PARISHES OF SURREY

'Parishes: Capel', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 134-141. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42945. Date accessed: 05 November 2008.

The parish of Capel is bounded on the north by Dorking, of which it was formerly a part, on the east by Leigh and Newdigate, on the south by the county of Sussex, on the west by Wotton and Ockley. A part of Capel lying across the north of Ockley separates that parish from Dorking. The body of Capel parish is 4 miles from north to south and 1½ miles east to west, but this projecting tongue makes the breadth at the north end 3 miles. It contains 5,680 acres of land and 15 of water. The soil of the greater part is Wealden Clay, but the north-west part abuts upon the high Green Sands of Leith Hill and Coldharbour Common, rising to 900ft. above the sea. In this part of the parish there was a landslip in the reign of Elizabeth, recorded by Camden and Aubrey, when the sand slipped upon the underlying clay and made a precipitous scar in the side of the hill, even now visible for many miles from the southward. The place was called Constable's Mosses; Constable resided at a farm still called Mosses. The road running under or across this landslip from Coldharbour to Leith Hill—since 1896 a public road, before that date private (though a public footpath existed and a public bridle-track crossed it)— is called Cockshott's Road, from a farm at the end of it; and may fairly claim to be among the most picturesque roads in the south of England. The road slipped again badly about 1866. Capel parish is traversed by the main road from Dorking to Horsham, made in 1755, and the northern part by the old road from London to Arundel through Coldharbour, diverted since 1896 in its course from Coldharbour Common towards Ockley as a part of the transactions for opening Cockshott's Road. The London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway line to Portsmouth passes through the parish, in which lies Holmwood Station, opened in 1867. The parish is agricultural except for small brick and tile works. There are open commons at Beare Green, Misbrook's Green, Clark's Green, and Coldharbour Common or Mosses' Hill, so called from the farm mentioned above. Many small pieces of waste were brought into cultivation early in the 19th century.
There is one conspicuous work of antiquity in the parish now. On the hill called Anstiebury, formerly Hanstiebury, above Coldharbour, 800 ft. above the sea—taken from Dorking and added to Capel by the Local Government Act of 1894—is a fine prehistoric fortification. A nearly circular top of a hill has been surrounded by banks and ditches, triple upon the most exposed sides, but probably never more than single and now completely obliterated for a short space on the south, where the slope is nearly perpendicular, and where some old digging for sandstone seems to have gone on. The space inside the inner bank is about 11 acres, the shape an ellipse, roughly speaking. The hill is thickly planted. Mr. Walters, of Bury Hill, Dorking, owned it and began the planting which makes the shape of the works harder to see, in summer time especially. There is a damp spot inside where a water supply might have been found, and a good water supply in a shallow well in a cottage garden close outside it. The entrance to the north-east, where a grass road comes through the banks, is not the original entrance, but was made when part of the interior was cultivated, after Mr. Walters' time, for access by carts. The entrance was more probably on the north side, nearly opposite the gate which leads into the wood from Anstie Lane. A path here crosses the banks diagonally, flanked in its course by the innermost bank, here higher than elsewhere. Flint arrow-heads are said to have been found in or near the works, and also coins near it, but exact records are lacking.
The work is the largest of its kind in Surrey, next to the inclosure on St. George's Hill.

Anstie Farm, north-east of the hill on the high ground, (fn. 1) still held of the manor of Milton, is no doubt Hanstega, held of that manor in 1086, but it is in Dorking parish, not Capel. The land reached down to the Roman road eastward, and to the old road from Dorking westward. Either might be the 'highway' which probably named the place.
The Stone Street enters Capel close by Buckinghill Farm and leaves it close to Anstie Grange Farm. It has been traced for the entire length in the parish, and excavated by the writer. Two or three feet of the centre of the causeway were found intact in the ground, made of flints set in cement, as hard as a wall. It is unused now throughout, except for a very few yards near Beare, where it coincides with a private road. In the field opposite Beare its course is very visible. It goes up the hill in the copse called Round Woods in a slight cutting; it leaves the new house called Minnick Fold on the right and Minnick Wood Farm on the left. It was excavated in Perry Field, the field beyond, which was not cultivated until after 1824.
Capel was the old Waldeburgh or Waleburgh borough of Dorking; the borough or tithing in the Weald. It was a chapelry of Dorking till late 13th or early 14th century. (fn. 2)
The (National) school was built in 1826 and enlarged in 1872.
There is a Wesleyan chapel, and a Friends' meeting house.

The Society of Friends was early established, and is still well represented in Capel. The Bax family, who lived at Pleystowe and Kitlands at opposite ends of the parish, were among Fox's earliest converts, and are often mentioned in his Journal. The Steeres and Constables were other families of Friends. At Pleystowe a meeting was held which was as old as any in the county; a burying-ground was made on Richard Bax's ground there in 1672. The meeting house in Capel was built in 1725. (fn. 3)
There are a number of important old houses in and around the parish. One of these is still called Temple Elfande, or Elfold. The name belonged to a manor of the Templars transferred to the Hospitallers which had no preceptory attached. (fn. 4) The name Tournament Field, and other such names occurring in the 18th-century leases, are most likely an invention of the Cowpers in the 17th century. For tournaments, always forbidden by law, would not have been habitually held at a small preceptory, had there been one here, of which there is no evidence. The present house is in substance of mid-16th-century date, and was built by Sir Richard Cowper. It is built of narrow red bricks and half-timber work, chiefly covered with tile-hanging, and with stone slabs on the roofs, and was evidently much larger at one time, as, besides an entire wing, now long since pulled down, foundations of out-buildings and of garden and courtyard walls are met with in digging. A curious feature outside is a cross-shaped loophole over the front entrance. Some excellent and rare encaustic tiles, 5⁵/8 in. square, have been dug up lately on the site, the patterns of which help to give the date of the house as not long after 1541. The character of the older chalk fireplaces inside confirms this date. There are also the usual farm-house fireplace, with a great beam over the opening, of great width and depth, several large carved oak brackets supporting the beam-ends of the upper stories, the pilasters of a stone doorway, and many original doors of good design, besides panelling of several dates. The loftiness of some of the rooms on the first floor is noteworthy, as are the coved or cradled plaster ceilings of the upper passages. It had for long sunk to the position of a mere farm-house before passing into the hands of the present tenant, Captain Harrison, R.N.
Aldhurst Farm, rather nearer to the village, is another ancient house, although of less consideration. It has evidently been extended and partially rebuilt more than once, but the nucleus is still that of an early 16th-century timber house, with very low ceilings and stone-slab roof. Inside, an old staircase and some good doors are to be seen. In the wooded bottom to the south-west several fine footprints of the iguanodon were found in grubbing up trees some years ago, and are now preserved here.
Taylor's is a picturesque house still retaining as a nucleus the timber open-roofed hall of mid-14th-century date, and also an oak screen of roughly gouged-out timbers and moulded beams of the same exceptionally early date. There are good panelled rooms of later date, and the 15th, 16th, and 17th-century additions all present interesting features. Externally most of the timber construction is masked by modern tile hanging.
Greenes is another ancient house, once much larger, and still showing a timber hall about 18 ft. wide internally, divided up at a later date into floors, but still boasting some fine massive oak trusses and story-posts, with moulded arched braces and king-posts over. A smaller hall, about 15 ft. wide, detached from the other, and now used as a stable, appears to be but a fragment of a range of timber buildings. It also has a series of huge roof-trusses of king-post construction and arched braces of four-centred shape. These two halls appear to be of late 14th-century and early 15th-century date respectively.
Osbrooks, formerly Holbrooks and Upbrooks, after passing through the farm-house stage, has of late years been carefully restored, and now presents a most interesting example of the country gentleman's house of the end of the 16th or an early part of the 17th century. It is mostly of timber framing, filled in with herring-bone brickwork. Its tiled roofs and good groups of chimneys, the many gables with their barge-boards, the mullioned windows, and the porch with open balustrades to the sides, combine to produce, with the wooded glen and winding stream in the rear, a most picturesque whole.
Bonet's or Bonnet's Farm is another ancient house of quite exceptional beauty and interest, although shorn of its ancient proportions. The present front has been modernized, but in the rear are two fine gables, projecting with brackets over the ground and first floors. These show timber framing, with an oriel window, stone-slab roofs, leaded glazing, and two exceptionally good brick chimneys.
Other old farm-houses and cottages in the parish, such as Pleystowe and Ridge, are well worthy of examination for the features of antiquity to be found in them; and in Capel village a picturesque piece of half-timber work, with a good chimney and roof, may be noted among others. There are now two old inns—the Crown Inn, originally a farm-house, adjoining the churchyard on the south, and the 'King's Head.' The former has half-timber gables, with pendants at the apex of the barge-boards, on one of which is carved 'W S. 1687.'

Broomells is now a new house. The name, as Brome, occurs in a charter of the 13th century. (fn. 4a) It is not to be confounded with Broome Hall, the seat of Sir A. Hargreaves Brown, bart. The latter large house, in a commanding situation under Leith Hill, was mainly built by Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode, the king's printer, circa 1830. It was afterwards the seat of Mr. Labouchere, and then of Mr. Pennington, M.P. for Stockport. Sir A. Hargreaves Brown made extensive additions to it. It used to be called Lower House, but it is mentioned by Aubrey as Broomhall.
Kitlands, the property of Mr. A. R. Heath, is on the site of a farm which is mentioned in the Court Rolls in 1437. The house was reconstructed by degrees by Mr. Serjeant Heath, who bought it in 1824, and by Mr. D. D. Heath, his son, uncle to the present owner. But part of the interior is the old timber building of circa 1500. The place was held by the Bax family from 1622 to 1824, a very unusually long tenure of the same farm by a yeoman family, notwithstanding many vague statements of other immemorial holdings.
Arnolds, formerly called Arnold's Beare, was rebuilt by Mr. Bayley in 1885. Mrs. Bayley, his widow, has recently sold it. The Arnolds were also landholders in Betchworth. Beare, now called Bearehurst, the seat of Mr. Longman, and Beare Green, near Holmwood Station, show that the name Beare, which occurs in the Court Rolls of the 14th century, was widely spread. A Walter de la Bere had land in Ewekene (Capel) in 1263. (fn. 5)
Lyne House, the seat of Mr. Evelyn Broadwood, is a property bought by Mr. James Tschudi Broadwood circa 1792.
On the border, within a few yards of Sussex, is Shiremark Mill, built in 1774 out of the materials of the old Manor Mill at Mill House on Clark's Farm. (fn. 6)

Coldharbour is an ecclesiastical district formed in 1850. The church and the principal cluster of cottages stand in Capel parish. The body of the village is still called The Harbour, but Crocker's Farm and the cottages opposite used to be called Little Anstie, as opposed to Anstie Farm (vide supra).

The church is higher above the sea than any other in Surrey—over 800 ft.—and the sea is visible from the churchyard, through Shoreham Gap. The old road from London to Arundel ran through Coldharbour. The original line below the church was in the ravine at the lower side of the common, quite impassable for wheels. In the old title deeds it is referred to as the King's High Way. The village is as picturesque as any in England. On a stone in a cottage wall, in Rowmount, are the initials 'J. C. (John Constable) 1562.' The stone has been placed in a later wall. Constable's Farm was the house on the road a few yards higher up the hill, which may very well date from before that time.

The endowed school was founded by Mr. Robert Barclay of Bury Hill before 1819, with £50 a year from Government stock. It was further supported by subscriptions, and enlarged in 1846, 1851, 1860, and 1888. It was a free school from the beginning, but the endowment used to provide not only pay for the teacher, but a gown and bonnet for the girls, and smock-frock and boots for the boys annually. The infant school was built by Mr. John Labouchere in 1851. It was endowed by his family after his death in 1862. It is now brought under one management with the endowed school.

MANORS

CAPEL was, and is, for the most part, in the manor of Dorking, though it also extends into Milton Manor. Parochially it was all included in Dorking.

From a suit in 1279 it appears that in the reign of Henry III John de Elefold had granted lands in Capel to the Master of the Templars in England, and his son Thomas in that year withdrew from an attempt to recover them. (fn. 7) In 1308, when the Templars' lands were seized, Temple Elfold was among them. (fn. 8) The land was known later as the manor of TEMPLE ELFANDE. With the rest of the Templars' lands it passed to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in accordance with a suggestion made by Pope John XXII. (fn. 9) The Chartulary of St. John of Jerusalem (fn. 10) describes it in 1308 as held of the Earl of Warenne, but no service was done and no ecclesiastical benefice was supported by it. There was a house, and the total value was £4 11s. 2d. a year. It remained with the Knights of St. John till the dissolution of the order, 1539, when it appears as Temple Elphaud, in Surrey. (fn. 11)

Knights of St. John. Gules a cross argent.

After the Dissolution it was granted to John Williams and Antony Stringer, who conveyed almost immediately to William Cowper (fn. 12) of London, who also held land at Horley and in Charlwood, Surrey.

The Cowper, or (more usually) Cooper, family continued to hold for nearly two centuries. In March 1590–1 John Cowper, serjeant-at-law, the son of William Cowper, died, seised of a capital messuage in Capel called Temple Elephant. (fn. 13) In the next year John's brother Richard, who had the reversion of the estate after the death of John's widow Julian, who survived Richard, (fn. 14) also died, leaving Richard his son and heir, who was then aged eighteen. (fn. 15) The younger Richard, afterwards knighted, (fn. 16) married, first, Elizabeth Young, to whose father Richard the elder had mortgaged Temple Elfold, and secondly, Elizabeth daughter of Sir Thomas Gresham. He died seised in 1625. (fn. 17)

Cowper of Temple Elfande. Argent a bend engrailed between two lions sable with three roundels argent on the bend.

His son Richard Cowper or Cooper settled Temple Elfold on Barbara Miller his wife, on his marriage in 1646. She died without issue the same year, and Richard resettled the estate on his second wife Sarah Knightley, in 1647. His son and heir by her, John, settled it on his marriage with Elizabeth Lewin in 1671. (fn. 18) Their son John sold it to Ezra Gill of Eashing in 1728. (fn. 19) Ezra Gill settled the manor, manor-house, and park of 144 acres, on 16 April 1729, in anticipation of his marriage with Mary Woods, (fn. 20) who died 1767, when the estate passed to her son William Gill. He died in 1815, and was succeeded by his brother Henry Streeter Gill, who died in 1818. (fn. 21) His daughter married J. H. Frankland, who assumed the name of Gill. They sold Temple Elfold in 1833 to Mr. James Tschudi Broadwood of Lyne Capel, whose great-grandson is the present owner.

Broadwood of Capel. Ermine two pales vairy or and gules and a chief vert with a ring between two fir trees torn up by the roots or therein.

The reputed manor of HENFOLD in Capel appears first in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1511 and 1512 the manor of Aglondes More and Henfold, in East Betchworth, Buckland, and Capel, was conveyed by Robert Gaynsford to Sir Henry Wyatt. (fn. 22) This was Sir Henry Wyatt, father to Sir Thomas Wyatt the poet, who in 1540 conveyed it to Robert Young. (fn. 23) Robert died seised of it in 1548, leaving his grandson John, then nine years old, to succeed him. (fn. 24) John died in 1629, leaving a son and heir William, (fn. 25) who succeeded him. Henfold, however, was probably not a real manor. In 1776 in a court roll of the manor of West Betchworth, and again in 1823, Henfold is mentioned as in the manor, being broken up into several holdings. The name Aglondes More has disappeared. The house called Henfold, in Capel, is the seat of Mrs. Farnell Watson, and is in the manor of West Betchworth. (fn. 26)

CHURCHES

The church of St. John the Baptist (until the early part of the 16th century dedicated in honour of St. Lawrence) stands on the west of the main road that runs north and south through the village, and opposite to the road that forks off to the east in the direction of Temple Elfold. It is on somewhat elevated ground, although the surrounding country is flat, and commands pretty and extensive views of wooded and pastoral scenery. The churchyard, bounded on the east and south by a stone wall, is entered through a modern lych-gate, and also by a stone stile, ancient at least in idea. A great slab near it bears the ripple-marks which are often met with in this locality. The path to the south door is of stone flags. There is a fine old yew, and also a number of cypresses, and among the gravestones are many of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Until its enlargement in 1865 the church presented a very good example of the hamlet-chapel of the late 12th or early 13th century. (fn. 27) Even now, in spite of a new aisle, vestries, and organ-chamber on the north side, and other modern alterations, its ancient proportions and character can be made out without much difficulty. It consisted originally of a nave, 42 ft. 3 in. long by 22 ft. 9 in. broad, with a western porch, and a chancel 25 ft. long by 15 ft. 9 in. in width, with roofs of comparatively low pitch on account of the exceptional breadth of the nave, and a timber-framed bell-turret at the west end, terminating in a short oakshingled spire. The roofs were covered with Horsham slabs, and the walls were built of local hard sandstone rubble, plastered, with dressings of hard chalk and fire-stone from the neighbouring hills. Cracklow's view of 1824 shows the church in this state, with the three lancet windows in the south wall of the chancel and the curious diagonal buttresses at the angles of the nave. The chancel had a wooden-framed east window under a circular head; there was no porch to the south door (which was the same as the present), the spire of the bell-turret was not so tapering as now, and a curious late vestry is shown attached to the south side of the west porch. As to the nave windows, what appears to be the base of an original lancet is shown to the west of the old south door, and above it a wooden three-light opening, evidently made to light the western gallery, while to the east of the doorway is another three-light window, with a square hood moulding, which looks like a 16th-century insertion.

With regard to the north and west sides of the building, not shown in Cracklow's view, it is not difficult to reconstruct the plan on paper with the aid of the features still remaining in the actual church. The massive west wall, no less than 4 ft. thick, remains much as it was erected about 1190. The other walls of the nave are 3 ft. in thickness, and those of the chancel 2 ft. 9 in., both dimensions being exceptional for a comparatively small aisleless building. Originally the church had no buttresses, and it seems probable that it was lighted by three lancet windows on the north side of the nave and two on its southern side, of which now no trace remains, the present windows being all modern. The west and south doorways are original features, and most interesting. We cannot now say if there was the usual north doorway in the nave, as the aisle of 1865 has made a clean sweep of any such ancient features, but it seems improbable that there would be three doors in such a comparatively small building. The two that remain are interesting, the western being slightly the narrower— 3 ft. 6 in. wide, while the southern measures 3 ft. 10½ in. The height of the internal opening of the western, which has a semicircular head, is altogether exceptional, nearly 12 ft. The external arch is set much lower, leaving that peculiar tympanum between the two heads so often met with, and the reason for which is one of the minor problems of ecclesiology. Sometimes, as at Trotton Church, Sussex, a consecration cross has been found painted in this blank space. These doorways also have the additional peculiarity that the two apex stones of the external arches are left as projecting blocks on the inside, as though meant to be carved. This is found also in the south doorway of Wanborough Chapel, in the west of the county. (fn. 28) Both the west and south doorways are in hard clunch, or fire-stone, somewhat sharply pointed, and of one order. They have hoodmouldings, without stops or return ends at the springings, of three sides of an octagon in section, the inner side being embellished with a continuous border of dog-tooth ornament. The original tooling, where left, shows somewhat coarse vertical and diagonal lines, done with the broad chisel and axe. The effect of these severely simple but well-proportioned doorways is enhanced by their retaining their original wrought-iron strap-hinges, both lower and upper hinges having two small ornamental straps with curled ends on either side of them. The hinge-straps themselves terminate in similar scrolls. The latch and drop-ring handle of the western door appears to be old also, and are perhaps original. Although the boarding on which this ironwork is mounted is modern, the plain ledges across the backs appear to be old. There are three steps down into the church at the west end and two at the south door; the latter is set to the east of the centre of the nave, instead of to the west.

The original chancel arch has disappeared, and its place has been taken by a wider one of early 14th-century design in fire-stone, which appears to be modern. We may surmise that the ancient arch had square jambs, and resembled in design the two doorways. The present tracery window in the east wall is also entirely modern, and replaces the wood-framed opening of the churchwarden era, shown in Cracklow's view, which latter, in all probability, displaced two lancet openings of the same character as those in the side walls. There were probably three of these in either wall, but those on the north side have been destroyed in making the organ chamber and vestries. The three lancets in the south wall of the chancel are the only original windows left in the church. They are very interesting examples of their period (c. 1190), and have happily passed unscathed through the ordeal of restoration. Like the rest of the original ashlaring, their dressings are worked in clunch and firestone. They have sharply-pointed heads to the external openings, the curves being so slight as almost to present the appearance of straight lines, (fn. 29) and are rebated both inside and out, which implies that the glazing was originally placed against the outer rebate (instead of, as now, in a groove), and that the inner rebate was occupied by a shutter. It is not often that this double rebate is found. The internal heads are splayed equally with the jambs and are almost semicircular in outline, the point of the arch being so slight as to be unnoticeable.

