A HISTORY OF SURREY 



and some red brick, is employed for the new work. 

 Before enlargement there was a nave 38 ft. 3 in. by 

 2 1 ft., and a chancel 1 8 ft. by 1 6 ft. 9 in., separated by 

 an arch, and with a porch on the south of the nave. 

 Rising out of the centre of the nave, was and 

 happily still is a slender timber bell-turret, with 

 graceful shingled spire standing upon four enormous 

 baulks of moulded timber, which rest upon the nave 

 floor, and are tied together with braces. The 

 whole turret closely resembles that of the west end 

 of Alfold Church in this neighbourhood, and the two 

 were doubtless erected, about 1500, by the same 

 hands. 



Until about the year 1860 the proportions of the 

 simple early building of about 1 100 remained unal- 

 tered, save for the addition of this timber turret and 

 spire (which, however, made no alteration in the 

 area occupied by the nave and chancel) ; at that time 

 the church received its first enlargement by the 

 addition of a short aisle and a vestry on the north of 

 the nave ; new windows were inserted in the west 

 and east walls and on the south of the nave, and the 

 church was reseated, a gallery being retained at the 

 west end. In 1883-4 tne nave was lengthened 

 westwards, and a transept, baptistery, and porch added 

 on the south of the nave, the additions involving the 

 removal of the old west wall and part of the south 

 wall. The accompanying plan, drawn with the help 

 of one taken before the 1860 alterations, shows some 

 of the ancient features that still remain, as well as 

 those that have been removed in the successive 

 enlargements. 



CHANCEL ARCH, THURSLEY (FURNITURE OMITTED) 



60 



The turret and its spire are shingled, and on the 

 south side of the former is a large old sundial, in 

 place of a clock, bearing the inscription, ' Hora pars 

 vitae.' The body of the turret has been heightened 

 3 ft. Its timbers are remarkably massive as seen from 

 within the nave. Four huge uprights, worked with 

 a series of hollow chamfers, and measuring on the 

 square about 2 ft. 6 in., rise from the nave floor, and 

 great arches of oak spring from them and span the 

 nave. These arches, which are four-centred or 

 elliptical in outline, have a hollow chamfer on the 

 edges, and between them are two other arches of 

 similar shape, but rising from a beam on either side 

 (north and south), carried by a low four-centred 

 arch. 



The nave retains only one of its original windows, 

 a small round-headed opening, somewhat widely 

 splayed, in the eastern part of the north wall. It 

 was preserved when the church was enlarged, and 

 now looks into the aisle. Originally there was a 

 similar window to the westward and a small door 

 between in this wall, probably matched by others in 

 the opposite wall ; and in the west end the outline 

 of a round-headed opening was noticeable until the 

 last extension. The south wall seems to have been 

 altered about the middle of the 1 3th century, when 

 a lancet and doorway took the place of the earlier 

 features. Later still, perhaps in the 1 5th century, 

 a two-light opening was inserted in the eastern part 

 of the south wall, destroying another early window, 

 and this and a similar insertion in the east wall of the 

 chancel seem to have been fitted with wooden frames 

 in place of the stone tracery early 

 in the igth century. 



The chancel arch, built of hard 

 chalk, is of mid- 13th-century date. 

 Its piers are square to a height 

 of 4 or 5 ft. from the floor, and 

 then rise in two chamfered orders, 

 with pyramidal stops at the base, 

 the chamfers continuing without 

 any break round the arch. This 

 arrangement suggests that there 

 was originally a low screen stand- 

 ing in the opening. There are 

 at present the lower parts of a 

 15th-century screen, which has 

 been deprived of its traceried 

 upper half. The arch should be 

 compared with one of similar 

 date and character in West Clan- 

 don Church, near Guildford. In 

 the north-east angle of the nave 

 is a moulded bracket of black 

 marble which looks as if it had 

 carried the beam for the rood, 

 independently of the low screen. 



The north wall of the chancel 

 is strangely devoid of features, " 

 there being no window, door, or 

 aumbry therein. There is a break 

 in the wall horizontally near the 

 top, which is much thinner. In 

 the south wall are two lancets of 

 about 1250, the openings of which 

 appear to have been widened at 

 some time, and the western, which 

 was a low side window and has 



