BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



ALFOLD 



Pollingfold." He left a sister and heir Elizabeth, 

 a minor at the time of his death, and it was 

 probably from her that it passed ultimately to the 

 Dorrington family, who held it during the I yth and 

 following centuries.* 9 Sydney Wood was purchased 

 by Sir John Frederick, lord of Hascombe, with which 

 manor it descended till the igth century.* 9 It was 

 in 1903 the property of Mr. George Wyatt, but 

 has since been bought by Messrs. J. E. Sparkes 

 and H. Mellersh. 



The church of ST. NICHOLAS 

 CHURCH stands upon a knoll of rising ground 

 in the centre of the village, flanked by 

 a cluster of charming old tile-hung cotisges. The 

 churchyard is prettily surrounded by trees, and con- 

 tains several larches and one or two yews of some 

 antiquity. 30 Dotted about among the graves are a 

 number of cypresses and other evergreens, and in 

 early spring the grass is thick with crocuses and 

 daffodils. The churchyard has been extended con- 

 siderably beyond its ancient boundaries. 



The building in itself and with its surround- 

 ings is delightfully picturesque, especially as 

 viewed from the south-east. 



Bargate stone rubble, plastered outside and in, 

 has been employed for the walls, with dressings 

 of the same stone ; but internally the hard chalk, 

 or clunch, also quarried locally, has been used 

 in the south arcade, the chancel arch, and the 

 15th-century features of the chancel. The 

 chancel roof and the roofs over the aisles and 

 porches are still ' healed ' with Horsham slabs ; 

 the bell-turret and its spire are covered with oak 

 shingles, and the porches are of oak. 



In plan the church consists of a nave, 36 ft. 

 4 in. by 21 ft. z in., north and south aisles, 

 about 7 ft. 5 in. wide (the south aisle is slightly 

 longer than the nave) ; chancel, 1 7 ft. 5 in. wide 

 by 1 6 ft. 5 in. long; north and south porches, 

 and a vestry lately erected on the north of the 

 chancel. The simple outlines of nave and chancel 

 give the plan of the primitive church, erected 

 perhaps about lioo, of which the only visible 

 relic besides plain walling is the remarkable 

 font. 



The south aisle was added about 1 1 90, the old 

 walls being pierced with three plain, square-edged, 

 obtusely pointed arches, unrelieved by moulding, 

 chamfer, or label, and springing from columns and 

 responds circular in plan, on square plinths, and having 

 capitals of an early circular form, simply moulded. 31 

 The western respond only has a circular moulded 

 base with angle-spurs. The church must have re- 

 mained with one aisle till about 1290, when that on 

 the north wis thrown out. Its three arches were 

 discovered blocked up in the north wall of the nave 

 at the restoration of 1845 ; they were then opened 

 and the aisle rebuilt on its old foundations. The 



arches, in rough Bargate stone, are moulded in three 

 orders (a hollow between two wave-mouldings), and 

 these spring direct from octagonal piers, without 

 capitals, which have chamfered plinths instead of 

 bases. 3 * The chancel arch is of somewhat similar 

 design, but in a firestone, or clunch, and springing 

 from plain square piers. The mouldings indicate a 

 slightly later date c. 1320 to which period may be 

 referred the south aisle windows, with ogee and 

 reticulated tracery, and the outline at least of the east 

 window of the chancel. The windows of the north 

 aisle appear to be entirely modern, and are copies of 

 those on the other side, but its doorway (c. 1290) has 

 been replaced from the old north wall and retains the 

 original oak door with very elaborate diagonally- 

 braced framework on the back, a massive oak lock- 

 case, and some good wrought-iron hinges and straps, 

 partly ancient. The south door, less elaborate, is 

 perhaps of the same date. 



The two-light window and piscina in the south 

 wall of the chancel, and the splayed opening with 



PLAN OF ALFOLD CHURCH 



four-centred arch in the wall opposite, are of I Jth- 

 century date, the piscina being a restoration. a The 

 splayed opening now communicates with a modern 

 vestry, but it is probable that it was originally an 

 arch over a tomb or Easter sepulchre in the thickness 

 of the wall, and the splays repeated on the outer face 

 suggest that there was at one time a small chapel or 

 vestry abutting upon the north wall of the chancel 

 into which this arch opened. There is a small 

 buttress at the south-east angle of the south aisle and a 

 low one beneath the east window of the chancel, both 

 perhaps dating from about 1320. Parts of the pic- 

 turesque oak porches may belong to the same early 



*i Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxlvii, 30. 

 The Sydneys had held Baynards in Polling- 

 fold (Inq.of 4 Edw. IV preserved at Loseley). 



28 Aubrey (Hitt. and Antiq, of Surr. iv, 

 92) says that it was in the possession of 

 Captain Dorrington in 1673. There is a 

 memorial to Francis Dorrington in Alfold 

 Church. He died 1693, aged 75. The 

 monument was erected by his grandson 

 Edward Dorrington. 



as Manning and Bray, op, cit. ii, 69. 



80 The largest measures about 23 ft. in 

 circumference at 4 ft. from the ground. 



81 The general character of this arcade 

 resembles the south arcade of Rustington 

 Church, Sussex, while the curious features 

 of the north arcade are exactly reproduced 

 in the north arcade of that church. In 

 each case these arcades correspond closely 

 in date. The font, strangely enough, is 

 very like that in Yapton Church, Sussex, 

 within a few miles of Rustington. 



79 



83 Besides the north arcade of Rusting- 

 ton Church, which so exactly resembles 

 this, there are other arcades without 

 capitals at Fetcham, Surrey, and Slindon 

 and Coldwaltham, Sussex. 



88 Cracklow's view of 1824 shows that 

 the two-light window has been shifted to 

 the eastward and raised in the wall at the 

 1845 restoration, being possibly shortened 

 at the same time. 