Beneath the easternmost lancet is a pretty little piscina of the same period. It has a segmental head beneath a blind trefoil arch of horse-shoe outline, The drain has a small circular dishing. The aumbry, of similar form, in the opposite wall is modern. In about 1300 diagonal buttresses with gabled cappingstones were added to the angles of the nave. To the same period belongs the western porch, so far as its walls are concerned. The doorway, with its pointed segmental head, and the square loophole in the northern wall, are of this date, but the remarkable roof is a survival of the original timber porch, the walls being built anew, probably because of the exposed situation. Each separate rafter is shaped as a bold horseshoe trefoil, as though built for a barge board. There is something very suggestive of Saracenic art in the whole look of this roof.

Of the original font, the Sussex marble base alone remains, being built in against the nave wall, west of the south porch. It shows the common arrangement of four angle shafts and a central drum, through which the drain was pierced, the latter making a large hole in the base. Doubtless the bowl was of square form, with perhaps a shallow arcade cut round the sides, according to the common type, of which so many examples remain in the home counties. (fn. 30) The modern font is made of serpentine, with some little carving and gilding.

The roofs of the chancel and nave are both ancient, and possibly coeval with the original building. They are of trussed collar construction, with massive tie-beams and wall plates, the latter being of enormous scantling, and worked with double hollows in the chancel, exactly the same as at West Clandon chancel. The posts and beams of the timber bellturret, and its carved braces, appear to have been partially renewed. The copings to the gables are modern.

In pre-Reformation wills an altar of our Lady and an image of the same are specified. This altar was probably on the south of the chancel arch on the nave side. An image of St. Lawrence (and probably an altar) stood in the chancel.

To the south wall of the chancel are affixed two monuments of some interest, the eastern being that of John Cowper and his wife, date 1590. It is composed of alabaster, with panels of black marble, on which is cut the inscription, the whole retaining the original colouring in a very perfect state. At the apex, within a circular disc, is a shield of Cowper impaling argent a fesse between three trefoils sable, which are the arms of Blackdenn. This shield is festooned with twisted red ribbons, and stands within a broken pediment, beneath which and an entablature bordered by black marble columns is a circular arch. Within this are the kneeling figures of John Cowper and his wife, facing each other at a fald-stool of graceful design, on which are prayerbooks. The husband is represented in the scarlet robe of a serjeant-at-law, with a coif and a cloak over his shoulder. The wife's figure, kneeling on a cushion, in the ruff, stomacher, and fardingale of the period, is uncoloured— probably an indication that the monument was put up during her widowhood, and that thus the effigy was not completed as to colouring by her descendants. The inscription in the two panels reads:—
HEARE LYETH[e] BVRYED NEER TO THIS MON[ume]NT IOHN COWPER LATE SERIEANT AT LAWE DECEASED WHO WAS BORNE AT HORLYE IN YE COVNTY OF SVRREY IN AO DO: 1539. & AT HIS AGE OF 26 YEARS TOKE TO WIEFE IVLYAN THE DAVGTER OF CVTHBERT BLACKDENN ESQUIOR AND THEN BEGAN TO STVDDY THE COM[m]ON LAWE IN THE INNER TEMPLE AND THER C[ont]INVED 24 YEARES WHICH TIME HE SPENT IN THIS MANNER. 8 . YEARES VNDER THE BARR . 8 . YEARS AT THE BARR . AND . 8 . YEARS AT THE BENCHE AND THEN WAS CALLED TO BE SERIEANT AT THE LAWE IN WCH DEGREE HE CONTYN[u]ED ONE YEARE AND A HAVLFE AND THEN ENDED HIS LIEFE THE 15 DAYE OF MARCHE AO 1590, BEING THEN OF THE AGE OF . 51 . YEARS.
NEC PRIMVS NEC VLTIMVS MVLTI ANTECESSERVNT ET OMNES SEQVENTVR.

Below the inscription panels is an apron of scrollwork in alabaster.

The other monument, to the westward, is also finely designed, according to its period, and is in Sicilian marble, with Corinthian columns and pediment, having at top a cartouche, bearing the family arms, and over it the crest of a black lion holding a silver tilting-spear. The inscription is as follows:—
"Underneath lyeth the body of ROBT COWPER late of London, Gent. a younger son of RICHARD COWPER late of Temple Elfont, Esqr (by sarah Eldest daughter of wm knightley late of Kingston Esqr.) who was son & Heir of SR RICHARD COWPER Knt, by dame ELIZ. 2d Daughter of SR THOMAS GRESHAM KNT He Dyed Ye 23d of may 1720, In the 65th year of his Age. To whose Memory this Monumt was Erected by his 3 Neices, the Daughters & Coheirs of RICHARD COWPER late of London Gent. Vizt Sarah the Eldest Daughter Wife of John Vincent of Hampstead in the County of Middx Brewer, Mary ye 2d Daughter, wife of Henry Ashton of Hackney in ye same County of Midd. Gent. and Hannah the youngest Daughter wife of RICHARD DAWSON of Lambeth in the County of Surry Glass maker."

In addition to these monuments, Manning and Bray give the following:—

'On a brass plate in capitals':—

'HERE LYETH THE BODY OF DAME ELIZABETH, THE SECOND DAUGHTER OF SIR THOMAS GRESHAM OF LYMSFEILD IN THE COUNTY OF SURREY, KNT., AND WIFE OF SIR RICHARD COWPER OF CAPEL IN THE SAID COUNTY, KNT. SHEE DECEASED THE XXTH OF AUGUST ANNO DOMINI 1633.'

'On a brass plate, on a gravestone, in capitals':—

'HERE LYETH INTERRED THE BODY OF SARAH COWPER, WIFE OF RICHARD COWPER, OF TEMPLE ELFANT IN SURREY, ESQ., ELDEST DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM KNIGHTLEY OF KINGSTONE-UPON-THAMES, ESQ., HAVING HAD ISSUE SEAVEN SONNES & ONE DAUGHTER, AND DECEASED THE 3D DAY OF NOVEMBER IN THE 38TH YEAR OF HER AGE, ANNO DOMINI 1662.'

'On a black marble grave-stone in the chancel in capitals, is this inscription':—

'SARAH, DAUGHTER OF JOHN COWPER ESQ., AGED 9 MONTHS. DIED THE 22D AUGUST 1676.'

'On the floor':—

'WILLIAM HEWITT, 1760.'

There are no remains of ancient wall paintings or glass, but in the nave, chancel, and north aisle are many modern stained glass windows, by Clayton & Bell and other firms, some very good (as in the aisle and the side windows of the chancel), others of poor quality. The seating, pulpit, reredos, and other fittings are all also modern, but in the vestry are preserved a number of carved pew doors, of 17th-century date, worked up into a cupboard; also a wrought iron hour-glass stand.

The registers date from 1653.

Among the plate is a two-handled cup, of date about 1655, evidently a porringer, and very similar in design and size to one in use as a communion cup at Winterborne Whitchurch, Dorset, which is dated 1653. There is some repoussé ornamentation in circles on the bowl, with traces of gilding, and the handles are S-shaped. Beneath the foot is engraved a Tudor rose within a beaded circle. The bowl has at some time been soldered to the foot, which was probably higher originally. There are patens of 1781 and 1786, some modern pieces; and a pewter plate bearing (1) the name RICHARD KING, and devices of two bears or badgers flanked by fluted columns; (2) a crowned rose, with a word beginning 'GRA . .'; and (3), S OVER EE.

Of the six bells two are 19th century, two are by Thomas Mears, and dated 1797, and no. 4 and 5 bear the following inscriptions respectively:—

'OUR HOPE IS IN THE LORD R.E. 1605,' and 'OMNIA HABENT FINEM R.E. 1593,' the initials in both cases being those of Richard Eldridge, a well-known Surrey founder.

CHRIST CHURCH, COLDHARBOUR

CHRIST CHURCH, COLDHARBOUR, was built in 1848 at the expense of Mr. Labouchere, of Broome Hall. The Duke of Norfolk gave the ground in the waste of the manor. It has a plain nave and chancel in 13th-century style, with rather a fine pointed arch between them. The church is of local stone, with chalk dressings. There is a stone bell-turret on the west end. It was refitted, and an organ chamber added in 1904 by Sir A. Hargreaves Brown in memory of his mother. The heads on the corbels at the spring of the arch over the east window outside are portraits of Mr. John Labouchere the founder and of Mrs. Labouchere.

ADVOWSONS

Capel was originally a chapelry of Dorking. The chapel, which gives its name to the parish, seems first mentioned in a confirmation by Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester 1129–71, of the grants of churches, &c., given to the Priory of Lewes by the Earls of Warenne. He confirms to them 'Ecclesiam de Dorking cum Capella de la Wachna.' The charter is witnessed by Robert, Archdeacon of Surrey, who witnessed the charter of Henry to Waverley in 1130. (fn. 31) This seems to be Capel; for in 1361 Adam atte Plesshette granted land which had been held by Edith Pipestre of the grant of Maurice de Ewekne lying in the parish 'Capelle de Ewekene,' along with land in Ockley at Henhurst which is on the border of Capel. (fn. 32) In Pope Nicholas's taxation of 1291 'Dorking cum Capella' is the style of Dorking parish; so that it would appear that Capel became first called a separate parish between 1291 and 1361. This was possibly about 1334–7, when the church of Dorking with Capel was transferred from Lewes Priory to Reigate Priory, just founded by the last Earl of Warenne and Surrey. (fn. 33) The tithes of Capel were let immediately afterwards; (fn. 34) and the whole revenue was entirely at the disposal of the priory, and was granted to Lord William Howard with Reigate Priory at the Dissolution. The lay impropriator henceforth paid what he chose to the curate-in-charge of Capel. This state of things existed until 1868, when an endowment was raised by neighbouring landowners.

Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, son of Lord William Howard, leased the rectory, as it was called, and possibly the advowson also, to John Cowper, 28 May 1587. Julian Cowper, John's widow, conveyed to Richard Cowper, John's nephew and eventual heir, in 1603. (fn. 35) The Cowpers of Temple Elfold in Capel conveyed the lease to other persons for terms of years only, and in 1644 Mr. Richard Cowper had the advowson, and engaged in a lively controversy with the Committee of Plundered Ministers, declining to pay anybody else than the Rev. John Allen, whom they had removed. (fn. 36) He carried his point, and though the committee kept the man of their choice, they had to pay him out of the estates of the Chapter of Winchester. (fn. 37) But for an interval, while the controversy was proceeding, Capel baptisms and burials were performed at Newdigate, there being no parson in Capel. In 1660 the Cowper leases expired, and the rectory of Capel was, with others, confirmed to the Earl of Peterborough, as heir of Lord William Howard. (fn. 38) His daughter Mary sold in 1677 to Sir John Parsons. The widow of his son Humphrey settled it on her daughter Anne, wife of Sir John Hynde Cotton. In 1766 they sold to John Rogers for £5,700, subject to the payment of £20 a year to the curate. He died 1778, leaving it to his wife, who married secondly William Chivers, to whom it was conveyed. William Chivers died 1805, when it descended to his nephew Noah Chivers, who conveyed in 1812 to the Duke of Norfolk. His heir sold in 1844 to Charles Webb, who died 1869, leaving his property in trust; and the advowson and rectory are now in the hands of his trustees. (fn. 39)

Coldharbour is an ecclesiastical district formed in 1850 under 7 & 8 Vict. cap. 94, from portions of the parishes of Capel, Dorking, Wotton, and Ockley.

The living is in the gift of the trustees of Mr. John Labouchere.

CHARITIES

Smith's Charity is distributed as in other Surrey parishes.

Capel Cottage Hospital was built by the widow of the Rev. John Broadwood in 1864. It is maintained chiefly by public subscription.

In 1871 Mr. Charles Webb of Clapham was commemorated by his family in the building of almshouses for six aged couples.

Mr. Thomas Summers, of Horsham, left £100 in 1807, which was invested in 3 per cent. consols. The income provides bread for the poor (see Droking also). The vicar and churchwardens of Capel, who were trustees of Smith's and Summers' Charity, obtained leave from the Charity Commissioners to devote the funds to a more useful purpose, the bread having been distributed among a large number of people quite well able to provide for themselves, or given to the poor in such quantities that they could not consume it while it was good. All the bakers in the parish had to be employed, and the baker in Coldharbour (q.v.) sent bread three miles and a half to Capel, which was given to the Coldharbour people who had walked the same distance to receive it, and who carried it back to a hundred yards from where it was baked. The Parish Council, however, on becoming manager of parochial charities restored the bread dole.

Footnotes

1	Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 570, curiously misdescribed Anstie Farm as 'at the foot of the hill southward,' confusing it with Kitlands.
2	See the account of the advowson.
3	Books lately in custody of Mr. Marsh of Dorking.
4	See Lewes MS. 200, fol. 6b.
4	a Brayley, Hist. Surr. v, 73.
5	Assize R. 47 Hen. III, Surr. R. 13.
6	Deeds in possession of late Rev. T. R. O'Fflahertie of Capel.
7	Assize R. no. 879, m. 14.
8	Dugdale, Mon. vi (2), 833.
9	J. Delaville le Roulx, Doc. concernant les Templiers, p. 50, no. xxxviii.
10	Cotton MS. Nero, E. vi, fol. 141.
11	Exch. Mins. Accts. 31 & 32 Hen. VIII, no. 114, Midd.
12	L. and P. Hen. VIII, xviii (1), g. 346 (3), and g. 226 (79.)
13	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxxviii, 64.
14	Deed of 1601 in possession of the late Rev. T. R. O'Fflahertie of Capel. Richard the elder had mortgaged his reversion and Richard the younger reclaimed it.
15	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxxxiii, 104.
16	The name 'Lady Cooper,' no doubt Elizabeth Gresham, is scratched with a diamond upon an existing window at Temple Elfold.
17	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxix, 30.
18	Deeds copied by the late Rev. T. R. O'Fflahertie of Capel.
19	Deeds quoted by Manning and Bray, Hist. of Surr. iii, 597.
20	Deed communicated by Mr. Percy Woods, C.B.
21	V.C.H. Surr. ii, 611; Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 55 Geo. III.
22	Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 3 Hen. VIII; East. 4 & 5 Hen. VIII.
23	Ibid. Trin. 32 Hen. VIII.
24	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), lxxxvii, 64.
25	Ibid. cccclxxv, 97.
26	Rolls copied by the Rev. T. R. O'Fflahertie of Capel.
27	The chapel mentioned in the confirmation of Henry of Blois (see advowson) must have been a timber building, erected perhaps earlier in the 12th century, and probably it would be much smaller than the stone chapel that succeeded it.
28	Possibly the projecting stones were left to prevent the door being lifted bodily off its hinges.
29	In this they recall the lancets of the chancel at Chipstead, where the internal heads are gabled or triangular in form.
30	As at Beddington, Great Bookham, West Clandon, Frensham, Merstham, Mickleham, Seale, and Worplesdon in Surrey; and many others in Kent, Sussex, Middlesex, &c.
31	Exch. T.R. B 5/5; fol. 49. The volume is also lettered Cartae Antiquae de Prioratu de Lewes.
32	Charter in possession of the late Rev. T. R. O'Fflahertie, Vicar of Capel. Compare Manning and Bray, Surr. iii, App. cxxx; 'land in the parishes of Dorking and Ewekenes' in a charter of 1481. 'Ewekenes,' now usually spelt Eutons, is a farm in Capel; there are remains of a moat near it.
33	Winton Epis. Reg. Orlton, i, fol. 57 d. But in 1508 it was still called a chapel of Dorking.
34	Winton Epis.Reg.Edendon,ii,fol.41–2.
35	Deed at Loseley reciting the former lease to John Cowper.
36	Add. MS. (B.M.), 15669, fol. 11.
37	Bodl. MSS. 323, p. 271; 325, p. 223; 327, p. 508.
38	Pat. 12 Chas. II, pt. xviii, no. 16. Pro concessione Johanni Vicecomiti Mordaunt, in trust for his elder brother the earl's daughter Mary. (See above.)
39	Abstract of title to rectory and glebe of Capel. Sold in 1910 to Mr. Crisp of Godalming.

DORKING

'Parishes: Dorking', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 141-150. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42946. Date accessed: 05 November 2008. >

Dorchinges (xi cent.); Dorkinges (xiii cent.); Dorking (xviii cent.).

Dorking is a market town 23½ miles south-west of London, 12 miles east of Guildford. The market was claimed by the Earl of Warenne and Surrey in 1278 as of immemorial antiquity. (fn. 1) The parish is bounded on the north by the two Bookhams and Mickleham, on the east by Betchworth, on the south by Capel, on the west by Wotton. It contains 1,329 acres of land and 10 of water, and is about 5 miles from north to south and 4 from east to west, but is slightly narrower towards the south. Capel, which lies south of it, was anciently part of the parish, and for the most part of the manor. The parish extends over the usual succession of soils in this part of Surrey. The northern part is on the chalk downs, partly capped by gravel and sand. The town and church are on the sand, the southern part is on the Wealden clay.

From the high chalk down about Denbies, and from Ranmore Common on the north-west border of the parish, the views are beautiful and extensive. Between the spectator and the steep side of Box Hill, immediately to the east, the transverse valley of the Mole runs through the chalk range. Southward lies Dorking in the valley between the chalk and the wellwooded sand hills, which rise to the fir-tree clad heights of Redlands Wood, and to Anstiebury and Leith Hill beyond. The lower ground of the Weald, thickly wooded, extends south-eastwards, and the horizon is marked by the South Downs near Lewes. The boundary of the sand and the clay runs north and south for some way on the southern side of Dorking. The Redlands Woods are a steep sand ridge of north and south direction covered with fir trees, with a silver fir, (fn. 1a) probably the tallest tree in the county, standing up above them all, while east of it extends the Holmwood Common, a high open common on the clay, thickly studded with hollies and furze bushes, with occasional houses dotted about it. The Glory Woods, a favourite resort of Dorking people, are on the sand hills nearer to the town. There is a small common close to the town called Cotmandene, formerly famous as the cricket ground where the great Dorking players, who did so much for the Surrey eleven, were trained. Caffyn, who first taught scientific cricket to the Australians, was one of them, and Jupp and the two Humphreys were among the last. Milton Heath is another common west of Dorking. Towards the high ground of the Leith Hill range parts of Broad Moor, Coldharbour Common, and the plantation called the Warren are in Dorking parish.

Dorking town consisted till recently of one long street, High Street, which bifurcated at the southwest end into West Street and South Street, the road to Guildford passing out of the former, that to Horsham out of the latter. In the last thirty or forty years a good deal of building has broadened out the town, as well as extended it at both ends.

The parish was divided into six tithings called Boroughs; namely, East Borough, including West Betchworth, at the east end of the town; Chipping Borough, the body of the town, a name which justifies the Earl of Warenne's claim to an ancient market; Milton Borough, lying west; Westcote Borough, still farther west and south-west; Holmwood Borough, to the south; and Walde or Wold or Wale Borough, farther south still, but now known as Capel parish, and distinct from Dorking. (fn. 2) But in the 14th and 15th centuries, when Milton and Westcote were separate manors, both the views of frankpledge held in Dorking recognized the Chipping Borough, East Borough, Waldeborough, and Forreyn Borough only as tithings. (fn. 3) The names are the same in the view of frankpledge of 7 October 1597, but on 27 September 1598 the names are changed to Chipping Borough, East Borough, Capel and Homewood Borough. The last therefore answers to Forreyn Borough, as also appears by local names in the latter tithing.

The town is administered as an urban district under the Local Government Act of 1894, which superseded a local board established in 1881. The Act of 1894 separated the urban district from Dorking rural parish, which is administered by a rural parish council.

The parish is almost entirely residential and agricultural. But there are lime works on the chalk, though not so extensive as those in neighbouring parishes, a little brick-making, water-mills (corn) at Pixham Mill, and timber and saw-mills.

Poultry rearing is an ancient pursuit of the neighbourhood, and the Dorking fowls with an extra claw are a well-known breed, which it is not necessary to derive from Roman introduction.

Sand of fine texture and often in veins of pink colour is also dug about Dorking, and some extensive caverns were formerly excavated for this purpose under parts of the present town.

The road from London to Horsham passes through Dorking, and continues over the Holmwood Common. This is the turnpike which was made in 1755 (fn. 4) in response to the astounding statement of the people of Horsham that if they wanted to drive to London they were compelled to go round to Canterbury. Arthur Young justly described it as the worst instance of the want of communication which he had heard of in England. (fn. 5) The Act was for the making of a road from Epsom, through Letherhead, Dorking, and Capel, with a branch to Ockley. The old road from Dorking into Sussex went up Boar Hill to Coldharbour, and down to Ockley. (fn. 6) This road was impassable for wheeled traffic as late as the earlier part of the 19th century, when it was such a narrow ravine that bearers carrying a coffin had to walk in single file with the coffin slung on a pole. It was repaired about 1830, chiefly at the instance of Mr. Serjeant Heath of Kitlands, Capel, who threatened to prosecute the parish. The road from Reigate to Guildford passes through Dorking from east to west.

