Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/77

 GODALMING HUNDRED

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��buttresses accompanying the rebuilding. In this period the first timber spire probably gave place to the much loftier one of oak covered with lead, which remains substantially as then reconstructed, save for the later addition of broaches at the angles when the parapet wall was removed.

To the ninth period the ijth century belong the extension westward of one bay of the nave and aisles, a window in the north wall of the north tran- sept, a corresponding one in the south transept, and others which have been destroyed or shifted within recent times.

In the end of the I5th or beginning of the 1 6th century the roof of the nave was ceiled with panel- ling, the south chapel roof reconstructed, and a large doorway, having a four-centred arch within a square frame, was inserted in the west end of the church. This in 1840 was removed to its present position beneath the tracery window in the east wall of the south chapel. During the iyth and i8th centuries a western gallery and other galleries were erected ; the south aisle walls were raised to provide the necessary height, and re-roofed with a span roof. Wooden frame windows were inserted in several places, and dormers made to light the north aisle.

In 1840, after the church had passed through the usual stages of neglect, disfigurement, and mutilation that characterized the 1 7th, 1 8th, and early igth centuries, a severe ' restoration ' swept away not only abuses, but many valuable ancient features. Most of the work of 1 879 was of the nature of a true archaeo- logical restoration, in which much of the bad work

��of 1840 was undone and many valuable ancient features were brought to light.

The windows and doors of the nave and aisles and north chantry belong for the most part to 1840 and 1879, including that in the east wall of the north chantry, but the east window dates from 1859. The stair turret on the north side is also modern.

Some points of detail in the interior of the church have now to be considered.

On the window sills of the south chapel are carved fragments, in a very hard shelly limestone, of pre-Con- quest date. Two seem to have formed the rims of a circular basin or basins, but they are hardly large enough to have served for a font, as has been suggested, nor does the shape at all suggest such a use. The total diameter of the two halves is only I ft. yjin. by 6J in. in height and 3$ in. thickness. The upright face is ornamented with four horses' heads, separating alternate designs of interlaced work and a running scroll, such as are found in the pre-Conquest arch at Britford Church, near Salisbury. A third fragment, with a basket-work pattern, may have been part of the block on which this basin stood ; and two others with a scroll-pattern and figures, much defaced, suggest the stem of a churchyard cross. Some of these were found built into the walls, notably in the west arch of the tower, i.e. the chancel arch of the pre-Conquest church, suggesting that they had formed part of some building of even older date.

Next in interest and date to these are the remains of the priest's door and six windows of c. noo in the chancel walls. The windows have splays running

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