Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/82

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��The old manor house is at the west end of the church. It is now called Court Farm from the court baron having been held there.

The lands of Great and Lesser Smallbrede, Shad- wells and Durcombes are mentioned in another deed of 1622-3." In I 77 Shadwell Field and Upper, Lower, and Little Darkham were included in Hyde Style Farm in the northern part of Hambledon, and Shadwell is an existing name north-west of the farm-house. These seem to be the latter two. Smallbrede was probably adjoining them, and perhaps Great Smallbrede is preserved in what is called the Great House on the right-hand side of the road from Hambledon to Godalming, south of Hyde Style Farm. Smallbrede was on the road, for the Hundred Roll of the Court of 21 September 1340 refers to injury to the via rfgia dt Smallbrede.

The lord of Hambledon Manor had court baron, and in Manning and Bray's time court leet in ' High Hambledon.' " View of frankpledge and assize of bread and ale were claimed by Robert parson of Hambledon in 12789. He failed to appear and justify his claim, whereupon the Bishop of Salisbury was allowed those liberties as pertaining to his hun- dred of Godalming. 33 As late as 1808 the lord of Godalming Hundred was paid zs. when a court leet was held at Hambledon.* 4 The steward of the bishop regularly held a view of frankpledge at Hambledon on St. Matthew's Day, and tried cases of trespass, assault, failure to maintain highways and bridges, breaking of the assize of bread and ale, &c.* s

The church of Sr. PETER is a small CHURCH building almost entirely rebuilt in 1846, consisting of nave, with small north aisle and vestry, south porch, and chancel. There is a bell-turret at the west end. It is most picturesquely situated, with very fine views from the churchyard, in which are two splendid yews ; the trunk of the larger, which must be of an immense age, measures about 3 oft. in circumference and is hollow. The smaller one measures 1 7 ft. at 5 ft. from the ground.

Cracklow (1824) describes the old church as con- sisting of a nave and chancel, 'of rough materials, covered partly with tiles, and partly with stone slates,' with ' a small open chapel on the north belonging to the manor, with a gallery on the north sides and another at the west end. The floor of the church is paved with bricks, and the entrance is by a path at the west end ; there is a wooden turret, rising through the roof near the middle of the nave, containing one bell, and surmounted by a small spire covered with shingles. The basin of the font is cut out of a solid block of stone. The style of the architecture affords but few data on which to form any idea of the period of its foundation. The Royal Arms are painted on the shell of a turtle placed over the pulpit, which was presented by the Earl of Rad- nor, patron of the church. Among the monuments

��are some for the family of Hull, of the early date of 1489.'

Cracklow's view, taken from the south-west, shows a porch of timber at the west end, a somewhat lofty nave, with its modern bell-turret nearly central (as in the neighbouring church of Hascombe, before re- building), a square-headed blocked doorway in the south wall, and eastward of it a two-light window, apparently of 13th-century date, beyond which again are two two-light windows, square-headed and probably ' churchwarden ' insertions : one is quite low down in the wall. In the south wall of the chancel is a lancet of 1 3th-century character, probably a low side window.

The approximate dimensions of the old church were: nave 30 ft. by 1 6 ft., chancel 1 6 ft. by 13 ft., and north chapel 1 6 ft. by 7 ft., and the new church is of about the same size. As might be expected from the date of the rebuilding, the present church has not much to recommend it, but the design is pretty good in parts, and there is a profusion of carving, quite excellent for the period, especially a cornice on the outside of the south wall of the chancel, with minute heads and paterae by the same hand as the restored heads in the wall-arcade of ' the Round ' at the Temple Church, London.

A good deal of chalk has been used in the interior, especially in the arcade of three arches to the north aisle, and in the chancel arch. The font, octagonal and modern, is a copy of that in Bosham Church, Sussex. The original font appears to have been of 1 1 th or 1 2th-century date and to have resembled in design that in the neighbouring church of Alfold. The roofs are modern.

The 1 7th-century altar-table is now in the vestry, in which also is a deal chest of about the same date.

The registers date from 1617.

When the church was rebuilt in 1 846, the then rector, the Rev. E. Bullock, gave a cup, paten, and flagon. The only ancient communion vessel is a small paten with the London hall-marks of 1691.

There is one bell by William Eldridge, 1705.

There is no mention of a church JDfOfrSON at Hambledon in the Domesday Survey. A church existed in 1 29 1. 36 The lords of the manor presented to it in the I4th cen- tury, and the advowson of the church remained in their possession " till the last William Eliot (who sold the manor to John Walter) granted the presenta- tion to his brother Laurence Eliot. 38 His son Francis Eliot sold it to Lord Folkestone in 176 1. 3 ' It is now in the hands of Lord Radnor, his descendant. Henry Smith's Charity (1627) for CHARITIES the relief of deserving poor exists as in most Surrey parishes.

Richard Wyatt(l6i8) left money for the mainten- ance of one poor man of the parish in the Carpenters' Almshouse at Godalming.

��81 Harl. Chart. 57, H. 44. 81 Hitt. ofSurr. ii, 55. "Plae. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 38. 84 Manning and Bray, Surf ii, 55.

��85 Hund. R. fattim, preserved at Lose- ley.

88 Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 208.

87 William More of Loseley presented in 1568 ; he probably had a lease of the

��advowson. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. 620.

88 Close, 7 Geo. II, pt. vi, no. i.

89 Close, I Geo. Ill, no. 6077, sub. no. 5.

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