The South Eastern Railway, Redhill and Reading branch, has two stations in Dorking, Box Hill and Dorking, opened in 1849. In 1867 the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, Portsmouth branch, was brought through Dorking, where there is a station near the Box Hill station of the South Eastern Railway.

The ancient road called Stone Street (see in Ockley on the name) ran through Dorking. It is to be traced in much of its course by flint pavement which is found in draining and field work. It is laid down fairly correctly upon the Ordnance Map. It enters Dorking parish close to Anstie Grange Home Farm (not to be confounded with Anstie Farm), and runs along the side of the hill under the Redlands Woods, and above the Holmwood Common. Folly Farm lies just west of it. Near Dorking it has not been accurately observed, but it has no relation to the direction of the streets. Drainage operations show that it left South Street to the east, and crossed West Street just opposite the yard occupied by Messrs. Stone & Turner; a foot passage opposite their premises is just on the line. It continued in a straight line for Pebble Lane, where there is little doubt that it mounted to the chalk hills, and is represented still by the old bridle way over Mickleham Downs to Epsom race-course; it must have left Dorking Church to the south-east. Manning and Bray (fn. 7) say that the flints were found north-east of the church in a nursery garden, and sold to the road surveyor. But the description is vague and not incompatible with its having passed the church as described. It has not been traced in the north part of Dorking parish.

The prehistoric fortified hill of Anstiebury, formerly in Dorking parish, was included in Capel by the Local Government Act of 1894, and has been described under Capel.

There is a barrow, unopened apparently, on Milton Heath, north of the road. Camden says that Roman coins were found in Dorking churchyard, and others have been mentioned. In 1817 a find of 700 Anglo-Saxon coins was made in Winterfold Hanger, on Lower Merriden Farm, west of Redlands Wood. (fn. 8)

The town of Dorking used to consist of many houses of respectable antiquity, but has been much modernized of late. The 'Old King's Head' is a fine brick Jacobean building, standing at the west end of the High Street, on the north side. It used to be called the 'Chequers,' and received its later name in 1660. The licence was withdrawn about 1800, renewed about 1850, and is now again withdrawn. It is usually said to be the original of Dickens' 'Marquis of Granby,' but at the time when the Pickwick Papers were written it was not an inn at all. Opposite the 'Old King's Head,' just before High Street divides into West Street and South Street, was the old 'Bull Ring.'

A few old houses are to be found in the High Street and side streets, but most of them have been re-fronted or otherwise modernized, and a comparison with the sister towns of Letherhead, Guildford, and Godalming, is in this respect very disappointing. In the town itself perhaps the most interesting old houses are the White Horse Inn—anciently the 'Cross House,' from its sign, the cross of the Knights of St. John, (fn. 9) a quaint, low structure largely of timber and plaster, with three gables, and a large courtyard opening from the High Street, probably on a very ancient site, and as it stands perhaps 400 years old. The town abounds in ancient hostelries of lesser size, such as the 'Red Lion' (originally 'The Cardinal's Cap') and the 'Black Horse,' and in the side streets are one or two small half-timber houses with overhanging upper stories.

The gallows used to stand on a hill called Gallows Hill on the left-hand side of the road going towards Coldharbour by way of Boar Hill. A house now occupies the spot. It is marked in the map of Ogilvy's Book of Roads. The parish registers of 1625 to 1669 record at intervals the burial of persons hanged there when the Assizes were held in the town.

The old market-house stood in the street opposite the 'Red Lion.' Pictures show a gabled, probably 16th-century building, of the same type as the Farnham market-house, but the original wooden supports had been changed for brick arches at the west end; they remained under the east end. It was demolished in 1813.

The market on Thursdays, claimed by John de Warenne in 1278, is still held on the spot in the street. There is a fair, also existing in 1278, on Ascension Day. Down to ten years ago the practice of Shrove Tuesday football continued in the streets of Dorking. Shop windows were barricaded, all business suspended, and the town given over to a very tumultuous game. When the practice became known through the papers as a curiosity surviving here, idle people came from a distance to assist. The nuisance, always great, was intolerable, and it was suppressed with some difficulty by the police. But the year 1907 is said to have been the first in which no attempt was made to continue it. In 1830 there was a very serious riot in Dorking during the Swing Riots. (fn. 10)

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church was rebuilt in 1895 chiefly at the expense of the Duke of Norfolk. The original temporary building had been erected by the Duchess of Norfolk in 1872. There is a Congregational chapel in West Street, representing an ancient congregation formed in 1662 under the Rev. James Fisher, the ejected minister of Fetcham, at whose house a small body of Nonconformists met in 1669, but the minister who was licensed in 1672 under the Indulgence was Mr. Feake, a Fifth Monarchy man, who had been imprisoned under the Protectorate. There was a congregation of Presbyterians under the Rev. John Wood, late rector of North Chapel in Sussex, meeting at his house. (fn. 11) This Presbyterian body does not seem to have survived, (fn. 12) but after the death of Mr. Wood at an advanced age in 1693, became merged in the Congregational body. A chapel was built in 1719. In 1834 this was pulled down and rebuilt, and much improved and altered in 1874. (fn. 13)

Congregational schools were built in 1858.

There is a Baptist chapel, built in 1869; and a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1850. Wesley made the first of ten visits here in 1764, and in 1772 opened a chapel in Church Street, now converted into cottages.

The Society of Friends were strong in the Dorking neighbourhood about the time of their foundation. Possibly the first meetings of the Friends in Surrey were held at the house of Thomas Bax, in Capel, near Dorking. There had been a Friends' meeting at Bax's house for upwards of twenty years in 1677. (fn. 13a) Fox, however, records in his journal a meeting at Reigate in 1655, which may precede this. The Old Friends' Meeting House in West Street, Dorking, bore the date 1709. The present meeting house near Rose Hill was built in 1846.

There is a meeting of Plymouth Brethren in a chapel in Hampstead Road, opened in 1863.

The cemetery was opened in 1856.

The Public Hall in West Street was built by a company for meetings and entertainments in 1872.

Denbies is the residence of the Hon. Henry Cubitt, the lord-lieutenant. It stands upon the brow of the chalk down, close to Ranmore Common and church. The church, however, is in Great Bookham parish (q.v.). Denbies commands fine views over the weald and the back of the Leith Hill range, and of Box Hill, which faces it from across the Mole Valley. Ashcombe, from which the peerage of Ashcombe is named, was a piece of land lying close to it, and Ashcombe Hill was the old name of the brow. Denby was probably a farmer who lived there. The farmhouse was bought in 1754 by Mr. Jonathan Tyers, the founder of Vauxhall Gardens, who laid out the grounds in what was intended to be a style appealing to serious reflections, with a temple, two skulls, inscriptions and verses of the tombstone kind, much admired then and very absurd, a sort of Lenten Vauxhall. Mr. Tyers died in 1767, and the estate was sold to the Hon. Peter King. His son Lord King sold it in 1781 to Mr. James White, who sold it in 1787 to Mr. Denison, whose son William Joseph Denison was M.P. for West Surrey. After Mr. Denison's death in 1849 it was bought by Mr. Thomas Cubitt, who built the present house. He was father to Lord Ashcombe, the father of the present owner.

Cubitt. Checkered or and gules a pile argent with a lion's head razed sable thereon.

Bury Hill (in Westcote borough) is the seat of Mr. Robert Barclay, representative of the ancient Scottish house of Barclay of Urie. The name is as old as the 14th century, (fn. 14) but no trace or record of a fortification can now be found. (fn. 14a) The ground was part of the waste of the manor of Milton. Mr. James Walter was buying land in Milton Manor in 1753, (fn. 15) and he built the house then and planted the grounds. Mr. Walter died in 1780, when Viscount Grimston, his daughter's husband, succeeded him here. In 1812 he sold it to Mr. Robert Barclay, great-grandfather of the present owner. The Nower, a favourite walk for Dorking people, is a hill adjoining this property.

Barclay. Azure a cheveron argent with three crosses formy argent in the chief.

The Rookery, the property of Mr. Brooke, is the seat of Mr. Lionel Bulteel. An estate here was bought in 1759 by Mr. David Malthus, who built the house and laid out the grounds with the ponds and waterfalls, which make it a picturesque place. The Rev. Thomas Malthus, the economist, his son, was born here in 1766. In 1768 it was bought by Mr. Richard Fuller, banker, of London, of the family of the Fullers of Tandridge, Surrey (q.v.), and was sold by the executors of his great-grandson, Mr. George Fuller, in 1893. The old name of the valley where the Rookery stands was Chartgate, or Chartfield.

Milton Heath (in Milton borough), the seat of Mr. J. Carr Saunders, was built by the late Mr. James Powell, of the Whitefriars Glass Works.

Deepdene (in Holmwood borough), lately the seat of Lilian, Duchess of Marlborough, was originally built by the Hon. Charles Howard, after coming into possession of a part of the manor in 1652. In 1655 Evelyn visited him, and admired the gardens which he had already begun to lay out in the deep valley which gives the place its name. It is probable that there was already a small house on the spot. Some thirty years later Aubrey saw and admired the landscape gardening, then evidently far more advanced. Mr. Howard died in 1713 (he was buried at Dorking, according to the inscription at Deepdene, in 1714); his son Henry Charles Howard died in 1720. His second son Charles succeeded as Duke of Norfolk in 1777 and rebuilt the house. His son Charles, eleventh duke, sold it in 1791 to Sir William Burrell, bart., whose son Sir Charles sold it in 1806 to Mr. Thomas Hope. Mr. Hope largely altered the house, and began the great collection of paintings and statuary carried on by his son, the late Mr. Beresford Hope, who also added to the house and built the Italian south-western front.

Charte Park, formerly called the Vineyard, was the property of the Sondes or Sonds family, after they had parted with Sondes Place. (fn. 16) The late Mr. Beresford Hope bought Charte Park, and threw it into the grounds of Deepdene, pulling down the house.

Westcott, also spelt Westcote, and erroneously Westgate, is one of the Dorking boroughs (vide supra), and with Milton was made into an ecclesiastical parish in 1852 (vide infra). A considerable village existed before then, and many houses have since been built.

In Squire's Wood, south of Westcote, is Mag's Well, one of the sources of Pip Brook, which runs through Dorking to the Mole. It was formerly of some repute as a medicinal spring, and is strongly impregnated with iron. A building, now gone to ruin, existed over it, and within the writer's memory children still bathed in it.

Holmwood Borough was the ancient division of Dorking, to the south of the town. The ancient spelling in the Court Rolls is invariably Homewood, the numerous hollies have led to the change in the name. But as far back as 1329 the reeves' accounts include carriage of firewood from 'Dorkynge Ywode vel Homewode' to Kingston, where the distinction between the 'High Wood,' the skirts of the big forest of the Weald, and the 'Home Wood,' sufficiently explains the name. In 1562 Kingston still depended upon this neighbourhood for firewood. (fn. 17) Manning and Bray state, however, that Dorking was supplied lately with coal from Kingston; showing a curious reversal of former relations.

The Holmwood Common is a large high-lying common thickly covered with furze bushes and hollies, about 600 acres in extent. Defoe states that it was as lately as the time of James II the haunt of wild deer. Agricultural writers of a hundred years ago marked it down as good cornland wasted.

The school of the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Holmwood, was built in 1844, and enlarged in 1870 and 1884. That now in the parish of St. John the Evangelist was built in 1849 and enlarged in 1875 and 1883.

A great number of gentlemen's houses surround the Holmwood Common, and some standing upon it represent the original intrusions of squatters upon the waste of the manor—confirmed by lapse of time. Holmwood Park was the seat of the late Mrs. Gough Nichols, widow of the celebrated antiquary. Francis Larpent, Judge Advocate-General to Wellington's army in Spain and the South of France, formerly lived here. Oakdale is the seat of Lady Laura Hampton; Oakdene of Mr. Augustus Perkins; Redlands of Colonel Helsham Jones; Anstie Grange of Mr. Cuthbert E. Heath; Moorhurst, an ancient farm on the border of the old parishes of Dorking and Capel, of the Hon. W. Gibson, who has opened a small Roman Catholic chapel there. It is the property of Mr. Cuthbert E. Heath, of Anstie Grange.

The present condition of the Holmwood is in curious contrast with what was its state not more than 100 years ago, when the road to Horsham running over the desolate common was a frequent scene of highway robbery, and was openly used by smugglers. William Dudley, of Coldharbour, who died in 1902, aged nearly 101, told the writer that a man with whom he worked had been a witness when the turnpike keeper boldly refused to open his gate at night to a body of smugglers with kegs of brandy on their horses.

MANORS

In the Domesday Survey DORKING was in the hands of the king. Milton and Westcote were even then separate manors. It had been held by Edith, widow of the Confessor, and like the other holdings of the late queen in Surrey, was granted to William de Warenne I, when he was created Earl of Surrey. (fn. 18) His original Surrey endowment consisted of the manors which had been Edith's, —Dorking, Reigate, Shiere, Fetcham. But one Edric had held Dorking, or part of it, at some previous time, and had given two hides out of it to his daughters. In 1086 Richard of Tonbridge held one of these hides —no doubt Hamsted Manor, which belonged subsequently to the Clares. The other hide was probably Bradley Manor, the lands of which lie in Holmwood tithing and Mickleham.

Richard I appears to have confirmed the grant of Edith's lands to the Earls of Surrey, (fn. 19) and in 1237 William de Warenne is recorded as holding Dorking. (fn. 20) John de Warenne claimed it in 1278 as held by his ancestors from before legal memory. (fn. 21) In 1347 John de Warenne died seised of the manor. (fn. 22) He was succeeded by his nephew Richard, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1376, (fn. 23) leaving another Richard as his son and heir. About this time the Arundel lands began to pass through a period of vicissitude. Richard, Earl of Arundel, was attainted in 1397 and beheaded, after a long series of open altercations with the king, (fn. 24) and Dorking was granted to Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, (fn. 25) afterwards Duke of Norfolk, his son-in-law. He was banished in 1398 and died in exile in 1400. On the accession of Henry IV, Thomas, son of the unfortunate Richard, was restored. He died on 13 October 1415, leaving three sisters as co-heirs: (fn. 26) first Elizabeth, the second wife of Thomas Mowbray, first Duke of Norfolk, whose share in the property descended in moieties to her son John, second Duke of Norfolk, and to Joan, her daughter by a second husband, Sir Robert Gonshill. This Joan became the ancestress of the Earls of Derby by her marriage with Sir Thomas Stanley. (fn. 27)

Warenne, Earl of Surrey. Checkered or and azure.

Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel. Gules a lion or.

Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. England with a label argent.

Stanley, Earl of Derby. Argent a bend azure with three harts' heads cabossed or thereon.

The second co-heir of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, was Joan Beauchamp, Lady Abergavenny; her share descended to her granddaughter Elizabeth, afterwards the wife of George Nevill, who thus gained the lands and title of Abergavenny. Margaret, wife of Sir Roland Lenthale, was the third heir, but her claim to part of the inheritance lapsed at the death of her son Edmund, who died without issue (fn. 28) before July 1447. (fn. 29)

The history of the manor is obscure, even with the aid of the Court Rolls placed at the service of investigators by the courtesy of successive Dukes of Norfolk. For the rolls are far from continuous, and generally lack the name of the lord or lords whose courts are held. It is obvious, however, that on the death of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, in 1415, his widow, Beatrix of Portugal, held the manor as dower. (fn. 30) The courts were held for a Domina (feminine) from 1413 to 1431, when there is a break of five years. In 1435 and 1438 Dominus, in the masculine singular is used, probably Roland Lenthale, for his son Edmund. In 1444 Domini begins, the Bishop of Bath and Wells and others, (fn. 31) feoffees of Edmund Lenthale. (fn. 32) This trust seems to have expired between 26 March 1450 and 21 July 1450, for Domini is used in the former, Dominus in the latter. The singular is used till 15 February 1451, after which the manor was divided, courts being henceforth held for Domini when the number is distinguished at all. In 1528 the question was raised in the court baron (17 September 1528) 'whether Edmund Lenthale deceased was while alive sole holder of the manor of Dorking or holder with others.' Unfortunately it was not answered in the extant records, but it would seem likely that he was sole holder, and that after his death the manor went to John Mowbray, third Duke of Norfolk. The inquisition taken after the latter's death in 1461 is unfortunately now missing, (fn. 33) and the entry in the calendar is insufficient. In 1468 (fn. 34) John, Duke of Norfolk, and his wife Elizabeth had a grant of certain privileges, including return of writs, within their manor of Dorking. (fn. 35)

This Duke of Norfolk died in 1475, (fn. 36) leaving an only child Anne, who was for some years betrothed to Richard, Duke of York, who perished in the Tower. She died unmarried in 1480, (fn. 37) and well as bers of the Nevill and Stanley families, as well as descendants of Margaret and Isabel, daughters of the first duke, appear as her co-heirs. A partition of Dorking was probably then made. (fn. 38)

In a document of 1531 George Nevill, Lord Abergavenny, is mentioned (fn. 39) as being one of the joint holders of the manor of Dorking. Again, later in the 16th century, Henry Nevill was in possession of part of the manor, (fn. 40) and on 1 August 1587 (fn. 41) Edward Nevill, Lord Abergavenny, held his first court, with no indication of being only a joint holder, and in 1623 died seised (fn. 42) of the manor of 'Dorking Capel,' not that he was concerned only with the part of the manor in Capel, for the court chose bedells for Dorking and for Capel, and tenants from both attended. Edward Nevill's son Henry seems to have conveyed his share of the manor to the Howard family. (fn. 43)

The family of Stanley, Earls of Derby, in like manner again became involved in the history of Dorking at the death of Anne Mowbray. In 1622 Thomas, Earl of Derby, died seised of a moiety, (fn. 44) which apparently consisted of two quarter parts. In order to explain his possession of more than one quarter it is necessary to consider the third co-heir of Anne Mowbray, namely, William, Lord Berkeley. This William was the son of Isabel daughter of the first Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, (fn. 45) and although there seems no actual record of his own connexion with Dorking Manor, his son Maurice was seised of a fourth part in 1504. (fn. 46) It seems as though he must have shortly afterwards conveyed his portion to the Earls of Derby, first because, as stated above, they were afterwards seised of two quarter parts; secondly, because the Berkeleys are not again found in possession; and thirdly, because lands did undoubtedly pass from the one family to the other. (fn. 47)

However, that may have been, it seems that two quarter parts were in the possession of the Earls of Derby. In 1586 Henry, Earl of Derby, conveyed one quarter to Sir Thomas Browne, (fn. 48) and in 1594 Henry's son Ferdinand died seised of the other quarter. (fn. 49) The portion which remained in the Derby family was apparently conveyed to the Howards some time during the 17th century, (fn. 50) since the Browne moiety was the only one which did not belong to them in the time of George II. (fn. 51)

Sir Thomas Browne died in 1597 seised of one portion of the manor, which passed to his son Matthew. (fn. 52) It appears at intervals in the possession of the Browne family, and finally, about 1690, on the death of Sir Adam Browne, without male issue, passed from his family by the marriage of his daughter Margaret with William Fenwick. (fn. 53) At her death, according to Manning and Bray, (fn. 54) this part of the manor passed by sale to Abraham Tucker, and from him, by the marriage of one of his daughters, to his grandson Sir Henry St. John Mildmay, who sold it in 1797 to the Duke of Norfolk. (fn. 55)

The remaining portion of the manor passed at the death of Anne Mowbray into the family of Howard. Margaret daughter of the first Mowbray duke, and sister of that Isabel who married into the Berkeley family, became the wife of Sir Robert Howard, and to her son John her share in the Dorking manor now passed. (fn. 56) John was a keen partisan of Richard III, who in 1483 revived the title of Duke of Norfolk in his favour. (fn. 57) He met his death at the battle of Bosworth Field, and his lands, by an Act of attainder in the first Parliament of Henry VII, lapsed to the Crown. (fn. 58) His son Thomas, also attainted then, was restored in blood in 1488, and to the earldom and his estates in 1489. In 1514 he was created Duke of Norfolk. His son Thomas, third Duke of Norfolk in the Howard line, was attainted under Henry VIII, and only escaped execution by the timely death of the king; his lands, however, were forfeited, and his portion in Dorking Manor was granted by Edward VI to Henry Duke of Suffolk. (fn. 59) Under Queen Mary the duke was restored to his possessions. From that time this portion seems to have remained in the family of Howard; the other portions were gradually joined to it until, in 1797, the whole manor was in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, with whose descendants it has since remained.

Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Gules a bend between six crosslets fitchy argent.

