BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



house of Albury Park. It is a most picturesque build- 

 ing, containing features of great archaeological interest. 

 The chancel has for m.iny years been roofless, and 

 the whole building is covered with masses of ivy, 

 which is slowly but surely disintegrating the walls. 



The church is constructed of ironstone and sand- 

 stone rubble, with dressings of Bargate stone, clunch, 

 and firestone, chiefly plastered. The nave roof is 

 partly covered with Horsham slabs, the aisle and 

 porch with tiles, the transept with slates, and the 

 tower has a domed covering of shingles and lead. 



The plan is unusual in several respects, consisting 

 of a nave 30 ft. gin. by 19 ft. 4 in. with north 

 porch, a south aisle 13 ft. I in. wide and 32 ft. 6 in. 

 long, a tower to the east of the nave 1 5 ft. 6 in. by 

 14 ft. 2 in., a south transept opening out of the aisle 

 and tower 20 ft. by 15 ft. loin., and a chancel 

 26 ft. 3 in. by 14 ft. 4 in. 



In origin the nave is that of the pre-Conquest 

 church, or at least of that mentioned in Domesday. 

 The character of the north-east quoin and the lofty 

 walls rather favours the former date, but all the original 

 windows and other features have 

 been replaced by later insertions, 

 so that the evidence is meagre. 

 The tower, between the nave and 

 the chancel, either stands upon 

 the site, or incorporates part of 

 the walls, of the original chancel ; 

 probably the internal area is that 

 of the latter, and its walls have 

 been thickened in an outward di- 

 rection to 3 ft. 10 in., the two 

 upper stages being decreased in 

 thickness. There is no staircase, 

 and the tower is now open to the 

 roof. The walls are plastered ex- 

 ternally. The ground story is 

 lighted only by a small round- 

 headed window on the north side, 

 6 in. wide, splaying out, without a 

 rebate, to 2 ft. on the inside. In 

 the next stage is a very interesting 

 two-light opening in the north wall, 

 under a semicircular arch, having a central shaft with 

 scalloped capital and base, recalling those in the tower 

 of Cobham Church in this county. 49 This and other 

 features suggest a date of about 1140-50. On the 

 east and south sides of the middle stage are other 

 coupled lights, but with plain piers of masonry instead 

 of the little column. Above these again, in the top- 

 most stage (which was crowned with brick battlements 

 about 1820), are two separate openings on each face, 

 large, with square heads, on the west, and small and 

 round-headed on the other sides. The round-headed 

 arches towards the nave and chancel are in firestone, 

 on square jambs, with chamfered and hollow-cham- 

 fered imposts, each about 9 ft. wide, and high in pro- 

 portion. The eastern has a quirked roll on the angle, 

 with a chamfered hood-moulding having a plain sunk 

 zigzag or hatched pattern on its outer face. The 

 western arch has a similar roll-moulding with a hollow 

 cut set on the angle, and above it a shallow ornament 



ALBURY 



like a circular cusping, with balls at the points of the 

 cusps. 50 The arch to the transept from the tower is 

 of late 13th-century character, but it has been much 

 modernized. 



Of the izth-century chancel no trace remains, and 

 the walls of the present chancel are apparently a good 

 deal later. They incline markedly to the north on 

 plan, and the partly-destroyed windows in the north 

 and south walls and the gutted opening of a late 

 tracery window in the east wall give no certain clue 

 to the date, while no piscina or aumbry is now visible. 

 Probably the 13th-century chancel was re-modelled 

 in the i6th century. 



A spacious south aisle was added to the nave about 

 1280, with an arcade of three pointed arches of two 

 chamfered orders, on octagonal columns with moulded 

 capitals, the eastern and western arches having a corbel 

 of similar section in place of a respond." The bases of 

 the columns are evidently spoil from some more ancient 

 building, being circular capitals in Sussex marble, 

 turned upside down and mutilated to fit their new 

 position. These are mounted upon rough circular 



PLAN OF ALBURY CHURCH 



plinths of Bargate stone, which may be older than 

 the bases themselves, the mouldings of which indicate 

 work of about 1 200. Upon the western face of both 

 columns is a small shallow square-headed niche. All 

 the windows of the nave and aisle have been robbed 

 of their tracery, so that they present a very forlorn 

 and gaping appearance. This is the more to be 

 regretted, as, from the delicacy of the mouldings, they 

 must have been very graceful examples of early bar 

 tracery when perfect. They are built of a curious 

 mixture of chalk, or clunch, and dark red-brown iron- 

 stone. The window in the west wall of the aisle 

 has been altered in the iyth century, its head being 

 made circular. That in the west wall of the nave 

 was of three lights, and above it in the apex of the 

 gable is a plain circular opening, also devoid of tracery; 

 another smaller one is in the corresponding gable-end 

 of the aisle. The buttresses of the west and south 

 walls, and the wide south doorway, appear to be all of 



49 The tower of the neighbouring church 

 of Shere has a simitar two-light opening 

 in its second stage, but with a square pier 

 between the lights. 



40 At in the doorway to the chapter- 



house, Oxford Cathedral, and New Romney, 

 Kent. Something like it is found in the 

 cusped ornament round the chancel arch 

 at Eastbourne, and the arch to the inner 

 chancel at Compton, Surrey. 



75 



51 Almost exactly the same as a corbel 

 in the south aisle of Cranleigh Church, a, 

 few miles to the south-west. 



