the west wall of the tower had been subsequently raised), together with the drip-stone or weathering of the pre-Conquest chancel which abutted against its eastern face, was noted by Mr. Nevill, and their true relationship to the earliest structure finally established by Mr. Wei- man's subsequent discovery of two curious eyelet holes in the apex of this eastern gable of the nave. These are double-splayed, their narrowest diameter being in the heart of the wall, but the internal splay was pro- tracted downward on the western face to throw the light in that direction. Doubtless they lit a roof- chamber over the nave.

About the year 1 100 the primitive church received its first enlargement, in the form of a long chancel (about 33 ft. 3 in. by 17 ft. 3 in.), a low tower being raised upon the gabled walls of the original chancel, and the eastern wall thickened by about a foot on the western side, an arch of two plain orders, with cham- fered imposts, being pierced through it. This arch still exists, but in 1 8 79 it was lifted up on higher piers, the old imposts being left in position and new added to mark the increased height. Earlier altera- tions had brought to light the remains of six of

��the windows of this period, three in either side wall of the chancel (lettered A on the plan), and the base and part of the jamb of a priest's door at the west end of the south wall : the east wall of this chancel no longer exists, having been pulled down and rebuilt farther eastward in the I4th century."* There are traces of flat pilaster buttresses having been added to strengthen the junction between the first and second period work. This chancel also inclines to the north.

About 1 1 20 (third period) narrow transepts were added, some of the windows of which can also be traced, arches were pierced in the hitherto solid north and south walls of what had been the first chancel now the central tower and the latter was heightened by an additional stage, which still retains in each face the two round-headed openings that were then formed, with a string-course of rounded section below them. A small door of this period has been pre- served in the rebuilt end of the north transept.

In the last ten years of the 1 2th century, but perhaps not quite at one and the same time, aisles were added to the nave, two lofty pointed arches being pierced in either wall, and smaller ones in the west walls of the transepts. This may be called the fourth period. At about the same date, but perhaps slightly earlier, the arches to the transepts from the central tower were altered to a pointed form, and perhaps widened.

In the fifth period, c. 1 200, the chancel aisles, or north and south chancels, were thrown out, their arcades being pierced through the second-period walls, leaving the original windows largely intact, but blocked up. These chapels were lit by tall narrow lancets, the south chapel having five in its southern wall and three in its eastern, parts of which still remain (lettered B on plan), although displaced by later insertions."*

For some reason this displacement began very soon, for in about 1250 the curious grouped lancets, with acutely pointed heads and inner-plane arcade, in the south wall, took the place of two of the single lancets : and in I 270 an early essay in bar tracery was inserted in the east wall of the same chapel. This is of five lights, the central wider and taller than the others, with three circles above, having cinquefoil cusping on a recessed plane, and the whole united by a pointed inclosing arch and hood moulding. At some time between 1 200 and 1300 the first spire, lower than the present, and covered with oak shingles, replaced the original squat cap of the 1 2th century. 2 "

Period eight the 1 4th century produced fur- ther changes, in the shape of the blocking up of the plain lancets in the western part of this south chapel, and the insertion of square-headed three-light windows with cusped ogee tracery, this type of win- dow being inserted also in the transepts and nave aisles, and probably in the north chancel aisle. At the same time the chancel was extended about 4 ft. eastward, a large five-light window and diagonal

��"" Vide Mr. Ralph Nevill'i account of discovcrk-s made in 1879, in Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 277.

a* 1 S. Welman, The Parhb and Church of Godalmmy.

Ma The angle stone of the original foundation of the earliest eat wall may be seen outside, where the south chantry abuts on the chancel.

" Mr. Welman points out that Richard

��de Chiddingfold, vicar, instituted by Sav- aric Archdeacon of Northampton and Treasurer of Salisbury, in or about 1200, probably engineered the work of this period. The sections of mouldings closely corre- spond to those of the same date at Chidding- fold Church.

" 4 It is not easy to determine the date of the parapet which at one time crowned

38

��the tower and inclosed the base of the spire. Its corbels, which alone remain, are of various patterns and of more than one date : and such parapets on corbel- tables were not uncommon in 1 2th -century towers, as at Witley, hard by, and at Clymping and Yapton, Susser. Most probably this parapet dates from the erec- tion of the first spire.

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