The earls had a manor-house in Dorking; but though Aubrey mentions traces of a castle, there are neither records nor visible remains. The Town Fields were on the south side of the town, towards the direction of the modern workhouse. The common meadow and pasture was on the north by the Pip Brook; but it is worthy of notice that as early as the 14th and 15th centuries the manorial rolls tell us that the villeins of the manor held land in severalty, this custom being specially noticeable in Waldeborough, where there seem to have been no common fields. The rights of the lord over a villein tenantry, chivage, marriage, and so on, were then in full force. In 1442–3 the homage are bidden to produce a fugitive female villein. It is needless to say that there is no evidence of the outrageous droit de seigneur mentioned by Aubrey. In the court held 30 December, 5 Henry VI (1426), Johanna Brekspere paid 6s. 8d. for licence to marry whom she would. But as early as the accounts rendered for 1329–30, customary services, carrying, reaping, &c., and xxii plena opera appear commuted for money payments. The custom of the manor was Borough English, and daughters were co-heiresses. A court baron was held every three weeks, and a court leet and a view of frankpledge twice a year.

In 1278 John de Warenne claimed and was allowed free warren in all his demesne lands in Dorking. (fn. 60) The lord had, however, an inclosed warren, which was often mentioned in the Court Rolls owing to the inhabitants stealing rabbits from it. Under Henry V and Henry VI the warren was let out at farm. Possibly the lord had an inclosed park, for in the courts of 8 February and 16 August 1283 persons are accused of breaking the earl's park; but in the first instance the fine pro fractura parci is only 6d., in the second 20s., so parcus may only be the pound, or some small inclosure. No record of imparking or disimparking seems to exist. If there was a park it must have been near Charte Park of later times, where Park Copse, Park Farm, and Park Pale Farm, all to the east of Charte Park, may show that this is only part of a formerly more extensive inclosure.

BRADLEY

BRADLEY was a small reputed manor held by service of half a knight's fee of the manor of Reigate. (fn. 61) A Thomas de Bradley appears in a dispute in the court of Dorking of 1283. Mr. Bray had deeds in his possession showing a settlement, by John de Bradley and Maud his wife, on William son of Richard Bradley in 1340, and another settlement of land in Bradley 1389–90, by Nicholas Slyfield, on John Penros. (fn. 62) It passed to the Sondes of Sondes Place, Dorking, and appears as a manor in the time of Edward IV, (fn. 63) and is also mentioned in an inquisition taken after the death of Robert Sondes in 1530. (fn. 64) It seems to have remained in the Sondes family until the middle of the 17th century, when Sir George Sondes conveyed it to William Delawne, (fn. 65) but perhaps by way of mortgage only, for Lewis, created Lord Sondes 1760, seems to have sold it rather later than that to Henry Talbot. He sold it to Mr. Walter, M.P., who was buying much land in the district. (fn. 66) It was certainly possessed by Mr. Walter of Bury Hill and his son-in-law Viscount Grimston, who sold it to Mr. Denison of Denbies, in which estate it remains. It has had no courts held within the memory of man. It is now the property of the Hon. Henry Cubitt of Denbies, the lordlieutenant. (fn. 67)

There seems to have been a small manor called HAMSTED in Dorking. In Domesday Richard of Tonbridge held one hide which had been detached from Dorking. (fn. 68) In 1262 Hawisia widow of John de Gatesden, the name of a Clare tenant, (fn. 69) sued Robert Basset for a third part of a mill and 40 acres of land as her dower in Hamsted and Dorking. (fn. 70) In 1314 Gilbert de Clare, killed at Bannockburn, was seised of Hamsted, held of him by Agnes de Badeshull. (fn. 71) Hugh le Despenser, sister's son to Gilbert, died seised of it in 1350, when it was held by John de Warblyngton of the honour of Clare. (fn. 72) In 1560–1 John Caryll sold land in Hamsted to Sir Thomas Browne of Betchworth. (fn. 73) The description places it at the west end of Dorking, where Hamsted Lane, an old name, preserves its memory.

The manor of MILTON (xi et seq. cent. Middleton) was held of William Fitz Ansculf by a certain Baldwin at the time of the Domesday Survey; Uluric held it of King Edward. (fn. 74) It passed with the honour of Dudley from William Fitz Ansculf to the family of Somery; early in the 13th century one Simon Fitz Giles owed one knight's service for Milton to the honour of Dudley. (fn. 75)

The manor was possibly granted to the nuns of Kilburn by Roger de Somery, (fn. 76) for their prioress was found to hold lands of him at his death; there is, however, reason to suppose that they had gained possession of it somewhat earlier, since Margery, Prioress of Kilburn, was seised of a knight's fee in Milton in 1232. (fn. 77) Again, in 1269, Matilda, a prioress whom Dugdale omits from his list, (fn. 78) had transactions touching the moiety of a virgate of land in Milton. (fn. 79)

The manor remained with the nuns until the dissolution of the monasteries, when the king exchanged it for other Surrey lands with John Carleton of Walton on Thames, and Joyce his wife. (fn. 80) From John Carleton the manor passed to Richard Thomas, who was holding it in 1552. (fn. 81) Richard Thomas continued to hold under Philip and Mary; (fn. 82) his tenure was not, however, popular among his tenants, who were indignant at his having inclosed lands on Milton Common otherwise known as Anstey Heath, where the aforesaid tenants had had common of pasture from time immemorial. Waterden Wood is also mentioned. Anstey Farm and Waterden lie on the two sides of the road in Milton Manor near Coldharbour. Milton Gore, close by, is the only part of the heath in question now uninclosed.

It is probable that the grant to Richard Thomas was only for a period of years, for at the death of his widow Katharine, who had subsequently become the wife of Saunders Wright, it reverted to the Crown. (fn. 83) Queen Elizabeth in 1599 gave it to Ralph Lathom. (fn. 84) The grant, however, was cancelled before it took effect, and the next year the manor passed from the Crown to George Evelyn (fn. 85) in consideration of some £700. From that time it descended with Wotton in the Evelyn family.

Milton Court, the seat of the late Mr. L. M. Rate (ob. 1907), is the old manor-house of Milton. It is a fine Jacobean house, mostly of brick, with wings projecting in front and behind and a projecting portico in front, showing five gables to the front, over the wings and portico; and between these, to the back, there are three gables, the chimneys occupying the intermediate spaces on this side. The gables are all of the rounded pattern common in Kent and the Netherlands. The house was rebuilt by Richard Evelyn, and completed in 1611 (accounts in possession of Mr. Rate). There was no high hall, but a gallery ran along the front of the house with a projecting bay over the porch. This has been altered into a drawing-room and other rooms. The staircase in the east wing is a very fine specimen of Jacobean woodwork. Mr. Rate bought the house in 1864, and it was restored under the direction of the late C. Burgess.

The manor of WEST BETCHWORTH

was held by Richard de Tonbridge at the time of the Domesday Survey, and the overlordship appears to have remained with the honour of Clare. (fn. 86) In the 13th century John de Wauton held half a knight's fee in Betchworth of that honour; (fn. 87) he subsequently forfeited his lands to the king, who in 1291 made a grant of them to John de Berewyk. (fn. 88) At John's death in 1313 his heir was found to be his grandson Roger Husee, then a minor. (fn. 89) Roger died seised in 1362, (fn. 90) and was succeeded by his brother John, who died a few years later leaving his son John as his heir. (fn. 91) This John conveyed the manor to Richard Earl of Arundel. (fn. 92) It remained in the Arundel family until 1487, when it was sold to Thomas Browne. (fn. 93) It was still in the possession of the Brownes in the time of Elizabeth, (fn. 94) and from that date appears to have descended with the portion of Dorking Manor which was in their hands.

Betchworth Castle, now only a picturesque ruin, perched on a bank above the Mole, and almost concealed by trees and creepers, was built, or, more probably, rebuilt, by Sir Thomas Browne. Judging by the print in Watson's 'Memoirs,' the mansion which, in the middle of the 15th century, replaced an earlier fortified house or castle, must have been extremely picturesque with its battlemented gables, clustered chimneys and oriel windows, standing among lawns and gardens descending to the Mole. The ivy is disintegrating the walls, and almost the only architectural feature is the arch of a fireplace. A remarkably fine avenue of lime trees leads to the ruin.

WESTCOTE

The Domesday Survey records that Abbot Æthelrige had held WESTCOTE of King Edward; also that Ralph de Fougeres then held it. (fn. 95)

In the 13th century Westcote (villa de Westcote) was terra Normannorum held by Gilbert de Aquila and taken into the hands of King Henry III. The Earl of Warenne and Surrey had paid a fine and held it for his sister the wife of Gilbert. (fn. 96) Later John de Gatesden (see Hamsted Manor) held it. (fn. 97) He died in 1269 or before, when a survey of the manor was taken, late in his hands. (fn. 98) His daughter Margaret married Sir William Pagenel, but it would seem that the Latimer family had some previous claim upon Westcote, for in 1306 Alice widow of William le Latimer sued William Pagenel and Margaret his wife for dower in Westcote Manor, which had been granted by Latimer to Pagenel and his wife. Pagenel acknowledged her claim and granted her lands in Leicestershire to the required amount. (fn. 99) In 1317 William Pagenel died seised of the manor, leaving John his brother and heir, then fifty years of age. (fn. 100)

In 1355 Eva widow of Edward St. John, and formerly wife of William Pagenel, who was probably the son of John Pagenel, died seised of one-third of Westcote Manor which she held in dower. Her heir was Laurence de Hastings, lord of Paddington Pembroke (q.v.), with which Westcote descended from that time. (fn. 101)

There was a mill at Westcote at the time of the Domesday Survey; it is also mentioned in the inquisition taken at the death of Laurence de Hastings in 1348, when it was stated to be a water-mill. (fn. 102)

At the time of Alice le Latimer's suit (q.v.) the manor was valued at forty pounds odd.

George I granted to John Evelyn the privilege of holding two annual fairs in his manor of Westcote, on 15 April and 28 October. (fn. 103)

Westcote retains many picturesque old houses of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, including some with gables of Bargate stone rubble and ornamental brick; and a farm-house with fine brick chimneys dating from about 1670.

SONDES PLACE

SONDES PLACE, in Milton borough, the vicarage house since 1839, belonged to a family of Sondes, who migrated to Surrey in the 15th century, and who were ancestors of the present Lord Sondes. In 1590 John Carill, of Warnham, conveyed Sondes Place for £1,000 to John Cowper of Capel, Serjeant-at-Law. (fn. 104) Cowper possibly sold it to Christopher Gardiner, who died about 1597, and is described as of Dorking, (fn. 105) and whose son Christopher, baptized 1595, (fn. 106) resided at Sondes Place. The latter married Elizabeth daughter of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle in Cranleigh. (fn. 107) William Gardiner of Croydon, by deed of 1678, granted the manor or lordship of Sondes Place to Francis Brocket. (fn. 108)

CHURCHES

The parish church is approached by a little stone-flagged alley from the High Street, and stands in the midst of a large and prettily kept churchyard, no longer used for burials, in which are numerous gravestones and railed tombs, some of 17th and 18th-century dates.

It is dedicated to ST. MARTIN, and is, as it stands, absolutely modern, having been rebuilt in 1835–7 (the chancel excepted), and the nave, till then an unsightly structure of brick and compo, with slender iron columns and many galleries, again rebuilt in 1873 from the designs of Mr. H. Woodyer, who in 1866 had rebuilt the ancient chancel. In 1835–7 the central tower had been rebuilt, or remodelled, and crowned with a lofty spire, which it had not before possessed, and these features, which were not reproduced in the original position in the later re-edification, were replaced by a lofty western tower and spire, erected to the memory of Dr. Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and then of Winchester, who was killed by a fall from his horse near Dorking in 1873. The present church, which is constructed of black flints and Bath stone, is a handsome and spacious edifice in a somewhat mixed style of 13th and 14th-century Gothic architecture, consisting of a lofty clearstoried nave, with western tower and spire, porches, transepts, chancel and vestries. Nearly all the windows are filled with stained glass of varying merit, and there are many elaborate fittings, including altar and reredos, pulpit, lectern and choir stalls, font and chancel screen of oak, in commemoration of Wm. Henry Joyce, M.A., vicar, 1850–70, beneath which is a brass to his memory.
The floor and lower parts of the walls of the old church remain in vaults under the present church. It was a large and picturesque structure, occupying much the same area as the present, cruciform, with a central tower, north and south aisles to the nave, under lean-to roofs, and a south porch, built of local rubble and flints plastered externally, with dressings of firestone, and having the old Horsham slate on all the roofs, except the chancel and north transept. The nave was about 65 ft. by 30 ft., its aisles being between 12 and 14 ft. long, the north transept about 27 ft. by 23 ft. wide, the south transept 26 ft. by 23 ft., the central tower about 27 ft. square, and the chancel 40 ft. by 22 ft. Probably little or nothing remained of the building recorded in Domesday, except as old material worked up on the walls; but the chancel seems to have retained to the last at the angles of the east end four flat pilaster buttresses of mid-12th-century character. To a date towards the close of the same century the lower part of the central tower and the remarkable north transept appear to have belonged. The latter is well shown in a carefully accurate steel engraving forming the frontispiece to Hussey's Churches of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. (fn. 109) The design of this transept end consisted of a lofty gable with a small lancet in the upper part, below which was a pilaster buttress with steeply sloped weathering, this buttress being pierced at about half its height with a longer lancet, (fn. 110) and similar lancets flanking it right and left, while at the angles were other pilaster buttresses. In the eastern wall of the same transept there were three lancets of like proportions and a pilaster buttress. There appears to have been some early work in the south transept also, but masked by alterations made in the repairs of 1674 and 1762, when a large circular-headed window was inserted in the gable end, a huge, unsightly buttress erected against the south-east angle of the tower, and the upper part of the central tower was altered. Evidence is scanty as to other work of the earlier periods, especially as to the nave arcades and crossing arches, but they were probably of late 12th or early 13th-century date. In the first half of the 14th century considerable alterations were effected. A clearstory of coupled lights having ogee, trefoiled, and cinquefoiled heads was formed on both sides of the nave, and other windows inserted, in about 1340. The chancel at this time received a fine large east window of five lights, the central higher than the others, with flowing tracery in the head resembling that of the east window in Witley Church. (fn. 111) The windows in the south wall, of three and two lights, with square heads, may have belonged to the same or a slightly later date. The upper story of the tower, although its parapet had been made plain in 1762, retained two-light windows with pointed heads of 15th-century character, and in the east wall of the south transept, the south wall of the south aisle, with its porch, and the west wall of the nave, were other windows of the 15th century. If it seems hard to forgive the 1835 rebuilding of the nave, it is almost impossible to excuse the destruction of the ancient chancel, with its fine east window, in 1866. The north aisle had no windows in its wall, but was lit by wooden dormers in the roof.

The monuments in the old church prior to its demolition do not appear to have been of great importance. Aubrey records many tombstones as existing on the floor of the church in his time (1673, &c.), some of which bore the indents of brasses. These have all disappeared. The following mural monuments have been preserved and set up in the new church:—(1) The Howard monument, to the memory of Charles Howard of Greystoke Castle and of Deepdene, (fn. 112) fourth son of Henry Frederick, Earl of Arundel (died 31 March 1713), and Mary his wife (died 7 November 1695); of Henry Charles Howard, his son and heir (died 10 June 1720), and Mary his wife (died 7 October 1747); and of Mary Anne Howard, the late wife of Charles Howard, jun. (died 28 May 1768). (2) A monument, removed from a mausoleum formerly in the churchyard, to the second wife of Henry Talbot, son of a Bishop of Durham, who purchased Charte Park in 1746 and died in 1784. (3) To Abraham Tucker, author of A Picture of Artless Love and The Light of Nature Pursued, who lived at his estate of Betchworth Castle till his death in 1774. (4) A brass plate to Jeremiah Markland (1693–1776), the classical scholar, who lived at Milton Court.

The registers date from 1538.

The church plate is all modern, presented recently by the Rt. Hon. George Cubitt, M.P., of Denbies, now Lord Ashcombe. There is a ring of eight bells, of which no. 2, 3 and 4 are dated 1709 and bear the names of William Fenwicke, Mrs. Margaret Fenwicke, John Hollier and John Pinny, 'benefactors'; while no. 5 has the inscription, 'JOHN WILNER MADE ME 1626.' The others are modern. The 'pancake' bell used to be rung between 11 o'clock and noon on Shrove Tuesday down to the early part of the 19th century.

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH

was built in 1857 for a new district on the south side of the town. It is a stone building, consisting of a nave and chancel, in quasi 14th-century style, with a small bell-turret at the west end.

ST. MARY MAGDALENE'S CHURCH, HOLMWOOD,

was built in 1838. It was successively enlarged in 1842, 1846, 1848, and 1863. Mr. James Park Harrison was the original architect, and the church is a successful imitation of 13th-century style, built in sandstone, with a tower to the south-west. The sites for church, parsonage, and school were given by the Duke of Norfolk.

The church of ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, NORTH HOLMWOOD, was built, in 1875, of stone in an intended 12th-century style, with a tower and spire.

The church of

HOLY TRINITY, WESTCOTE,

was consecrated in 1852. It was built by Sir Gilbert Scott in 14th-century style. It is of stone, with a small western turret. Mr. Charles Barclay gave £1,000 to the building, and Lady Mary Leslie £1,000 endowment. The clock was put up to commemorate the Jubilee of 1887. The parsonage house was built at the sole expense of the late Mr. Charles Barclay, of Bury Hill; the Westcote Schools (National) by subscription in 1854; an infant school by subscription in 1882.

St. John's Chapel, the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, was built by Mr. John Worsfold in 1840, and endowed with £40 a year, a house, small glebe, and a benefaction for charities.

ADVOWSON

The advowson of the church of Dorking was attached first to the Priory of Lewes, (fn. 113) and then, in 1334, to the Priory of Holy Cross at Reigate until the dissolution of the monasteries. (fn. 114) It was then granted to Lord William Howard, (fn. 115) created Lord Howard of Effingham. Charles second Lord Howard of Effingham, created Earl of Nottingham, inherited from his father. His eldest son William having died in his lifetime, his daughter Elizabeth, by marriage the Countess of Peterborough, inherited, (fn. 116) and conveyed it in 1657 to her son, John Mordaunt, (fn. 117) an ardent Royalist, to whom Charles II shortly afterwards granted the titles of Baron Mordaunt of Reigate and Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon, as a reward for his many services. (fn. 118)

In 1660 Dorking with Capel (q.v.) and other churches was confirmed to John Mordaunt in trust for Mary daughter of his brother the Earl of Peterborough. (fn. 119) Mary sold it in 1677 to Sir John Parsons. The widow of his son Humphrey settled it on her daughter Anne, wife of Sir John Hynde Cotton, who conveyed it to him. He sold it in 1766 to Mr. Edward Walter of Bury Hill. At his death in 1780 it descended to his daughter and her husband Viscount Grimston. The latter sold in 1789 to the Duke of Norfolk. (fn. 120) The rectorial tithes were bought by various people in lots, among whom were the late Mr. Rate of Milton Court and Mr. Williamson of Guildford. The advowson to the vicarage remained with the Dukes of Norfolk till the Right Hon. G. Cubitt, M.P., now Lord Ashcombe, bought it about 1865, and it remains in his hands.

The vicarage of St. Paul is in the gift of trustees.

The district of St. Mary, Holmwood, was taken out of Dorking and Capel parishes and erected into a separate parish in 1838. The living is in the gift of the Bishop of Winchester.

The parish of St. John, North Holmwood, was formed in 1874 from the northern part of the parish of St. Mary. The Bishop of Winchester is patron of this living also.

The parish of Holy Trinity, Westcote, was formed with Milton, in 1852. The living is in the gift of Mr. Robert Barclay of Bury Hill.

CHARITIES

Smith's charity exists, but unlike the usual practice in the other Surrey parishes is administered by the parish, not by the trustees. The Rev. Samuel Cozens, Presbyterian minister in Dorking 1656–9, who probably resigned before 1662, left land at Chislet in Kent which was added to Smith's land.

Cotmandene Almshouses for eighteen poor persons were erected on land given to the vicar and churchwardens by the Hon. Charles Howard of Deepdene and Sir Adam Browne of Betchworth Castle in 1677, and were endowed by Mrs. Susannah Smith. A decree in Chancery established the legacy in 1718. Mr. William Ansell left £200 consols in 1830. Mr. Richard Lowndes of Rose Hill left £320 consols in 1831. Messrs. Joseph and John Sanders gave £700 consols in 1839 to the same object.

In 1706 Mr. William Hutton left 6s. a year accruing out of a copyhold in Brockham for bread to the poor on Good Friday.

In 1725 Mrs. Margaret Fenwick left by will £800 which was laid out in the purchase of a farm called Fordland in Albury, for the apprenticing of poor children, providing a marriage portion for maid-servants who had lived blamelessly in the same family for seven years, and the residue to the poor in alms.

Summers' Charity was founded in 1807 by Mr. Thomas Summers, a hatter of Horsham, who used to travel between Horsham and Dorking. He left £100 each to Horsham, Dorking, and Capel. The money was laid out in buying £134 3 per cent. consols. and the income is devoted to buying bread for the poor.

An annuity of 20s. for forty poor widows is charged upon a piece of land called Poor Folks' Close in Dorking, but the benefactor is unknown.

