Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/95

 GODALMING HUNDRED

��PUTTENHAM

��plane, following the natural slope of the ground, and there is reason to believe that this sloping floor remained till 1861.

The church is entered from the south by a round- headed doorway built of clunch, very much retooled. It is of two moulded orders, the outer standing upon a shaft with square abacus and scalloped capital of unusual design. The abacus is continued as an impost moulding across the inner order of jamb and arch, which are plain except for a quirked bead on the angle. A round-headed window to the west appears to be modern, but may be a copy of one found at the resto- ration ; and the traceried windows to the east of the porch are quite modern. The north arcade, in chalk or clunch, is of four semicircular arches of a single square order without a label, an unusual number, neces- sitated by the lowness of the wall through which they were pierced : a diminutive arch has been pierced through the east respond at the restoration. The piers are circular and their bases have square sub-bases with angle spurs and chamfered plinths. The capitals are square, with chamfered abaci and somewhat irre- gular scalloping of the common pattern, the capital of the west respond only differing from the others in having the scalloping concave with a small round-topped

��touched up. The last-named seems to have been rebated for a shutter. The thinness of the transept walls (l ft. 10 in.) is exceptional.

The date of the chancel arch is if anything some- what earlier than that of the chancel, which may be placed at about I zoo. It is pointed, of two orders chamfered like the jambs, which have no shafts, but only an impost moulding at the springing. Its setting out on plan shows some irregularity. A string-course of a round section remains within the chancel, and on the north side are the two arches to the chapel. These are of one pointed order, with narrow chamfers, and the central column has a circular moulded capital and base. The east window and the buttresses flanking it are modern,>but the two eastern windows in the south wall are apparently restorations, and follow the lines of the east window of the transept. An 18th-century engraving shows three-light windows in the east walls of the chancel and north chapel, both apparently of early 14th-century character. The two eastern windows in the south wall of the chancel, now restored in stone, are shown as plain wooden frames in this old view. The piscina is also restored. The window in the western part of the south wall of the chancel is ancient, built of chalk, and dates

���C.116O BBc.<4oo

c.1200 CUD 1800-61

��Scale of feet

PUTTENHAM CHURCH

��GROUND PLAN

��cresting just above the necking. 76b The modern plastering is cut with scalloped edging round the arches an ancient feature found at Compton, but here probably only borrowed. There are no ancient windows in the aisle, which is lit by dormers of modern date, and the door in the north wall is modern.

The west tower wears a somewhat battered appear- ance from the friable nature of the sandstone of which it is built, and most of the windows and other dressings inside and out, including the lofty arch to the nave, have been renewed in Bath stone. It has a large square stair-turret on the south side, and is finished by a plain parapet of modern date.

The transept chapel, which is shown in Cracklow's view (c. 1824) as having a large square window with a wooden frame in its south wall, now has a poor three- light traceried opening of discordant character in its place ; but the three-light window in its east wall and the small single-light opening to the west are ori- ginal early 14th-century features, though a good deal

��from about 1400. It is of three lights with six small lights over, under a square hood-moulding, which terminates on one side in the bust of an angel and on the other in that of a mitred bishop or abbot. The westernmost of the three lights has its sill lowered in a very peculiar manner to serve as a low side window a feature very noticeable in Cracklow's view. This light alone retains the original iron stanchions and cross-bars, and the lower part has the mullions rebated for a shutter.

The windows in the north wall and the door in the east wall of the north chapel are insertions of the early part of the igth century, the former probably replacing lancets. A blocked recess with an oak lintel in its west wall seems to have been a door of commu- nication between the chapel and the aisle. The floor of the chapel is raised above that of the chancel, and there is a platform or altar-pace at the east end. The roof is ceiled.

Both the nave and the chancel roofs are ancient and

��~ 6b One of the capitals at Compton it precisely similar, and there are others very like it at Rustington and Sompting, Sussex.

��The lame masons must have worked in and out of the two counties, as at Alfold and other Surrey churches there is a

57

��striking resemblance to features in the sister county.

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