GODALMING HUNDRED 



had its head raised since Cracklow's view of 1823 

 was taken. In the eastern part of the same wall is 

 a small piscina of 1250. 



Both in the nave and chancel the roofs are mostly 

 ancient, the timbers of black oak, very massive and 

 in good preservation ; some of the beams are of 

 unusual size for so small a building. There are some 

 slight remains of plain 15th-century seats, worked in 

 with new material, in the chancel. 



The font is the original, a large circular tub-shaped 

 block of hard Bargate stone, brownish-orange in 

 colour, and quite plain save for a band of cheveron 

 or arrow-head ornament incised round the rim, and 

 a little lower down a projecting moulding of circular 

 section, which may have served the practical purpose 

 of giving a grip to the chain or rope by which this 

 huge block was hoisted about between the quarry 

 and the church. This font appears to belong to an 

 early group in Surrey and Sussex, in which are 

 comprised Tangmere (with a circular moulding), 

 Alfold, Yapton and Walberton, the last two showing 

 similar incised ornamentation to the rims. 



Of the three bells one is mediaeval, with an unde- 

 cipherable black-letter inscription, the others are 

 modern. 



Among the church plate is a cup of 166* and an 

 old pewter plate. 



The registers date from 1613, which leads to 

 the inference that it was a separate parish in fact ; it 

 had churchwardens of its own, but up to the middle 

 of the i gth century it was usually held with 

 Witley.' 



WITLEY 



A chapel atThursley was taxed with 

 Witley in 1291.* It is said to have 

 been erected into a separate parish in 



THE FONT, THURSLEY 



1838,* and the benefice is still in the gift of the vicar 

 of Witley. 



Henry Smith's Charity applies to 

 CHARITIES Thursley. Moon's Money, a charity 

 of unknown origin, was applied to 

 the maintenance of the workhouse. 



WITLEY 



Witlei (xi cent.) ; Whitle or Witle (xiii cent, on- 

 wards). 



Witley is bounded on the west by Thursley, 

 formerly a chapelry of the parish. It is rather over 

 6 miles from north to south, and 2 miles from east to 

 west, tapering somewhat towards the south. It con- 

 tains 7,210 acres of land, and 40 of water. The soil 

 of most of the parish is the Lower Green Sand ; the 

 south-eastern part is on the Atherfield and Wealden 

 Clays. On the west side of the parish Witley Common 

 is an extensive waste of heather, connected with 

 Thursley Common and the waste land running thence 

 up to Hindhead, all included in the manor of Witley. 

 The escarpment of the Green Sand to the south is 

 abrupt, affording fine views southward and east- 

 ward, and the central parts of the parish are 300 ft. 

 above the sea. The parish was divided into four 

 tithings. Milford to the north, containing the hamlets 

 of Milford and Mousehill, and now a separate ecclesias- 

 tical parish, Ley or Lea in the centre, containing the 

 hamlet of Wheeler Street; Stoatley ; and Birtley, which 

 includes Witley Street and all the parish to the south. 

 Witley Park was in the last. 



The parish is intersected from north to south by 

 the London and Portsmouth road, and in the same 

 direction by the London and South Western Railway 



to Portsmouth. Milford station is in Witley, but 

 Witley station is in Godalming parish. 



Pinewood is the seat of Viscount Knutsford ; Rake 

 of Archdeacon Potter ; Lea Park was the home oi the 

 late Mr. Whitaker Wright. At the sale of this property 

 in 1905, the manorial rights over part of the waste 

 of Witley, including Thursley and part of Hindhead, 

 were acquired by trustees for the Commons Preserva- 

 tion Society. The principal landowners are Mr. 

 Webb, Mrs. Francis E. Eastwood of Enton, Mr. E. A. 

 Chandler, the Earl of Derby, and the various purchasers 

 of the Lea estate. 



The soil of Witley Common contains a considerable 

 percentage of ferruginous sand. There were iron- 

 works in the parish on Witley and Thursley Heaths, 

 but the more important part of them was probably 

 in the Thursley chapelry, now a separate parish. But 

 iron was found also in Witley Park, in the clay. These 

 ironworks seem to have been among the last which 

 were kept open in Surrey. 1 They were working in 

 1767. 



The social troubles of the year 1 549 led to riots 

 in Witley among other places, dignified by an old in- 

 habitant as ' the general rebellion in these parts,' 

 when the pale of Witley Park was demolished. The 

 rebellion was largely against inclosing of lands. 1 



8 Injt. Bks. (P.R.O.). 

 < Pofe Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 208. 

 s Sumner, Comfectut of Dioc. of ffin- 

 ton, 1 1 6. 



'Sec y.C.H. Surr. ii, 173, and Topley, 

 Gtol. of the Weald, 134, for the valuable 

 ferruginous land in Witley. 



* Mr. M. S. Giuseppi, in Surr. Arch. 



61 



Coll. xviii, 17, quoting Exch. K.R. Spec. 

 Com. 2244. The same insurrection is re- 

 ferred to in a paper among the Loselcy 

 MSS. now at P.R.O. 