Dorking Cottage Hospital, containing seventeen beds and three cots for children, was built in 1871 on land given at a nominal rent by Mrs. Hope of Deepdene. It is supported by voluntary contributions and payment of patients. The Right Hon. G. Cubitt, M.P. (Lord Ashcombe), gave £1,000 towards the building.

Footnotes

1	Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 145.
1	a Dead in 1909.
2	Dorking Manorial Rolls, 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries passim. The first five boroughs were confirmed and defined by a County Council order, 26 July 1894, under the provisions of the Loc. Govt. Act, 56 & 57 Vict. cap. 73.
3	e.g. View of frankpledge, 7 Oct. 16 Hen. VI, in Dorking Manorial Rolls.
4	Act 28 Geo. II, cap. 45.
5	In 1622 Sir Robert More wrote to his father, Sir George, that he could not drive from beyond Horsham to Loseley as he had intended, because it had rained, but that he hoped to find a way round by East Grinstead, Godstone, and Reigate (Loseley MSS. vol. i, p. 149). It would seem that the clay roads had become worse by 1750.
6	Ogilvy, Bk. of Roads; Burton, Iter Surriense, &c.
7	Hist. of Surr. iii, App. xlvi.
8	V.C.H. Surr. i, 272.
9	It was held of the manor of St. John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell.
10	V.C.H. Surr. i, 429.
11	V.C.H. Surr. ii, 40.
12	They are not recorded in Bishop Willis' Visitation, 1724–5.
13	Information from the late Rev. J. S. Bright, Congregational minister, Dorking.
13	a Papers formerly in possession of Mr. March of Dorking.
14	Dorking Court Rolls, passim.
14	a A Roman station has been gratuitously supposed to be here; Gent. Mag. Apr. 1844.
15	Court Rolls, Milton Manor.
16	In 1515–16 John Sondes of Charte alienated Sondes Place to John Caryll; and in 1594 Michael Sondes was heir to the copyhold of Sir Thomas Sondes of Charte; Dorking Ct. R.
17	V.C.H. Surr. ii, 264.
18	Ibid. i, 298.
19	Cart. Antiq. x, 29.
20	Feet of F. Div. Co. 21 Hen. III, no. 236.
21	Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 175.
22	Chan. Inq.p.m. 21 Edw. III (1st nos.) no. 23.
23	G.E.C. Complete Peerage.
24	Dict. Nat. Biog. xix, 98.
25	Pat. 21 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 5.
26	Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Hen. V, no. 54.
27	Dict. Nat. Brog. liv, 75.
28	Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Hen. VI, no. 27.
29	Aug. Off. Anct. Chart. i, 24.
30	She died in 1439 seised of Dorking; Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 June 1440 (copy). Perhaps even then there was a division.
31	18 July 1447, a tripartite indenture was made between Lenthale's trustees, the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Abergavenny, giving the profits of the manor to the trustees till such time as Lenthale's debts were paid by them, and providing for masses for his soul. The inquisition p.m. was apparently postponed till, as we should say, the estate was wound up; D. in Aug. Off. Anct. Chart. i, 234.
32	Ct. R. 14 Dec. 23 Hen. VI.
33	Cal. of Chan. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Com.), iv, 316.
34	Chart. R. 8–10 Edw. IV, m. 14.
35	The Roll of 14 Sept. 1468 ends up with some accounts and 'To my lorde of Norfolk ys Audytores.' The plural still used in the Court Rolls may refer to him and his wife.
36	Chan. Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. IV, no. 58.
37	G.E.C. Complete Peerage.
38	The Nevills were descended from Joan sister of the Earl of Arundel, who died 1416, the Stanleys from Elizabeth daughter of his sister Elizabeth. The partition did not apparently extend to an actual apportionment of the holdings. Tenants admitted to the manor do fealty 'to the lords' collectively, one court baron was held for the whole, and one view of frankpledge, and the dues were probably divided.
39	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), li, 48.
40	Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 159, no. 11.
41	This was after Philip, Earl of Arundel (heir to the Duke of Norfolk), was thrown into the Tower, but before he was attainted (1589).
42	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccxcix, 157.
43	They were in possession in 1652; H. K. S. Causton, Howard Papers, 365.
44	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxxix, 110.
45	Dict. Nat. Biog. xxxix, 225.
46	Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 19 Hen. VII.
47	Dict. Nat. Biog. liv, 78.
48	Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 28 Eliz.
49	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxlii, 88.
50	H. K. S. Causton (Howard Papers, 365) states that Charles Howard in 1652 found himself heir to three fourth parts of the manor of Dorking, two of which had been purchased by his grandfather Thomas, Earl of Arundel.
51	Recov. R. Mich. 14 Geo. II, rot. 211.
52	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccliii, 88.
53	Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 4 & 5 Will. and Mary.
54	Hist. Surr, i, 558.
55	Ibid.
56	Dict Nat. Biog. xxviii, 42.
57	Ibid.
58	Parl. R. (Rec. Com.), vi, 410.
59	Pat. 6 Edw. VI, pt. ii.
60	Assize R. apud Guildford, 7 Edw. I, rot. 28.
61	Survey of manor of Reigate taken 1 Apr. 1623, 21 Jas. I.
62	Manning and Bray, Hist. of Surr. i, 563.
63	Feet of F. Div. Co. file 74, no. 64.
64	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ii, 48.
65	Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1654.
66	Manning and Bray, Hist. of Surr. i, 564.
67	Inform from Lord Ashcombe.
68	V.C.H. Surr. i, 298.
69	Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 219. John de Gatesden also had lands in Hamsted (Feet of F. Surr. 33 Hen. III, 379).
70	Assize R. 47 Hen. III, Surr. m. 6/1.
71	Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, 68, m. 63.
72	Ibid. 23 Edw. III (2nd pt. 1st nos.), no. 169.
73	Manning and Bray, Hist. Surr. i, 566.
74	V.C.H. Surr. i, 322a.
75	Ibid.
76	Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 Edw. I, no. 15.
77	Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 32 Hen. III, no. 49.
78	Mon. Angl. iii, 424.
79	Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 53 Hen. III, no. 25.
80	L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, g. 733 (48).
81	Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 6 Edw. VI.
82	Star. Chamb. Proc. Phil. and Mary, bdle. 6, no. 45.
83	Pat. 41 Eliz. pt. x, m. 25.
84	Ibid.
85	Pat. 42 Eliz. pt. xvi, m. 1.
86	V.C.H. Surr. i, 319b.
87	Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 221.
88	Chart. R. 19 Edw. I, m. 84.
89	Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. II, no. 43.
90	Ibid. 35 Edw. III, pt. i, no. 98.
91	Ibid. 44 Edw. III (1st nos.), no. 33.
92	Close, 47 Edw. III, m. 16.
93	Feet of F. Surr. 15 Hen. VI, no. 8.
94	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccliii, 88.
95	V.C.H. Surr. i, 326b.
96	Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 225.
97	Ibid. 229.
98	Chan. Inq. p.m. 53 Hen. III, no. 19.
99	De Banco R. 161, m. 145.
100	Chan. Inq. p.m. 10 Edw. II, no. 61.
101	In William Pagenel's inquisition, the Hastings family are mentioned as being overlords, so that the manor probably reverted to them on the failure of heirs in the Pagenel family.
102	Chan. Inq. p.m. 22 Edw. III (1st nos.), no. 47.
103	Pat. 12 Geo. I, pt. ii.
104	Close, 32 Eliz. pt. vi.
105	Will.
106	Dorking Reg.
107	Ibid.
108	Com. Pleas D. Enr. 30 Chas. II), m. 5. The present Sondes Place is another house.
109	Corroborated by old pen drawings in the writer's possession.
110	Cf. the tower buttresses at Clymping, Sussex, similarly pierced with early lancets, in work of c. 1170.
111	Illustrated by the late J. L. André, F.S.A. in Surr. Arch. Coll. xiv, 1. For Witley see V.C.H. Surr. ii, 456. The east window of Mickleham Church, prior to 1872, exhibited a similar design, and the west window of the tower at Cranleigh belongs to the same group.
112	See ante under Deepdene.
113	Cott. MS. Vesp. F, xv, fol. 18b.
114	Pat. 8 Edw. III, pt. ii, m. 34; and Winton Epis. Reg. Orleton, i, fol. 57 d.
115	L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, g. 947 (12); xvii, g. 443 (5).
116	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccclxxxii, 67.
117	Feet of F. Surr. East. 1657.
118	G.E.C. Complete Peerage, v, 368.
119	Pat. 12 Chas. II, pt. xviii, m. 16.
120	Abstract of title to Capel Rectory till 1766; Manning and Bray, Hist. Surr. iii, 593; private information.

OCKLEY

'Parishes: Ockley', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 150-153. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42947. Date accessed: 05 November 2008.

Aclea (x cent.), Hoclei (xi cent.), Okeley (xiii cent.), Occle, Ockel (xiv cent.), Okkeleghe, Hocklegh (xv cent.), Okeleigh, Okeley (xii cent.), and many other variations.

Ockley is 7 miles south-west of Dorking. It has been bounded since 1879, when the outlying portions were consolidated with neighbouring parishes, by Abinger and Wotton on the west, by Capel on the north and east, and by the county of Sussex on the south. In 1901 (fn. 1) a further rectification of the boundary with Wotton and Abinger was made. The parish contains 2,992 acres, and measures about 4 miles from north-east to south-west, and about 1½ miles from west to east. Since the outlying portions on Holmbury and Leith Hills have been separated the parish is entirely on the Wealden Clay, but in the northern part considerable beds of paludinae, forming the conglomerate called Sussex marble, occur.

The parish is agricultural, except for a little brick and tile making.

The Portsmouth line of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway passes through its eastern side. Ockley and Capel Station, in Ockley, was opened in 1867. Through the whole length of the parish the Roman road from London to Chichester, called the Stone Street, runs. For a considerable distance it is still used, but at both extremities of the parish the modern roads turn off abruptly from it, though the old line has been traced through the fields and copses. Ockley Church, Ockley Court, the remains of a fortified place to be noted presently, and probably the original Ockley village, lay a little distance off the road to the east. Along the line of what is called in the manorial rolls Stone Street Causeway, and all round Ockley Green, a large stretch of open common lying along the west side of the road, cottages and houses sprang up. These are now known as Ockley village, but were formerly called Stone Street. (fn. 2) There is no doubt that near here was fought the great battle in which Ethelwulf and Ethelbald defeated the Danes, probably in 851. It was at Aclea, among the Suthrige, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the existence of the road explains the movements of the armies. (fn. 3) The discovery of human remains on Etherley Farm in 1882 may place the actual scene of conflict on the dry hillside north-west of Ockley Green. (fn. 4) Ockley in Surrey does not seem, however, to be the scene of the Synod of the 8th century; the circumstances of which point to a place in the north of England.

On the far side of the field north of Ockley Church, among some trees, is an earthwork. It was apparently a pear-shaped inclosure with the broader end to the east. The length is nearly 300 ft. At the eastern end is a broad mound with an extension thrown back at a right angle to face north. Outside this north-eastern angle is a ravelin or platform with traces of a ditch round it. The southern side is bounded by a stream in an artificially-straightened ravine. The eastern front may have been covered with an inundation. On the northern side only the traces of a ditch remain, but in the angle where this joins the stream, to the west, are traces of a small mound. West of this angle again are traces of an artificial bank, perhaps to make another inundation. Aubrey in the 17th century recognized the 'mole and mote' of a castle, and a small castle of the De Clares, built in Stephen's time and dismantled by Henry II, is not impossible. It is a likely spot, near a main road, which was then no doubt in use for its whole length.

Aubrey has preserved a tradition, repeated and ridiculed by later writers, that there was a castle here destroyed by the Danes, who placed battering engines on Bury Hill. All who notice the story take Bury Hill to be Anstiebury Camp, 2 miles or more away. But where the road ascends from Ockley towards Dorking, just before the branch to Coldharbour goes off on the left, the hill was called Bury Hill. (fn. 4a) It is very much nearer, under half a mile away instead of over two, and although too far for a catapult to act, it is not an impossible camp for some force attacking a strong place near Ockley Church. Danes may be, of course, any enemy, described by that name from confusion of traditions.

In the southern part of the parish, near Oakdale Farm, is a considerable moated inclosure with a double moat on two sides. The lane near it is called Smugglers' Lane. It is a way out of Sussex which avoids the high road.

Dotted about on the village green are several houses and cottages embowered in trees; and some of the trees along the main road are also of great size and beauty. Opposite to the turning that leads to the church is a picturesque old cottage with rough-cast walls and stone-slab roof, and several others in the village street are evidently of some antiquity. But it is the group of exceptionally fine old farm-houses within the borders of the parish which specially demand attention.

The finest of these is King's Farm, in the southwest of the parish, a large rambling structure, chiefly of half-timber, but largely covered with weather tiling, with overhanging stories, projecting oriel bay windows, having moulded bressummers and shaped brackets and tall chimney stacks—the shafts of the chimneys set diamond-wise upon square bases. Almost equally interesting are Boswell's or Bosell Farm, close to King's Farm, and Buckinghill Farm, in the north of the parish, both having overhanging timber-framed gables and stone-slab roofs. Holbrooks is another ancient farm-house. All have great open fireplaces and other characteristics of a past age, and their remoteness from railways and main roads has aided to preserve their primitive character. One called Trouts, though close to the railway line, is not easily accessible. It used to be known as Farley lands. (fn. 5) On a beam in the kitchen was lately a carved inscription:—
'Look well to thy house in every degree
And as thy means are so let thy spendings be 15 . .'
*****p10***Eversheds is an old farm-house and reputed manor, in the eastern part of the parish. It was the property of an old yeoman family named Evershed. Mr. John Evershed bought the manor of Ockley, as noted below, in 1694, and Eversheds was sold with the manor in 1717. Its claim to be a manor rests only upon a mistaken identification with the Arseste of Domesday. Evershed is a place-name which gives its name to a family. Eversheds is the house of an Evershed. Arseste is possibly Hartshurst, a farm in Wotton under Leith Hill.

Vann is the seat of Mrs. Campbell. It was held of Ockley Manor by a family named Margesson in the 17th century. Vann Pond is an extensive sheet of water, made by damming a stream in a narrow valley, with a view to providing water-power for a linen mill in the 18th century; but the mill was never built.

Elderslie, on Ockley Green, is the seat of Mr. J. W. Arbuthnot. Mr. George Arbuthnot, grandfather of the present owner, resided there and died in 1843. The fountain on the green was built by Miss Jane Scott, governess in the Elderslie family, in 1841.

The present Rectory House, by the side of the Stone Street Causeway, was built at his own expense by the Rev. Thomas Woodrooffe shortly after he was instituted as rector in 1784. The older rectory was 1 mile further south, 2 miles from the church. This was not the original rectory, but was a farm-house on the glebe.

MANOR

The Domesday Survey (fn. 5a) records that OCKLEY (Ockley, Okeleigh, Ocklie, Hokeleye, Okkle, Ockele, &c.) was held by Ralph of Richard of Tonbridge, and that Almar held it of King Edward; also that Richard himself held half a hide in this manor. The manor is here put under the heading of Woking Hundred. This may probably be merely a mistake; but it is worth notice that Manning and Bray record that there was land in Ockley held of East Horsley Manor, in Woking Hundred, (fn. 6) and there was an isolated bit of Ockham parish inclosed in Ockley, Ockham being also in Woking and a manor of Richard of Tonbridge. This may be Richard's half-hide, valueless because it was on the barren slope of Holmbury Hill.

In the early 13th century Alice daughter of Odo de Dammartin held inter alia one knight's fee in Ockley of the honour of Clare. (fn. 7) She held Tandridge also, and her lands passed to the Warblington family. (fn. 8) It seems probable that one of Alice's predecessors enfeoffed the Malemayns family with Ockley, to be held by one knight's fee of their manor of Tandridge, (fn. 9) for they seem to have been already established in Ockley, as well as elsewhere in Surrey. In 1213 Walter, Prior of Merton, made an exchange with Nicholas Malemayns of land in Ockley. (fn. 10) In 1241 John de Plessets paid 100 marks for the custody of the land and heirs of Nicholas Malemayns. (fn. 11) Nicholas Malemayns in 1278 claimed to have a park in Ockley in his manor. (fn. 12) In 1293 the king presented to the living of Ockley on the grounds of his custody of the lands and heirs of Nicholas Malemayns, 'tenant in chief.' (fn. 13) The reason why he is called tenant-in-chief may be explained by a possible minority of the Warblington heir and also by the fact that in 1289–90, when the Earl of Gloucester married Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I, he surrendered all his lands to his royal father-in-law. He received a grant back of most of them, but not all, the same year. The king clearly reserved some manors in his own hands till his daughter's son should be of age; when the earl died in 1295 Ockley does not appear in his Inquisitio as part of his lands. When, however, the son of his royal marriage, the young earl, was killed at Bannockburn, 1314, Ockley was one of his fees, (fn. 14) together with several other Surrey manors which are not mentioned in connexion with his father. Edward I is said to have presented the manor by patent (fn. 15) to Nicholas Malemayns. No such entry is in the Patent Rolls, but in a Charter Roll of 20 January 1296 it appears that Nicholas Malemayns surrendered Ockley to the Crown, and that the king, after holding it for some time, re-granted it to him and his heirs by his wife Alice. In 1300 a grant was made to Nicholas Malemayns of the assize of bread and ale and view of frankpledge in his manor of Ockley, as his ancestors had them, (fn. 16) and in 1302 he received a grant of free warren, a weekly market on Tuesdays, and a fair on the feast of St. Margaret (the patron saint of the church). (fn. 17) Nicholas died at an unknown date. Another Nicholas died in 1350. This Nicholas Malemayns married Alice and left three daughters: Beatrice, who married Otho de Graunson; Catherine, who married Sir Henry Newdigate; Parnel, who married Sir Thomas Sentomer. The manor was divided between them. When Sir Otho de Graunson died in 1359, seised of one-third of the manor, it was said to be held of the manor of Tandridge, in spite of Nicholas Malemayns having been called tenant-in-chief. The succession to the various parts is very uncertain; but Beatrice the widow of Sir Otho de Graunson, the Newdigates, the descendants of Sir Thomas Sentomer, and in 1450 Richard Wakehurst, presented to the living. The heirs of the Graunsons do not appear again; but they may be represented by Margaret, wife of John de Gaston (or Garton), who in 1368 conveyed one-ninth of the manor to William Newdigate. (fn. 18) The Newdigates continued to present to the living at intervals till 1407. Meanwhile Parnel Malemayns and Sir Thomas Sentomer had two daughters, Alice and Elizabeth. The latter disappears; Alice married Sir William Hoo. His son Thomas granted Ockley to his brother John and John Glemham. Glemham, the survivor, or his heir, enfeoffed Sir Thomas Hoo, Lord Hoo and Hastings, who died 1481. He left four daughters, but by a previous arrangement the manor passed to Richard Culpepper. Whether he represented any of the other branches or not is unknown. Probably the rights of the others, much broken up, had been conveyed to the Hoos, (fn. 19) or forgotten.

Malemayns. Gules three right hands or.

Ockley remained in the possession of the Culpepper family until the time of Charles I, when it was sold to George Duncombe, of Weston, (fn. 20) who held his first court in 1638. He died in 1646, and was succeeded by his grandson George, son of his elder son John, deceased. This George held his first court in 1648, but on his death soon afterwards, childless, the estate went to his uncle George of Shalford, who held his first court in 1654. He in his lifetime conveyed it to his second son, Francis, who held his first court 22 March 1658–9. Francis was created a baronet in 1662. He died before his father, in 1670; his widow Hester and her second husband, Thomas Smyth, held a court October 1671. Sir William Duncombe, her son, succeeded in 1675, and in 1694 sold the manor to Edward Bax of Capel. Bax retained the manor-house and a little land round it, which was now separated from the manor, and in 1695 sold the manor to John Evershed, of an old yeoman family, which appears, in different holdings, in the rolls and parish books. (fn. 21)

Culpepper. Argent a bend engrailed gules.

John Evershed received from Queen Anne a grant of three fairs yearly at Stonestead Causeway, 6 October, 10 May, and 3 June. (fn. 22) Evershed in 1717 conveyed to John Young, (fn. 23) who in the same year released to Thomas Moore or More. (fn. 24) Thomas More held courts till 1734. His nephew William (fn. 25) held courts till 1745, and died in 1746. He left the manor in trust for Frederick son of Lord North of Guildford (who held courts 1746–9), but the estate was sold under a private Act in 1751 (fn. 26) to Frank Nicholls, Ph.D., who had some lively controversy with the tenants on the subject of heriots. (fn. 27) Dr. Nicholls died in 1778, and was succeeded by his son John. He sold in 1784 to Lee Steere of Jays in Wotton, who died before the conveyance was completed, leaving his interest in the estate to his grandson Lee Steere Witts, who took the name of Steere. His great-great-grandson (Mr. H. C. Lee Steere) is the present owner. (fn. 28)

Ockley Court, the residence of Mrs. Calvert, widow of Colonel Calvert, is the old manor-house of Ockley. In 1744 Nathaniel, son of Edward Bax, sold it to Mr. Thomas Tash, who died in 1770. His son William married a Miss Calvert, and having no children left the property to his wife. She left it to her relative (? nephew) Charles Calvert of Kneller Hall, Middlesex, M.P. for Southwark. He died in 1833. His son Charles William succeeded, and was followed by his brother Colonel A. M. Calvert. His son Mr. W. A. Calvert lived recently at Broomells in Capel.

