BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



Novembris Anno dffl Millmo CCCC xl ' cuiO 

 ai5 ppiciet' de* ame : 



There is also a small brass on the north wall, framed 

 into a tablet, commemorating Henry Wicks, a servant 

 of Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles 

 (1657) ; and monuments to Elizabeth Merrye, 1652, 

 Edith Duncombe, daughter of John Carrill, late of 

 Tangley, 1628 (south wall), and others to the Dun- 

 combe, Risbridger, and other local families of the 

 iyth and i8th centuries. These are all of good 

 design, according to their periods, and of rich mate- 

 rials ; alabaster and black and white marble being 

 employed, and the heraldry coloured and gilt. 



Of the new church all that need be said is that it is 

 in brick, and modelled upon the church of Than, 

 near Caen, in Normandy, that it is transeptal, with 

 an apsidal chapel, added by the late Duke of Northum- 

 berland, and has a tower at the north-west angle. 

 There is much stained glass, including a memorial 

 window to Mr. Drummond, painted by Lady Gage ; 

 and the font, probably of early 12th-century date, 

 was removed here from the old church. 



The registers date from 1559. 



The plate includes a silver cup, paten cover, flagon, 

 and silver alms-bason, of 1714, the last-named in- 



ALFOLD 



scribed : ' The gift of Heneage, Lord Guernsey 

 [Master of the Jewell House] to the Parish of Albury 

 the place of his birth, 1714..' 



The bells, brought from the old church, are six in 

 number, and, with the exception of the treble, which 

 was added in 1841, they date from 1695, and bear 

 the name of William Eldridge. 



Albury Church is mentioned in 



JDrOffSON the Domesday Survey of the manor. 



The advowson was and is vested in 



the lord of Albury Manor. The living was valued 



at 12 in 1291," and at 18 in 1535." 



The charities are numerous ; in 

 CHARITIES addition to the usual Smith's Charity, 

 an annuity of l izs., charged on 

 land, was left by Alice Foisted in I 586 for distribution 

 among the poor ; the interest on 400 was left by 

 William Risbridger in 1754 to put poor children to 

 school, to be given in bread, and to provide a sermon, 

 with a gratuity for the poor who listened to it. The 

 Duncombe Charity, for the poor generally, was left in 

 1705 and 1712 by Olive daughter of John Child of 

 Guildford and widow of Henry Duncombe of Weston, 

 Albury, who died 1688. This was invested in land 

 and produces 200 a year. 56 



ALFOLD 



Alfaude (xiii cent.) ; Aldfbld, Awfold (xvii cent.). 



Alfold is a rural parish on the borders of Surrey 

 and Sussex, bounded on the north by Hascombe and 

 Cranleigh, on the east by Cranleigh, on the south by 

 Rudgwick, Wisborough Green, and Kirdford (all in 

 Sussex), on the west by Dunsfold. It measures 

 roughly 2} miles north to south, a little over a mile 

 east to west. It now contains 2,974 acres. The 

 parish formerly extended into Sussex, and inclosed an 

 outlying piece of Albury. In 1880 the Albury part 

 was added to Alfold, 1 and in 1884 the Sussex por- 

 tion was transferred to parishes in the county.* 

 About 150 acres, with ten to fifteen inhabitants 

 only, were added to Sussex, and about 50 acres taken 

 from Albury. The soil is Wealden clay, and grows 

 nothing much except forest trees and oats. There 

 are no wastes in the parish, and the roadside grass is 

 not above 20 acres in all. A great part of the parish 

 is wooded, and it was all formerly in the Wealden 

 Forest ; 917 acres are tithe-free, as ' woodland in 

 the Weald of Surrey and Sussex.' * 



In Sydney Wood were glass-houses, of which the 

 only relic is the name Glass House Fields. A glass- 

 house is marked in Speed's map. Aubrey (i7th cen- 

 tury) saw the graves of French glass-makers in the 

 churchyard, but the industry was extinct in his time, 

 so the French were not refugees after the Revocation 

 of the Edict of Nantes, as stated by Brayley. Char- 

 coal was extensively burnt in the parish for gun- 

 powder works in Dunsfold, Cranleigh, and Sussex. 



A road from Guildford to Arundel, made in 1809,' 

 traverses the village. Before this time there was 

 no made road in the parish, and fifty years ago there 



was no other. The disused Wey and Arun Canai 

 passes through the parish. 



Alfold Park, which belonged to the manor of 

 Shalford, contained 300 acres. It had ceased to be 

 a park when Speed's map was made, and was not 

 mentioned among twenty-one Surrey parks of the 

 compass of a mile in the proceedings under the Act 

 for the Increase of Horses. 5 It is unknown when it 

 was disparked. The house is, though partly mod- 

 ernized, a good specimen of an old timbered house, 

 formerly with a hall with a louvre over, the chimney 

 being a Tudor addition. There are the remains of 

 a moat round it. The house is now known as 

 Alfold Park Farm. There are also the remains of 

 a moat at Wildwood Farm. The parish was rich 

 in timbered farms and cottages, some of them being 

 now altered, some pulled down. 



A Baptist chapel was erected in 1883, and an ele- 

 mentary school in 1876. Sydney Manor is the resi- 

 dence of Mr. George Wyatt, Sachel Court of 

 Mr. Thomas Wharrie. 



In the lane leading up to the church, and close to 

 the churchyard gate, the village stocks are still pre- 

 served ; a shed-roof has lately been erected over them. 



Besides the ancient tile-hung cottages grouped 

 round this lane, a notable example of the half-timber 

 house, originally built by a substantial yeoman in 

 the early years of the l6th century, remains in 

 Alfold House at the entrance to the village. This 

 was originally constructed entirely from the founda- 

 tion of timber framework, filled with wattle and 

 daub. In plan it was of J-shape with hall (about 

 23ft. by 1 9 ft.) between offices and living rooms. 



M Popt Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 208. 

 " falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 29. 

 * Return to Part. 1786 and present 

 information. 



1 By Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 10920, 

 2 Dec. 



s Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 16533, 2 4 Mar - 



77 



8 Cf. f.C.H.Surr. ii, 613. 

 4 Stat. 49 Geo. Ill, cap. 12. 

 6 27 Hen. VIII, cap. 6. 