Holebrook is a farm in Ockley. William le Latimer (vide Wotton), who died in 1327, held Holebrook in Ockley of Nicholas Malemayns by payment of 40d. a year. (fn. 29)

CHURCHES

ST. MARGARET is prettily situated in a well-kept churchyard abutting upon the high road, and surrounded by some exceptionally fine trees. The site is level and low-lying, at some distance from the present village, and close to a patch of woodland. It must originally have been surrounded by woods.

The building is of sandstone and rubble, dug from the neighbouring hills, with a small admixture of clunch, or hard chalk. Before 1873 it consisted only of a nave about 40 ft. by 22 ft., and a short chancel 22 ft. wide by 19 ft. long, with a large tower, about 17 ft. square internally, and a porch on the south of the nave; but in that year it was enlarged by the addition of a spacious north aisle, with an arcade of pointed arches, and an organ-chamber and vestries on the north of the chancel, while the chancel itself was nearly doubled in length. There is no trace in the walls of work earlier than the beginning of the 14th century, to which date the nave and chancel both originally belonged.
There are two windows at present in the south wall of the chancel, one of which, to the west, is partly ancient and indicates a date of about 1300. It is of two lights, cinquefoiled, and has a trefoiled spherical triangle, inclosing a trefoil, in the head. In the eastern window, which may have been removed from the north wall at the enlargement, the latter figure has six foliations. The roof and all other features in the chancel are modern.

The south wall of the nave appears to be slightly later—circa 1320—and has two good buttresses and two well-proportioned traceried windows, each of two lights. The eastern of these retains the original net tracery, executed in local sandstone, but that to the west has been restored. Next to it eastward is the south entrance doorway, which is a plain example of the same date. It is approached through a most picturesque porch of open oak framework on a base of herringbone brick and timber. This has an arched opening to the front and two others on the sides, with arched braces inside, and the sides are partly filled in with a rail and turned balusters. The foliated bargeboard is a restoration of that shown in Cracklow's view. Although probably not earlier than the first half of the 17th century, this porch retains all the spirit of the mediaeval carpentry in design and execution. The framework is put together with projecting oak pins, and the roof, of somewhat flat pitch, retains its heavy stone healing.

The massive western tower is another instance of the clinging to a traditional style. It is rude Gothic of 1700 — that being the date, with the name William Bvtler sen[d..], inscribed on the slope of a buttress on the west wall. William Butler was a leading parishioner, perhaps churchwarden, in 1700. The builder was Edward Lucas. The parish account books give the date as 1699, when the contract for building was signed. The heads of the twin openings in the upper stage and of those below are elliptical or obtusely pointed, while in the interior the arch of the nave and the blind arches in the other walls are pointed, but with classical mouldings and imposts. The present battlements were heightened at the restoration of 1873.
There is a curious square-headed two-light window of diminutive proportions next to the buttresses at the south-east end of the nave. Its openings, though only 8 in. wide, are further protected by stanchions and cross-bars. Its height from the floor removes it from the class known as low side-windows, but it corresponds very curiously with similar openings at Send and Woking churches in Surrey, which also occur in the eastern part of the nave and in the neighbourhood of an altar. All are of late date (c. 1480 to 1520).
The nave roof is of early 14th-century date and retains its original moulded tie-beams and plates. That of the chancel is modern, but both are 'healed' with Horsham slabs.
In the eastern window of c. 1320 in the south wall of the nave is preserved some good glass with crocketed canopy-work, borders, and grisaille quarries of coeval date. There are no old wall-paintings. One or two ledgers with heraldry and some tablets of late 17th and early 18th-century dates remain in the tower, but with these exceptions the church is remarkably destitute of ancient monuments.
The registers date from 1539. They and the parish account books (which commence in 1683) are very full, and contain many curious entries.

Besides modern pieces, the church plate includes a silver cup and paten of 1614 and a paten of 1716.

There are six bells, all dated 1701, hung in a good solid cage, which is of the same date.

ADVOWSON

St. John's Church on Ockley Green was consecrated 5 December 1872 by Bishop Wilberforce. It is a plain building of stone, with pointed windows and a bell-turret. The first reference to the church of Ockley is in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas, 1291.

In 1293 the king presented to it on behalf of Nicholas Malemayns his ward. (fn. 30) The advowson remained with the manor until 1694 when Sir William Duncombe, at the same time that he sold the manor, sold the advowson to John Constable of Ockley. Edward Bax, who bought the manor (q.v.), was a Quaker, and would not buy the advowson. Constable sold it in 1711 to Edward Bingdon of Dorking, who left it in 1719 in trust for his sons James and Edward. It was sold in 1724 for £1,000 to Clare Hall, Cambridge. (fn. 31) The College probably then knew nothing of the ancient ownership of Richard de Tonbridge, ancestor of their foundress.

Clare College, Cambridge. Clare impaling De Burgh all in a border sable with drops or.

CHARITIES

Smith's Charity is distributed as in other Surrey parishes.

In 1624 Mr. Henry Spooner left a rent-charge of 10s. a year to the poor of the parish.

In 1731 Mrs. Elizabeth Evershed left £100 to be invested in land to provide education 'according to the canons of the Church of England' for poor children of the parish. With other benefactions of the late Mr. George Arbuthnot and the late Mr. Lee Steere, this provides an endowment of about £43 a year for the schools.

Footnotes

1	By Local Govt. Bd. Order, no. 42600.
2	As e.g. in Burton, Iter Surriense, 1751, Rocque's map, 1770, and the map in Gibson's Camden, 1695. N.B.—The modern spelling Stane Street is an affectation. The natives call it Staan Street, as they call Dorking Darking, but the old spelling is Stone, and the local family name derived from it is Stonestreet.
3	V.C.H. Surr. i, 331, 332.
4	Ibid. The remains were in Wotton parish, but Ockley is very much nearer to the site than Wotton.
4	a Local information.
5	Westcote Ct. R. 5 Nov. 1736.
5	a V.C.H. Surr. i, 320b.
6	Hist. of Surr. ii, 162.
7	Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 219.
8	John de Warbleton had a wife Alice; Vriothesley, Pedigrees from Plea R. 285.
9	Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 Edw. III, no. 41.
10	Feet of F. Surr. 14 John, no. 42.
11	Fine R. 25 Hen. III, m. 16; but this was not only in Ockley.
12	Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 744.
13	Cal. Pat. 1292–1301, p. 33.
14	Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, no. 68. Ockley is here said to be held by Thomas de Warblington, of whom Malemayns was evidently holding as sub-tenant.
15	Inq. Misc. Chan. file 329, 20 Edw. IV, no. 103.
16	Cal. Pat. 1292–1301, p. 535.
17	Charter R. 30 Edw. I, no. 15.
18	Feet of F. Surr. 42 Edw. III, no. 14.
19	See Inq. of 20 Edw. IV, no. 103, for descent to Lord Hoo.
20	Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 13 Chas. I.
21	From Ct. R. See History of the Bax family and Edward Bax's account book furnished by Mr. A. R. Bax.
22	Rot. Orig. 2 Anne, pt. i, m. 1.
23	Feet of F. Surr. East. 3 Geo. I.
24	Ibid. Mich. 4 Geo. I.
25	Manning and Bray, Surr. ii, 163.
26	Ibid.
27	On the usual point, whether the tenant holding more than one copyhold owed a separate heriot on each or one for the whole.
28	Mr. Richard Symmes, whose MSS. (B.M. Add. MSS. no. 6167) were used by Manning and Bray, was steward of the manor 1662–82, and Mr. Bray was steward under Dr. Nicholls up to 1788. All the existing Court Rolls have been examined.
29	Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 Edw. III, no. 56.
30	Cal. Pat. 1292–1301, p. 33.
31	College Bks., communicated by the Master.

WOTTON

'Parishes: Wotton', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 154-164. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42948. Date accessed: 05 November 2008.

Odetone and Wodeton (xi cent.); Wodetone, Wodinton and Woditon (xiii cent.); Wodeton (xv cent.); Wodyngton, Wootton, and Wotton (xvi cent. and onwards).

Wotton parish is bounded on the north by Effingham and Little Bookham, on the east by Dorking, Capel, and Ockley, on the south and west by Abinger. It formerly had a detached portion on the Sussex border, now attached to Abinger (see Abinger parish). The parish is still over 6 miles long from north to south, and never more than a little over a mile broad, and in places less. It contains 3,782 acres of land and 14 of water. The church is 3 miles west-by-south of Dorking, and 9 miles east-by-south of Guildford. The Redhill and Reading branch of the South Eastern Railway and the road from Dorking to Guildford pass through the north of it. Two branches of the Tillingbourne rise in the northern slopes of Leith Hill, and run first from south to north and then east to west towards the Wey, uniting at Wotton House. The streams on the other slope of Leith Hill run to the Arun. The parish has the usual apportionment of soil in this part of Surrey. The northern boundary is on the summit of the chalk, here 577 ft. above the sea, the parish then crosses the Upper Green Sand and Gault; the church, manor-house, and such compact village as exists are on the Lower Green Sand, and it reaches across this soil on to the Wealden Clay. It is now purely agricultural and residential, but iron mills, a wire mill, and perhaps gunpowder mills formerly existed in it. (fn. 1)

The most striking feature of the parish now is undoubtedly the natural beauty which makes it the favourite resort of all lovers of the picturesque near London. The traveller, on foot or horseback (the road is not one for wheels), passing from the chalk country sees in front of him an ascending mass of broken sand hills, thickly planted with conifers and other trees upon their northern side. Leaving Wotton House on the right a bridle road leads through a forest of beeches alongside a succession of trout-pools, up the valley where John Evelyn first began the ornamental planting of his brother's grounds. Friday Street Pond, an old millpond with a cluster of cottages by it, is a Swiss lake in miniature. Passing on by another hamlet, King George's Hill, so named from a now extinct public-house, the path leads out on to the heather-covered common of Leith Hill. A view opens gradually to the west, as the ground ascends, but it is not till the traveller reaches the southern brow of the hill that the panorama bursts suddenly upon him. The summit of Leith Hill is the highest spot in the south-east of England, 967 ft. above the sea. The tower, which is not on exactly the highest point, but somewhat south of it, was intended to bring the height up to 1,000 ft., and has more than done so. It was built by Mr. Richard Hull of Leith Hill Place, in or before 1765, who acquired from Sir John Evelyn of Wotton the top of the hill, part of the waste of the manor of Wotton. (fn. 2) Two rooms were fitted up in it by Mr. Hull, and a staircase led to the upper room. Mr. Hull, dying in 1772, was buried under the lower room, by his own direction. A stone in the wall of the tower used to record the fact. After his death the tower was uncared for and became ruinous and a haunt for disorderly characters. In 1796 Mr. Philip Henry Perrin of Leith Hill Place repaired it and raised it a few feet, adding a coping, but built up the door, filled up the interior for half the height with earth and stones, and left the upper part a mere shell. In 1864 Mr. W. Evelyn of Wotton again repaired it, built the upper room, added a battlement, and made the top accessible, first, by means of a turret and staircase, then, when that was closed for a time, by an outside wooden staircase, and then by the turret stair again. The view from the top of the tower is more comprehensive than that from the hill, looking over the trees to the north, which obstruct the latter. The ground falls very abruptly to the south, giving a peculiar impression of height above the Weald below. The greater part of the county of Sussex, much of Kent as far as Ashford, Essex, the Laindon Hills, Middlesex, St. Paul's Cathedral, Highgate, Hampstead, and Harrow, Hertfordshire, Dunstable Down in Bedfordshire, the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire, Nettlebed in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Inkpen in Wiltshire, and the sea through Shoreham Gap, are visible in clear weather. (fn. 3) But though the view from the tower is necessarily the most extensive in Surrey, those from the western parts of Leith Hill are more picturesque, looking as they do over the more broken foreground afforded by Holmbury Hill. The small ditches round the tower, sometimes ignorantly mistaken for an ancient encampment, were made by the Royal Engineers, who were encamped here in 1844, correcting the Ordnance Survey. The cottages near the foot of the hill are collectively known in the neighbourhood as The Camp.

In addition to the ground near the top of the hill, there is a very large extent of open country, covered with heather and conifers, in Wotton parish. The part on the east side of the parish is called Broadmoor.

A fine polished neolithic flint found near the tower is preserved at Leith Hill Place. The present writer has found a very considerable number of flint flakes and a few implements not very far from the tower. In Deer Leap Wood, to the north of Wotton House, in what was part of the park attached to it, is a mound with traces of a double ditch round it. The mound is about 12 to 14 ft. high, and about 90 yds. in circumference. It seems to have been dug into, but no record of exploration is to be found. It is marked as a barrow on the 6-in. Ordnance map.

At the southern foot of Leith Hill, a jar containing about thirty gold coins of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth was found in 1837. The coins are at Wotton House.

Tillingbourne, or Lonesome, as it used to be called, or earlier still Filbrook Lodge, is the property of the Duke of Norfolk. The present occupier is Mr. Sidney Ricardo. The original house was built by the side of the valley, which runs northward from near the tower towards Wotton Hatch, in 1740, by Theodore Jacobsen, a Dutch merchant resident in England. A stream was artificially diverted to form what is now a picturesque waterfall, and a fountain and other ornamental waterworks were made in front of the house. These, with part of the garden, mark its former site. The original house was neglected, and by 1845 had become ruinous. It was pulled down before 1855, but a steward's house on the estate, lying a little farther north, was let as a gentleman's house, and has been enlarged to form the present Tillingbourne House.

Tanhurst, on the south-western slope of Leith Hill, late the residence of Mrs. Cazalet, formerly of Greenhurst, Capel, is the property of Lady Vaughan Williams, wife of Lord Justice Williams and daughter of the late Mr. Edmund Lomax. Before 1795 it was bought by Mr. William Philip Perrin, owner also of Parkhurst (see Abinger) and Leith Hill Place. The next owner was Sir H. Fitzherbert, during whose ownership the eminent Sir Samuel Romilly rented the house up to the time of his death in 1818. It was bought by Mr. E. Lomax (see Shiere) in 1827. (fn. 4) Mr. Lomax, who was twice married, died in 1839, and left Netley in Shiere to Mrs. Fraser, Parkhurst in Abinger to Mrs. Scarlett, children of his first wife, and Tanhurst to Lady Vaughan Williams, daughter of his second wife. Lord Justice and Lady Vaughan Williams reside at High Ashes on the same property.

Jayes Park, close to Ockley Green, is the seat of Mr. Henry Lee Steere, lord of the manor of Ockley, but this house is in Wotton. Jayes was the seat of the Steere family for many generations. Mr. Lee Steere, who died in 1784, left it to the son of his daughter and of Mr. Richard Witts, Lee Steere Witts. On reaching his majority in 1795 he assumed the name of Steere, and the family have resided ever since at Jayes.

The schools were built in 1852, rebuilt in 1874, and enlarged in 1885.

The ecclesiastical parish of Okewood formed from Wotton, Ockley, and Abinger in 1853 is a district formerly very difficult of access owing to the clay lanes. In addition to the parish church there is a Congregational chapel and a national school built in 1873.

Hale House, containing some old parts, is the property of Mr. H. Lee Steere of Ockley, and the residence of Mr. Henry P. Powell. This is no doubt the place belonging to Edward de la Hale (died 1431), who restored Okewood Chapel (vide infra). In the Ockley Court Rolls, 1648, it appears that a Mr. Steere had lately built a good house at Hale, of which part remains in the present house.

Redford is the seat of Lady Abinger. Leith Vale was the seat of the late Miss Cooper Brown (ob. 1907), who was for many years churchwarden of Okewood.

MANOR

According to Domesday, Harold held WOTTON T.R.E., and at the time of the Survey Oswald, an Englishman, held it. (fn. 5) It is noteworthy that in 1086 Richard de Tonbridge, the ancestor of the Clares, Earls of Gloucester, who afterwards held Wotton in chief, was already holding there one hide of Oswald. (fn. 6) Richard is known to have gained possession of other parts of Oswald's land, and he even sublet some of Oswald's former possessions at Mickleham to him. (fn. 7) The overlordship of Wotton seems to have always afterwards been with the honour of Clare. (fn. 8)

Wotton Church: The West Tower from the South

The first immediate lord of whom there is mention is Ralph de Camoys, who owed one knight's service for Wotton to the honour of Clare, (fn. 9) and in 1235 made a grant of land in Wotton, (fn. 10) while in 1241 he was definitely reported to be seised of the manor. (fn. 11) It is known, however, that in the reign of King John one Ralph de Camoys claimed that part of the vill of Tansor (Northants) had been granted to his grandfather by Roger de Clare (fn. 12) and it is possible that Wotton may have been granted at the same time. In 1259 Ralph died, leaving Ralph his son and heir aged forty. (fn. 13) The younger Ralph was succeeded some twenty years later by his son John, (fn. 14) from whom Wotton apparently passed to the family of Fancourt, probably by sale, since the impoverishment of the Camoys family at that date is a matter of common knowledge. (fn. 15) Walter de Fancourt was seised of the manor in 1280, (fn. 16) and presented a priest to Okewood Chapel in 1290. (fn. 17) In 1306 Matilda his widow, who had married one Henry le Perkes, (fn. 18) claimed dower in the manor of Wotton from William le Latimer, into whose hands it had by that time passed. (fn. 19)

William le Latimer died in 1327, (fn. 20) leaving William his son and heir, aged twenty-six. (fn. 21) This William survived his father only eight years, (fn. 22) and during the minority of his son, another William, the manor seems to have been in the custody of Thomas Latimer, (fn. 23) who was probably uncle to the heir. Thomas, possibly in return for his custodianship, retained the manor during the term of his life; at his death in 1356 it passed into the possession of William, (fn. 24) who was then twenty-six years old. William conveyed it to trustees in 1377. At his death in 1381 (fn. 25) he left Wotton by will to his cousin, Thomas de Camoys, (fn. 26) who presented to the living in 1382. (fn. 27) Thomas enfeoffed certain trustees of the manor, who curiously enough bore the same surnames as those to whom William Latimer had released in 1377. (fn. 28)

Latimer. Gules a cross paty or.

Camoys. Argent a chief gules with three roundels argent therein.

Thomas de Camoys died seised in March 1422, (fn. 29) and Hugh his grandson and next heir survived him only five years. (fn. 30) Wotton, however, is not mentioned among Hugh's possessions at his death. Roger lord of Camoys, probably a younger son of Thomas, was in possession shortly after the death of Hugh, (fn. 31) and in 1429 he released all his rights in the manor to Thomas Morestede. (fn. 32) The dispersion of the Camoys' lands after the death of Thomas de Camoys is well known, (fn. 33) and its occurrence immediately before the Civil War, which wrought so much confusion in landed property, increases the difficulty of tracing them.

According to Manning and Bray, (fn. 34) who give a contemporary court roll as their authority, Wotton was held by Sir William Estfield in 1444. In 1479 Stephen Middleton was in possession, and some five years later it was held by Humphrey de Bohun. (fn. 35) Sir David Owen, a natural son of Owen Tudor, married as his first wife the heiress of the Bohuns of Midhurst, (fn. 36) and Wotton perhaps passed to him with his wife or was bought by him, for it became his property, and he left it to Henry son of his third wife Anne Devereux, (fn. 37) and after him to his son John by the same wife. Sir Owen died in 1542. John held courts from 1548 to 1553. (fn. 38) His son Henry held courts in 1568 and 1579, when he and Elizabeth his wife conveyed the estate to George Evelyn of Long Ditton, (fn. 39) in whose family it has since remained.

Wotton House, the home and birthplace of the famous John Evelyn, is built, like so many old houses, in a hollow. There is nothing visible in the present rambling and irregular building of older date than the close of the 16th century, and even such parts of this date as remain are so surrounded by later additions as to be distinguished only with difficulty. Besides rebuildings and extensions of the 17th and 18th centuries, the east wing, which had been destroyed, was added on an enlarged plan by Mr. W. J. Evelyn in 1864. Thus, although the core of the house is ancient, but little remains visible externally of the house in which John Evelyn lived, and which he helped to render famous by the beautiful gardens, largely of his own creation. These in part remain, although greatly altered in later times. Fortunately two drawings, still at Wotton, from John Evelyn's own hand, give a minute record of the house, with its moat and artificial waters, as they appeared in the middle of the 17th century. (fn. 40) In Abbot's Hospital, Guildford, is a poor oil painting of Wotton House from the north of about the same date. The Elizabethan house, apparently, was of brick, with tiled roofs—pantiles in some cases —mullioned windows, and tall stacks of chimneys. It was built in a rambling fashion with long ranges of stabbling and outbuildings, including a dovecote. It was surrounded by a moat which was enlarged into a swan pool in the rear of the house, and the view of the garden front shows a low terrace wall following the moat, with some little summer-houses, a rustic temple, and a formal flower garden. There is also a large oriel window with a high leaded roof projecting over a stone entrance doorway, marked on the drawing, 'Hall dore to the Garden.' Among the many treasures in the present house is the Prayer Book used by Charles I on the scaffold. There are also the MSS. of John Evelyn and a Bible of three volumes filled with notes. In the library his large and curious collection of books remains, many of the bindings displaying his device of intertwined palm, olive, and oak branches, with the motto, 'Omnia explorate, meliora retinete.' Kneller's fine half-length portrait of John Evelyn is in the drawing-room, together with his son and Mrs. Godolphin, his 'deare friend,' whose worthy life' he has 'consecrated to posterity.'

Evelyn of Wotton. Azure a griffon passant and a chief or.

There are several ancient houses of minor importance in the parish; one with gables and stone-mullioned windows, set in an old-world garden at a corner of the high road, is specially noteworthy.

There was a mill at Wotton in the time of Domesday, which reappeared among the possessions of William le Latimer in 1337. It does not seem to occur elsewhere. It was possibly on the site of the old disused mill-dam at Friday Street, or on the stream higher up, where an old dam, now cut, and former pond are visible. The mill (this or both these) at Wotton was afterwards used for manufacturing purposes of different kinds.

The manor of GOSTERWOOD (Gostrode, xiv cent.) in Wotton should probably be identified with the hide of land in Wotton which was held by Corbelin of Richard de Tonbridge at the time of the Domesday Survey. (fn. 41) In 1280 Nicholas Malemayns acquitted Henry de Somerbury of services which were exacted from him in connexion with his free tenement in Wotton. (fn. 42) Henry died seised of this tenement in 1317, and it is recorded that he did suit for it at Nicholas Malemayn's court at Ockley. (fn. 43) In 1337 another Henry de Somerbury, who died in that year, had this holding in his possession; it then appears as 'Gostrode in the vill of Wotton.' (fn. 44)

From that time the material for the history of Gosterwood is scanty. In 1527 Robert Draper and Elizabeth his wife conveyed it to Henry Wyatt and others, and it is then for the first time called a manor. (fn. 45) Richard Hill died seised of it (fn. 46) in 1550, leaving it to his son Edmund, who was still holding it in 1574, (fn. 47) when he settled it on his wife Catherine Brown. This son Richard conveyed it in 1593 to George Evelyn, in whose descendants it has remained.

LEITH HILL PLACE

LEITH HILL PLACE is in the outlying part of Ockley, which was inclosed in Wotton and added to this parish in 1879. It is traditionally the head of a manor, but this is erroneous. It stands in the manor of Wotton, and not in the manor of Ockley, as other outlying parts of the parish were.

The house was a gentleman's house of very considerable antiquity, to judge from the sketch of its old state furnished by Mr. Perrin to Manning and Bray's history. The sketch was dated 1700, and shows a 16th-century front upon probably an older house. There was a secret chamber in the wall, usually called a priest's hole, only accessible by a trap-door, but this has now been opened into the adjoining room.

The builder is unknown. The site of the house was originally called Welland, but Leith is mentioned among the properties which fenced Ockley churchyard in 1628. In 1664 Mrs. Mary Millett, widow, of Harrow, Middlesex, settled Leith Hill Place on herself for life, with remainder to Henry Best of Gray's Inn. Katherine daughter and heir of Henry Best married Henry Goddard of Richmond, co. York. In 1706 they sold to John Worsfold of Ockley, who sold it to Colonel Folliott, (fn. 48) afterwards General Folliott, who was a justice of the peace resident in Ockley parish as early as 1728. (fn. 49) He altered the house of Leith Hill Place to its present form. His admission as a tenant of Wotton Manor is not on record, as the court rolls are not complete so early. Two acres of the waste were granted to him in 1742. He died in 1748, his only child Susanna having died in 1743. (fn. 50) In 1760 John Folliott, his heir, alienated Welland to Richard Hull, who built Leith Hill Tower in 1765, receiving a grant of the Tower and 4 acres of waste. (fn. 51) In 1777 Richard Hull alienated to Harry Thompson. (fn. 52) In 1788 Thompson's heirs alienated to Philip W. Perrin, owner and resident at Parkhurst. During his ownership the house was let as a school. Mr. Perrin died in 1824, and his heir was Sir Henry Fitzherbert, who sold in 1829 to John Smallpeice, who conveyed it in 1847 to Josiah Wedgwood, a descendant of the great Wedgwood and cousin and brother-in-law to Charles Darwin. His daughters Miss Wedgwood and Mrs. Vaughan Williams reside there now.

The reputed manor of ROOKHAM (Rokenham, xiv cent.) in the parishes of Ockley and Wotton may be connected with the grant of two crofts made by Thomas de Rokenham to his son John in 1314. (fn. 53) These lands evidently passed to the Newtimber family in the same century, for in 1399 Robert Newtimber conveyed to trustees a messuage and two curtilages, with other lands and tenements at Rookham, which were said to have formerly belonged to John de Rokenham. (fn. 54) In 1418 the trustees of Thomas de Pinkhurst, whose family had held property in Rookham for some years, (fn. 55) released his lands to Robert Newtimber. (fn. 56)

Apparently Rookham passed from the Newtimbers to the family of Hale, (fn. 57) since in 1537 Thomas Bourgh, grandson of Elizabeth sister of Henry at Hale, granted out rent from lands called Rookham and Newtimber in Ockley and Wotton. (fn. 58) From him the estate passed to John Caryll, who in 1560 made a settlement of the 'manor of Rookham' on his son Thomas. (fn. 59) It seems probable that the manor soon afterwards ceased to exist as a separate entity; for in 1610 a certain John Hayne died seised of 'lands called Frenches, late parcel of the tenement called Rookham in Wotton.' These lands are stated to have comprised 18 acres in extent. (fn. 60) Hayne also held lands in Ockley called Millmeades, alias Ruckingham meades, but in the Ockley Court Rolls of 1648 William Hayne holds these of Ockley Manor, while Rookham in Wotton is unmentioned; they were not therefore part of this manor and are still included in Ockley Manor.

Chapel of St. John the Baptist, Okewood, from the South-west

Rookham is a farm south of Okewood Hill, just north of the Sussex border, upon the edge of the detached part of Wotton parish now added to Abinger, east of Ockley. Rucknam Mead and the old Ruckenham contributed to the repair of Ockley churchyard fence in 1628. (fn. 61)

WESTLAND

WESTLAND was in Wotton, Abinger, Cranleigh, Albury, Ewhurst, and Wonersh. The courts were held at Okewood Hill in Wotton. In 1424–5 John Newdigate was owner, and granted a lease of it. (fn. 62)

In 1494 John Newdigate conveyed it to Ralph Leigh of Paddington in Abinger, (fn. 63) with which it passed to Sir Edward Bray. It was separated after his death (1558), being the jointure of his widow Jane. Their son Sir Edward, his son Reginald, and Lady Bray conveyed the reversion to Thomas Godman of Letherhead. In 1601 he conveyed it to John Aleyn, whose son Henry conveyed to George Evelyn of Wotton. (fn. 64)

CHURCHES

The church of ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST is not mentioned in Domesday, but from certain evidence in the existing structure it was probably standing in the 11th century. It is most beautifully situated on the summit of a steep ridge, its east and south sides overlooking a beautiful green valley and the hillside opposite, which has all the appearance of the wild down-land country of Sussex or Dorset, with patches of bracken and blackberry bushes and clumps of fine park-like trees, many, no doubt, of John Evelyn's own planting. In the hollow behind this hill, to the south east, lies Wotton House. The churchyard is surrounded by noble trees—here, again, in some cases, of Evelyn's planting. Two grand old beeches, with wide-spreading boughs, that formed a conspicuous feature, immediately to the north-east of the church, have unhappily been cut down within recent years; other fine beeches are to be seen to the west of the church, and there is a very beautiful avenue of limes and horse-chestnuts leading to the south porch. The churchyard contains a number of old wooden 'bedheads,' and a number of curiously-carved 18th-century head-stones, some table-tombs and other memorials ancient and modern, among the latter being many stones to the family of the late Sir Edward VaughanWilliams. The most interesting of the older monuments is a beautifully-carved urn, of white marble, bearing cherubs' heads, which marks the grave of William Glanville nephew of John Evelyn, on the north side of the churchyard.

The church is largely covered with ivy, especially the tower; and however picturesque the covering, it is much to be regretted, as causing slow but sure injury to the fabric, and hiding interesting features and marks of age. The walls are for the most part constructed of hard yellow Bargate stone rubble, still covered generally with a thin coat of ancient plaster or mortar, with dressings of Bargate stone and firestone. The modern parts are faced with the same rubble and with dressings of a ruddy sandstone and Bath stone, the vestry on the north being of old red brickwork. The roofs are still covered with Horsham slabs, except the porch and vestries, which are tiled. From the flat conical roof of the tower rises a picturesque square wooden superstructure, also covered with a flat-pitched conical roof.

In plan the church consists of a western tower, 11 ft. from east to west internally, by 15 ft. from north to south; nave, 33 ft. long by 18 ft. wide; chancel, 19ft. long by 15ft. wide; a short aisle opening by a single arch from the north side of the nave at its eastern end, 17 ft. 6 in. long by 13 ft. 6 in. wide, and communicating with the Evelyn Chapel, on the north side of the chancel, 19 ft. long by 14 ft. 6 in. wide. From this again a comparatively modern door opens into a second mortuary chapel recently turned into a parish room for vestry meetings. On the south side of the tower is an exceptionally roomy porch, rebuilt, but upon old foundations, and a modern vestry on the south side of the chancel. With all these alterations and additions, the plan of the simple tower, nave, and chancel of the early church remains.

The walls of the nave are of exceptional height (over 18 ft.), and they and the lower part of the tower are in all probability of pre-Conquest date; other indications of this period being the huge stones of which the quoin on the north-west of the nave and the piers of the tower arch are constructed. The plain, rude arch itself, of exceptional height and of flattened horseshoe outline, springing from a point about 6 in. within the line of the jambs, with rudelychamfered imposts, returned at the ends, is quite consistent with this early date. Both arch and piers are square-edged. The comparative thinness of the east and west walls of the tower (2 ft. 4 in.), taken with their height, and the piers and arch being built of through stones—all tooled with the pick, instead of the axe or chisel—are other indications of the early date claimed, which may well be about 1050. The upper courses of stones in the piers are in Bargate stone, all the rest being in firestone. (fn. 65) In the south wall of the tower, to the west of the later doorway, is a small early window, now blocked, unfortunately invisible on the outside owing to the ivy. The north and south walls of the tower are considerably thicker than the east and west—over 3 ft. on the north and 3 ft. on the south—and there is a set-back of a few inches at a height of about 8 ft. from the floor. As usual in early towers, there is no staircase. The upper windows are plain, square-headed openings, much hidden by the ivy, but perhaps of 13th-century date.

A peculiar and very puzzling feature is the blocked arch in the west wall of the tower, corresponding to that in the east wall. It is a few inches north of the centre of the tower, and while the piers have chamfered imposts similar to those of the eastern archway, the arch itself is obtusely pointed. This, however, may be due to its crown having been reset at the time when it was blocked up and the early 13th-century window inserted within it. The puzzle is into what this arch originally opened; and as all traces above ground of the building have vanished, the suggestion can only be offered tentatively that a porticus, such as has been found in this position at St. Peter's, Barton-on-Humber, and other pre-Conquest churches, may have stood here on the western side of the tower. A little excavation would throw light on the nature of this annexe.

Plan of Wotton Church

The two buttresses at either disengaged angle of the tower appear to be ancient features modernized, excepting, possibly, that on the south face, which may be original, but here again the ivy prevents any examination. The north wall of the nave is blank for more than half its length, but a careful search might disclose an original window behind the plaster.

The south porch, which is built against the wall of the tower, is modern in its present form, but is upon the lines of an older structure. The well-known reference in Evelyn's Diary to his having been instructed in the rudiments of learning from the age of four years by one Frier by name in the porch of Wotton Church, applies in all likelihood, not to the predecessor of this porch, but to the tower, which is spacious, and forms a sort of porticus, or lobby, to the nave.

In the south wall of the tower, within the porch, is a very remarkable doorway. It is wide, with a pointed head of somewhat distorted shape, and of two orders with a hood-moulding and shafts to the jambs. The hood-moulding has a member of pear-shaped section, and there is another such member in the outer order, flanked by quirked hollows. The inner order has a chamfer on the edge, but projecting from its angle, worked on the face of the chamfer are a series of minutely-carved little busts, each only about 3 in. in height, representing laymen and ecclesiastics, four on either side of the arch. The bottom one on each side is a modern restoration; the others appear to represent a pope (with the tall extinguisher-shaped head-dress of the period), a king, a priest, a nobleman, a queen (with crown and wimple), and a pilgrim. The voussoirs on which these are carved are of green firestone, and the alternate voussoirs are chalk, the sandstones alternating in the outer order. The impost moulding is carried round the chamfer, and forms the abacus of the shaft capital. This is circular with moulded upper part and necking, the intervening space being filled with vertical concave flutings, in this detail and the alternation of the arch stones recalling the south arcade of the nave at Aldingbourne Church, Sussex—work of the same date c. 1190–1210. The shafts have moulded annulets and bases. (fn. 66) The inner jambs and arch of the doorway appear to have belonged to an earlier opening, the arch being semicircular and a good deal worn, but it is possibly of the same date as the outer arch. A hideous cast-iron gate, apparently put here at the restoration of 1858, disfigures this curious and beautiful doorway, and every time it is opened cuts into its arch-stones.

Of the original chancel arch, destroyed in the same disastrous period to make way for the present wide and lofty arch, no very full information is attainable, but it would appear to have been a narrow, square-edged opening, perhaps not more than 6 ft. in width, and, flanking it on either side, tall pointedarched altar recesses were found, of which the outline of half of the arches can still be seen. They were then blocked up so that the original depth, which was probably not more than a foot, can only be guessed.

The church seems to have been largely remodelled, the chancel practically rebuilt, and the aisle with its chancel or chapel added on the north side about 1210. The existing triplet of lancets in the east wall of the chancel is entirely modern, replacing a three-light probably of the 14th or 15th century, but portions of the original group of three lancets that preceded this were found in the wall at the 1858 restoration. In the south wall of the chancel is a small sedile under a plain, pointed arm, and in the southern part of the east wall a simple piscina, both of c. 1210. Above the sedile is a two-light window, a pair of lancets, under one arch internally, worked in firestone, and now opening into the modern vestry. These are shown in an old engraving of the church prior to 1858. Beyond them, to the west, is a single lancet, shown in the same engraving, beneath which, and divided from it by a sill transom, is a wider square or oblong opening rebated for a shutter, which is one of the best instances in Surrey of the low side window. Unfortunately the firestone of this and the lancet window over it was exchanged for Bath stone at the 'restoration,' at which time the low side window was brought to light and unblocked. (fn. 67) There is now no iron grate in the opening, and the present shutter is modern and fanciful in design.

The chancel of c. 1210 opened to the north chapel by a wide pointed arch, which, since about the beginning of the 17th century, has been blocked up and used as a screen for displaying the monuments of the Evelyn family within the chapel. This arch is of two orders, with narrow chamfers to arch and piers, and with an impost moulding of very peculiar section carried round the chamfers, the piers standing upon a moulded plinth similarly treated. In the restoration of 1858 the blank wall within the arch was filled with tracery in stone and marbles of very inappropriate character. The arch that opens from the nave into the aisle is of the same date and character, and its imposts are of the same section. There was a third arch of this period between the aisle and the eastern chapel of which the outlines are still traceable in the wall. Possibly it showed signs of failure or was inconveniently large, for at about the same time that the arch in the chancel was blocked up this was partly filled in, and a small arch, preserving something of the character of the original, but clumsily imitated, was inserted within it, the older imposts redressed, or copies of them, being used.

The chapel beyond has two blocked lancets in its northern wall and three in the east, all of c. 1210, and the latter are particularly good and well-preserved examples of the period. They are rebated externally for a wooden frame, and have obtusely pointed external heads, with the internal splays radiating equally round the jambs and heads—a mark of early date. The central lancet is slightly higher than the others. In the western part of the north wall of this chapel is a small square recess, perhaps an aumbry, but it is simply chamfered without any rebate. There is above this, and beneath the sill of the lancets, a stringcourse of semicircular section, which is also carried along the walls of the aisle. Instead of being mitred where it jumps to a higher level here, the horizontal portion of the string-course is butted up against the vertical strip in a very unusual manner. In both the north and west walls of this aisle is a lancet of similar character to the foregoing, and, in the western part of the north wall, a nicely-proportioned doorway of two chamfered orders. All the masonry in this chapel and aisle is in the original firestone, delicately tooled with a broad chisel, and with extremely fine joints.
The nave, prior to 1858, had in its south wall a window of two lancets under one pointed internal arch, which still remains, towards the western end. Eastward of this was a three-light opening of 15th or 16th-century date, with a square head and hood-moulding; and beyond this to the east was another three-light window, transomed, under a segmental arch, and apparently of late 17th-century date. The two large windows of 13th-century design in the eastern part of the south wall replace those last described.
To the end of the 17th century belongs the brick vestry, or mortuary chapel of the Evelyn family, on the north of the chapel proper. It is of thin bricks, and has a circular window in its east gable, and a door between it and the chapel, a modern doorway, lately inserted, being pierced in its northern wall.
The roofs of the nave and chancel are modern and incongruous. The seating, pulpit, font, and all other fittings are also modern, with the sole exception of an interesting oak screen, with bannisters, and iron spikes or prickets for candles at the top, separating the chapel from the aisle. This bears the date 1632, and is almost the only bit of screenwork of its period remaining in Surrey. Within the chapel is preserved a font of white marble, with circular fluted basin on a tall baluster stem of about the same date, but possibly as old as the date of John Evelyn's birth in 1620. Cracklow records that 'in one of the south windows was formerly this fragment in black letter, "Orate pro anima Johannis de la Hale."'

John Evelyn's tomb in the north chapel is coffinshaped and quite plain, about 3 ft. from the floor in the eastern part of the chapel, and his wife's, of the same plain design, is to the westward and close to the south wall. Their coffins are said to be inclosed in these tombs above ground. He died on 27 February in 1705–6, in his eighty-sixth year, and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Browne, ambassador of Charles I at Paris, on 9 February 1708–9. The inscriptions are upon the white marble covering slabs, and that on John Evelyn's runs thus:— 'Here lies the body of John Evelyn, Esq., of this place … Living in an age of extraordinary events and revolutions, he learnt, as himself asserted, this truth, which pursuant to his intention is here declared: that all is vanity which is not honest, and that there is no solid wisdom but in real piety.' Evelyn's own desire was to be buried 'within the oval circle of the laurel grove planted by me at Wotton,' or, if this were not possible, in this chapel, where his ancestors lay: 'but by no means in the new vault lately joining to it.'

Besides these there are several inscribed ledgers upon the floor with heraldic panels, one, in brass, near the east end, bearing the griffon and chief of Evelyn and the bars and martlets of Ailward with a fine piece of mantling. On the south wall, near its west end, is the beautiful monument of George Evelyn, the purchaser of Wotton, who died in 1603, aged seventy-seven. It is of alabaster, with panels of black slate or 'touch,' on which are the inscriptions, now hardly decipherable, and is divided into three compartments. In the centre, high up, under a circular arch, is the kneeling figure in armour of George Evelyn. Above the cornice is a medallion bearing his coat-of-arms, and a helm and mantling, and the crest of a griffon passant. On the rounded pediments of the side compartments (within which are skulls) are draped urns, and within the recesses below, under heavy entablatures and circular arches, are the figures of his two wives kneeling and facing towards him. Rose, the first, bore him ten sons and six daughters, and Joan, the second, six sons and two daughters, Beneath each figure is an inscription panel, and below is a long panel on which the twenty-four children are carved in low relief, all kneeling; a narrow inscription panel and some carved scrolls and consoles completing the design. The whole monument, an excellent example of the taste of its time, retains the original colouring and gilding.

Adjoining this, to the east, is the very fine monument (alabaster, coloured, with slate panels) of Richard Evelyn, fourth son of George Evelyn, high sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1634, and his wife Eleanor Stansfield, with their five children. Richard, the father of the celebrated diarist, died in 1640. Fat nude boys in contemplation support the upper pedimented entablature over the principal cornice, and in the centre at the summit is a draped female figure, blindfolded; other 'virtues' in attitudes of grief flank the boys. Two large and beautiful draped angels, one holding a flaming heart and the other an open book, are drawing back the curtains to display the kneeling figures of Richard Evelyn and his wife. He is habited in the doublet, trunk-hose, and heavy cloak of his time, with his hair falling in curls over a deep collar. He kneels on a cushion with hands joined in prayer before a draped prayer-desk, facing his wife, whose flowing head-dress, falling in long folds behind, and gracefully-gathered gown, are charming examples of the lady's dress of the period. Their three sons and two daughters, in the panel below, kneel on cushions before another desk, the centre figure of the boys being the celebrated John. All the heraldry— which includes a very fine coat with mantling and a helm bearing the griffon crest in the panel at the top— and the smaller architectural ornaments, such as the consoles and scroll-work at the bottom, are models of delicate and spirited carving, and the figures of the angels and the husband and wife are among the best of that age. The original colouring is very perfect.

Opposite to these is the monument of Elizabeth Darcy, daughter of Richard Evelyn, who died in 1634. It is in the same taste as the foregoing, and probably by the same sculptor, who may well have been the celebrated Nicholas Stone. The bust of the lady, weeping, looks out from a curtained recess, and below her is the recumbent figure of her dead babe in its cot.

On the south side of the chancel is a tablet to Dr. Bohun, 1716, presented to the living in 1701 by John Evelyn. The inscription tells us that he left the sum of £20 for the poor of Wotton, and a similar sum for the decoration of the altar. He is described by Evelyn as 'a learned person, and excellent preacher.' Elsewhere in the chancel and nave are a number of later 18th and 19th-century monuments, and in the brick mortuary chapel of the Evelyns is a large white marble monument, by Westmacott, to the memory of Captain Evelyn, who died in 1829, bearing a striking inscription by Dr. Thomas Arnold of Rugby.

On the jambs of the door in the north aisle are a few early marks, such as a small cross.

The registers of baptisms and burials date from 1596, and of marriages from 1603.

The communion plate is chiefly of 17th and 18th-century dates. The oldest piece is a silver paten of 1685, bearing the arms of Evelyn impaling Browne. These were the arms of the celebrated John Evelyn and his wife. He was not then the owner of Wotton House, as he did not succeed his elder brother George till 1699. Another paten, inscribed: 'The gift of Lee Steere Steere, Esq[uire] To the Parish of Wootton,' is probably of the date 1724. A third dates from 1857. There is a cup of 1753, and a handsome silver flagon of 1706, tankard-shaped, with a high lid, and bearing the arms of Evelyn and Browne as on the paten of 1685, encircled by stiff feathering, with the inscription: 'The Gift of Mary Evelin, widdow of John Evelin Late of Wootton Esq.' It was presented in memory of her husband, who died in 1705.

The pierced cast-bronze plate, now used as an almsdish or collection-plate, is a beautiful but very unsuitable ornament of the church, being adorned with figures of nude gods and goddesses riding on dolphins and sea-monsters. It is a recent gift to the church.

The bells are three in number, the first inscribed:— ✠ORA MENTE PIA PRO NOBIS VIRGO MARIA. The second has: ✠ ✠ ✠ O ✠ ✠ IOHANNES CHRISTI CARE DIGNARE PRO NOBIS ORARE. Both are of the latter part of the 14th century, and Mr. Stahlschmidt considers that they were cast by a Reading or London founder. The third bell, by Richard Eldridge, bears the inscription: OUR HOPE IS IN THE LORD 1602 RE.'

Plan of Okewood Chapel

The ancient CHAPEL of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, OKEWOOD, is practically shut in by a small oak wood, except on the south side. It is perched upon the top of a hillock, round which winds a tiny stream, and is approached on one side by a rustic bridge. The churchyard is very picturesque, and contains many old trees, and some cypresses of more recent growth. There are a few wooden 'bed-heads' and a number of 18th-century headstones and table-tombs. The chapel itself is most picturesque, especially as viewed from the south-west or south-east, and is built of local sandstone rubble, plastered with the original coat of yellow-coloured mortar, the windows and other dressings in the old part being in hard chalk and firestone, the roofs covered with Horsham slabs, diminishing in size towards the ridge, and the wooden bell-turret at the west end being of oak boarding, crowned by a squat spirelet of oak shingles. The modern parts are quite in keeping with the old.

The plan, as originally built in about 1220, was a simple parallelogram, of nave and chancel, under one roof, without structural division, 56 ft. 6 in. long by 20 ft. wide internally, the side walls being 2 ft. 6 in. and the east and west 3 ft. in thickness. There were, till the modern alterations, a door on the north and four lancet windows, the same number and a priest's door on the south, while in the west wall were a door and window of three lights, and in the east wall another three-light window of 15th-century date. In the western part of the south wall is a rudely-formed window of 18th-century date. (fn. 68) The original roof, with massive tie-beams and wall-plates, still remaining, is probably of the later period; the popular tradition being that Edward de la Hale, whose brass remains in the chancel, in thankfulness for the escape of his son, who, while hunting in the forest, was attacked by a wild boar and nearly killed, founded the existing chapel on the site of the averted tragedy. This, however, is an incorrect version, as there is a record of the presentation of Sir Walter de Fancourt to the chapel in 1290, and there can be no doubt that the little chapel had then been standing for some seventy years. What is fairly certain is that Edward de la Hale endowed the chapel with lands, re-roofed and repaired it, and put the windows and a doorway in the end walls. In the early years of the 18th century, about 1709, the chapel is recorded to have fallen into a condition of dilapidation, when it was repaired, and a number of rough buttresses added (some of which still remain), by the care of two neighbouring yeomen, Mr. Goffe and Mr. Haynes, who sold three of the bells to help the work. John Evelyn is stated to have had a hand in an earlier reparation. (fn. 69) His representative, the late Mr. W. J. Evelyn, restored the building in 1867, and it was further restored and enlarged at his cost by the addition of a north aisle and a vestry in 1879. Although this extension was necessary, and was carried out with unusual respect for the ancient windows, door, &c., which were rebuilt in the same relative positions in the new wall, it is to be regretted for the unavoidable destruction of some very interesting early wall-paintings found on the walls and window-splays.

The south wall shows the original work, particularly in a pair of well-preserved lancet windows in the chancel. Beneath these on the inside, and apparently originally round the entire chapel, is a string-course of keel or pear-shape section. The windows have peculiar heads internally, i.e. straight-sided, or triangular, instead of arched, as in the chancel of Chipstead Church, Surrey, of slightly earlier date. They are rebated externally to receive the glass. There is a good piscina near to these with a credence shelf over, beneath a trefoiled head. It has two drains, dished in a square form. The opening is bordered by a bold bowtel moulding between two hollows, and is 1 ft. 8 in. wide, while that of the credence niche over it, which is simply chamfered on the edges, is only 1 ft. 5½ in. in width. There is also a small plain piscina of the first period in the south wall of the nave, beneath a lancet window and a square aumbry, of like date, originally in the north wall of the chancel, and now in the north aisle.

The ancient doorway and lancet windows of c. 1220, re-set in the rebuilt north wall, are good examples of their period. The north doorway, which retains its ancient oak door, and the priest's door on the south, now opening into the vestry, are plain to the point of rudeness. The western doorway, of c. 1430, within a modern porch, is wide and low, with a four-centred arch, which, with the jambs, is simply moulded. The door, of wide oak boards, with plain strap-hinges, is coeval, and the east and west windows, with cinquefoil-headed lights under square heads, also of the later date, are of the plainest character. In the flooring of the chancel and modern north chapel are a number of stone 'sets,' alternately white and yellow, apparently part of an ancient floor.

The arcade, of three arches in the nave and of two in the chancel, with a wide pier marking the junction, is, of course, modern, as are also the east and west windows of the aisle. The large raking buttresses on the south, east, and west sides date from the 18th century; and between the two on the east wall a sexton's shed has been inserted. There is a small modern gallery at the west end, and above this rises the bell-turret, also of modern date, which, with its silvery oak shingles, makes a very pleasing feature.

The main roof, as before mentioned, is ancient, that of the aisle being, of course, new; the seating and all other furniture being likewise modern.

In the last restoration the walls and window-splays were found to be covered with ancient paintings— figure subjects and scroll-work patterns of unusual excellence—chiefly of the early part of the 13th century, but some of 14th and 15th-century dates. As most of these occurred upon the north wall, they were unhappily destroyed when it was pulled down, but tracings were made which are said to be still in existence. On the north wall were two pairs of large figures, and on the east wall two single figures, two others, with ornamental patterns, being painted over the south door of the chancel. St. George and the dragon, on the south wall, near the west end, of 15th-century date, is mentioned among the destroyed subjects, (fn. 69a) and on the eastern part of the south wall of the chancel is still preserved the Visitation, the figures of St. Mary and St. Elizabeth being drawn in coarse red outline, about life-size, with red drapery. At the west end, on the north, west, and south walls, 'numerous small figures, parts of a large subject,' said to have been of 15th-century date, were uncovered, but were not preserved.

In the two lancets on the south side of the chancel are preserved some rare and beautiful fragments of ancient glass. That in the eastern of the two is of early 13th-century date, coeval with the window in which it stands. It is grisaille pattern work, the design being in large diamonds, almost the width of the opening, inclosed in white borders. Sprays of stiff-leaf foliage, with bunches of fruit, fill the diamond spaces, which are a deep, rich grey-green in places. In the western are fragments of two dates, including some very elegant natural leafage of early 14th-century character, and a flaming sun, a rose, and some flowered quarries of the 15th century.

A good late-17th-century chest is preserved in the church.

There are no monuments of special interest or antiquity with the exception of the interesting brass to Edward de la Hale, 1431, which lies in the chancel floor, and is now covered by a trap-door. The figure is unusually small, only 1 ft. 5½ in. in height, and has been very delicately engraved. It shows him in plate-armour, with his gauntleted hands joined in prayer, a helm of pointed oval shape, a collar of SS, roundels at the armpits, skirt of taces, and long-toed sollerets, with one rowelled spur. A long sword against his left side is slung from the right hip, and a dagger is suspended on the right side; his feet rest upon a lion. Above the head is a curved scroll bearing the words, I[HESU] MERCY, and at the foot is an inscription plate now set upside down—
Hic iacet Edwardus de la Hale Armig' De Co[mitatu] Surr'
Qui obiit viii0. die mensis Septembr' Anno dñi Millō.
cccc0. XXXI0. Cuius anime p'picietur deus Amen.

The registers date only from 1670.

Of the plate in use at the chapel, the oldest piece, a silver cup, with a disproportionately large and deep bowl, dates from 1794. It bears the usual star ornament, and on the other side are the arms of the Evelyns of Wotton, with the inscription: 'The Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Evelyn of Wotton to Oakwood Church, Surrey, 6 January 1878.' The other pieces are dated 1837 and 1844, with similar ornament, arms and inscription; there is also a brass almsdish.

In the library at Wotton House are preserved some other pieces, replaced by the foregoing, viz.: a plated cup, and a cup, paten, plate and flagon of pewter, the plate bearing the date 1692, which appears from the marks to be that of the other pewter pieces. There is little doubt that they were all provided at the time of the repair of the chapel in 1701.

The one bell is modern.

ADVOWSONS

Wotton Church is mentioned in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, 1291. William Latimer presented in 1304, (fn. 70) and again in 1305. (fn. 71) In 1306 divers malicious persons broke into the parson's house, and even carried their atrocities to the length of killing one of his servants. (fn. 72) From this time onwards the advowson appears to have followed the descent of the manor. Queen Philippa, to whom the custody of William Latimer had apparently been granted, presented in 1345: (fn. 73) the advowson was granted with the manor to Thomas Morstede in 1429, (fn. 74) belonged afterwards to the Owens, (fn. 75) and passed with the manor to the Evelyn family. (fn. 76)

The presentation of the chapel of Okewood (fn. 77) went with that of Wotton. (fn. 78)

Edward de la Hale endowed the chapel with lands which in 1547–8 were valued at 120s. 6d. a year. The chapel was suppressed in 1547, (fn. 79) and the lands, chapel and chapel-house granted to Henry Polstede and William More. (fn. 80) The materials of the chapel were valued for sale. A pension of 100s. was granted to the 'chantry priest,' Hamlet Slynn. (fn. 81) The inhabitants petitioned against the destruction of the chapel, and obtained its restoration to them for use as a church. (fn. 82) In 1560–1 a petition to the same effect was presented, reciting the former facts, and adding that the former priest was not then there. Elizabeth granted a perpetual payment of £3 6s. 8d. from the Exchequer to the priest officiating at Okewood, which is still received. (fn. 83)

In 1723 Sir John Evelyn, the patron, and Richard Miller, esq., gave £200 in aid of the endowment. In 1725 Dr. Godolphin, Dean of St. Paul's, and Sir William Perkins of Chertsey, gave £100 each, and in 1741 Mr. Offley, rector of Abinger, left two farms to trustees for the repair of the building, the surplus to go to the curate in charge, provided that he held two services every Sunday. (fn. 84) The conditions were not fulfilled in the latter part of the 18th century, when the services were very irregularly performed. A cottage near the chapel, called Chapel House, is the traditional home of the priest. But there was no later parsonage house till 1884, when the present vicarage was built by Lord Ashcombe. The ecclesiastical parish of Okewood was formed in 1853 of parts of the old parishes of Wotton, Abinger, and Ockley, upon the Sussex border. The chapel was in the outlying part of Wotton, which was united to Abinger civil parish in 1879.

CHARITIES

In 1717 William Glanville, nephew to John Evelyn, left by will a rentcharge on a farm near Pulborough to provide 40s. each for five poor boys who, on the anniversary of his death, should attend at his tombstone in Wotton churchyard and repeat from memory the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, read 1 Cor. xv., and write two verses of the same chapter. The two best performers receive in addition £10 each to apprentice them to some trade. Wotton boys under 16 years old have the first chance, but failing suitable claimants from Wotton, Shiere, Abinger, Cheam, Epsom, and Ashtead parishes, and the tithing of Westcote, Dorking have the next right of competing.

Smith's Charity is distributed as in other Surrey parishes.

Footnotes

1	V.C.H. Surr. ii, 236, 312, &c., and Evelyn's Letter to Aubrey—vol. i of Aubrey's Surr.
2	Mr. Hull bought the land on which the Tower stands. It remained part of his estate, Leith Hill Place, q.v., under successive changes of ownership till Mr. Wedgwood sold it to Mr. Evelyn in the last century. The inscription on the Tower gives the date 1766, but the 66 is an evident restoration, and the Court Rolls of the manor speak of the tower as existing in 1765.
3	Copy of the bearings of various points taken by the Royal Engineers in 1844, in the possession of Mr. Malden.
4	Bill of sale.
5	V.C.H. Surr. i, 328a.
6	Ibid.
7	Ibid. 283 and 317a.
8	Chan. Inq. p.m. 43 Hen. III, no. 28; ibid. 49 Edw. III (1st pt. 2nd nos.), no. 46.
9	Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 219.
10	Feet of F. Surr. 19 Hen. III, no. 20.
11	Ibid. Div. Co. 25 Hen. III, no. 170.
12	Plac. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 82.
13	Chan. Inq. p.m. 43 Hen. III. no. 28.
14	Ibid. 5 Edw. I, no. 1.
15	Cal. Close, 1279–88, pp. 52–4, &c.
16	Feet of F. Surr. 8 Edw. I, no. 10.
17	Wykeham's Register.
18	De Banco R. 161, m. 183.
19	Ibid.
20	Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 Edw. III (1st nos.), no. 56.
21	Ibid.
22	Ibid. 9 Edw. III (1st nos.), no. 51.
23	Feet of F. Surr. 26 Edw. III, no. 7.
24	Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. III (1st nos.), no. 30.
25	Exch. Inq. p.m. (Ser.1), file 457, no. 1.
26	Harl. MS. 6148, fol. 139.
27	Wykeham's Register (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 132.
28	Close, 13 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 12d.
29	Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Hen. V, no. 29.
30	Ibid. 5 Hen. VI, no. 26.
31	Close, 7 Hen. VI, m. 7 d.
32	Ibid; see also Feet of F. Surr. 11 Hen. VI, no. 20.
33	The difficulty of tracing the direct Camoys line was experienced at the time of the revival of the Camoys barony in 1838.
34	Hist. of Surr. ii, under Wotton. Bray was steward of Wotton.
35	Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 Ric. III, no. 26. Possibly some light may be thrown on these changes of ownership by the fact that in 1465 (Close, 4 Edw. IV, m. 11 d.) one Thomas Middleton being enfeoffed to the use of William Estfield, kt., demised property in Middlesex to Humphrey Bohun. This entry seems at any rate to prove the existence of some relationship between those three persons which may explain their having been connected with the manor in turn.
36	Suss. Arch. Soc. Coll. vii, 25.
37	See Sir David's will, printed in Suss. Arch. Coll. vii, 38.
38	Ct. Rolls.
39	Cat. Anct. D. iii, 75 (A 4510).
40	Surr. Arch. Coll. xvii, 70. One bears the title, in John Evelyn's writing, 'The prospect of the old house at Wotton, 1640'; the other 'A Rude draght of Wotton Garden before my Bro: altered it & as it was 1640; South.'
41	V.C.H. Surr. i, 328a.
42	Feet of F. Surr. 8 Edw. I, no. 10.
43	Chan. Inq. p.m. 11 Edw. II, no. 50.
44	Ibid. 11 Edw. III (1st nos.), no. 39.
45	Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 18 Hen. VIII.
46	Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xcii, 79.
47	Recov. R. Hil. 17 Eliz.
48	Manning and Bray, Hist. of Surr. iii, App. clvi.
49	Ockley Parish Bks.
50	Family tomb of General Folliott in Ockley churchyard and registers.
51	The inscription on the tower says 1766, but the grant of the tower is 1765.
52	Richard Hull died 1772, aged eighty-three (inscription formerly visible in the tower), so this Richard was his heir. Manning and Bray (loc. cit.) say that General Folliott's widow and Mary Harloe his niece sold to Richard Hull in 1754, and that Hull's heirs sold to Thompson in 1773. This is not compatible with the court roll, unless the site of the house had been separated from the manor. It is supposed now to be in the manor.
53	Add. Chart. 9021.
54	Ibid. 18687.
55	Ibid. 18654.
56	Ibid. 18702.
57	Probably Edward de la Hale, the benefactor of Okewood Chapel (q.v.), was a member of this family, as the places are all close together.
58	Add. Chart. 18792.
59	Ibid. 18846.
60	W. & L. Inq. p.m. bdle. 36, no. 163.
61	Ockley Parish Bks.
62	Manning and Bray, Hist. of Surr. ii, 153.
63	Feet of F. Surr. 9 Hen. VII, 33.
64	Manning and Bray, Hist. of Surr. ii, 152. (Bray was steward of the manor.) From Ct. R. and deeds of Mr. Evelyn.
65	The masonry of the piers has something of the appearance of 'long and short' work, a well-known characteristic of pre-Conquest building. Some of the 'long' stones are over 2 ft. in height, the 'short' ones being less than half that dimension. There is a close resemblance between this arch and the early chancel arches, of horse-shoe shape (both pre-Conquest or late 11th century) at Elsted and Chithurst, Sussex.
66	For an illustration of this doorway see V.C.H. Surr. ii, 432. The resemblance to the work at Aldingbourne is so marked, even to the use of firestone and chalk in the alternate voussoirs, that the same masons must have been employed.
67	See a contemporary woodcut and account of the church in the Illus. Lond. News for 1858. For a drawing of the low side window, see Surr. Arch. Coll. xiv, 96.
68	Probably made in 1709.
69	In Evelyn's Diary is the entry, under 14 July 1701: 'I subscrib'd towards rebuilding Oakwood Chapel, now after 200 years almost fallen down.'
69	a Traces of this have lately been found by Mrs. Shearme, wife of the vicar.
70	Winton Epis. Reg. Pontoise, fol. 41a.
71	Ibid. Woodlock, fol. 3b.
72	Cal. Pat. 1301–7, p. 479.
73	Ibid. 1345–8, p. 250.
74	Close, 7 Hen. VI, no. 7 d.
75	Feet of F. Hil. 14 Eliz.
76	Ibid. Surr. Trin. 21 Eliz.
77	Okewood is no doubt the correct spelling. A small stream which rises in Ockley and Wotton, and flows past the chapel, is called the Oke. Compare Okehampton on the Oke in Devonshire. It joins the Arun.
78	Close, 9 Hen. V, m. 17; 7 Hen. VI, m. 7.
79	By Act of 1 Edw. VI, cap. 14.
80	By Act of Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. i, m. 32.
81	Exch. Anct. Misc. no. 82, m. 3, 2 Edw. VI.
82	Aug. Decrees, Misc. Bks. vol. 105, fol. 231.
83	Exch. Memo. R. East. 3 Eliz. rot. 116.
84	Papers preserved at Okewood Vicarage, formerly at Wotton House.

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