BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



CRANLEIGH 



any ever existed, remains. A plain old lectern, after 

 a period of banishment to the belfry, has now dis- 

 appeared altogether. 



The church, in 1 845, was found to have been exten- 

 sively decorated with wall paintings, which were un- 

 happily swept away to give place to raw modern plaster. 

 These occurred over the chancel arch and in the 

 spandrels of the nave arcades, but no records have 

 been preserved as to the dates and subjects. 



Until the beginning of the igth century there was 

 an exceptional quantity of ancient stained glass of very 

 fine design remaining. A Jesse-tree was almost com- 

 plete in the window of the Knowle Chapel in 1798, 

 but within a few years some fragments only were left, 

 including, in the centre, a headless seated figure hold- 

 ing a rose, a Crucifixion in the upper part, and, in 

 Lombardic lettering, the names Josaphat, Ashur, 

 Salomon, Ezechial, and Joathan. In 1841 scarcely 

 anything of this remained, and some fragments had 

 probably been removed by Lord Onslow to West 

 Clandon Church, but, if so, they no longer exist 

 there. When Manning and Bray published their 

 History of Surrey in 180814 there also remained in 

 the Vachery Chapel on the north side effigies of our 

 Lord and the Blessed Virgin seated, and two angels 

 censing. 78 The figure of the Blessed Virgin has dis- 

 appeared, but those of our Lord and the two angels, 

 together with some good pattern-work, have been 

 worked up into the reticulated tracery of the modern 

 east window of the chancel. Our Lord, seated on 

 the throne in a green tunic and yellow mantle, has 

 the right hand raised in benediction, while with the 

 left He holds the cross and orb. The background is 

 ruby, with a white border. Some of the pattern-work 

 in the other quatrefoil figures of this window, con- 

 sisting of crosses with fleur-de-lys ends, in white on 

 red and gold on red, is also ancient, the date of the 

 whole being c. 1340. 



The font, standing to the west of the first pillar in 

 the north nave arcade, is of doubtful antiquity ; if 

 not new, severe re-tooling has robbed it of all appear- 

 ance of age. The bowl is octagonal and quite plain, 

 standing upon a large central drum and eight small 

 shafts without capitals, having a cable-moulding twined 

 in and out round them, for a base. 



Outside, beneath the east window, is an early 14th- 

 century coffin-lid, with a cross within a circle on a 

 long stem carved in low relief. Manning and Bray 

 and Brayley mention a slab in the nave floor, with the 

 legend in Gothic capitals : 



WALTER KNOLL CIST YCY 



BIT MERCI 



DIEV DE S ALME 



Also a brass plate, formerly existing in the chancel, 

 to William Sydney, esq., who died 8 October 1449. 

 Both these seem to have disappeared early in the 

 i gth century. 



Within the chancel rails on the south side is a brass 

 half-figure of a priest " in mass vestments, with scrolls 

 proceeding from his mouth, bearing the words : 



ESTO MIHl PECCATORI : SANA ANIMX MEA QUIA 

 PECCAVI T1BI 



Up to the restoration of 1845 a good specimen of 

 the combined altar-tomb and Easter sepulchre, in 



Sussex marble, remained against the north wall of the 

 chancel. Most improperly, it was then demolished, 

 and the brasses upon and over it were permitted to 

 disappear. It bore the effigies of a man and woman 

 with a child between them, all kneeling, each having 

 inscriptions issuing from the mouth, the man's having 

 the words : ' Have m'cy Jhesu in honour of thy 

 gloriovs resvrreccion ' ; the woman's : ' And grant vs 

 the merite of thy bytter Passion ' ; and the child's : 

 ' Accipe parentes, et infantem, bone Xpe.' 



Fortunately a facsimile of the plate on the wall 

 behind is preserved in an engraving, probably of the 

 size of the original, in Hussey's Churches of Kent, 

 Sussex, and Surrey. This, as is often the case in Easter 

 sepulchres, was a representation of the Resurrection of 

 our Lord, Who is stepping out of the tomb bearing 

 the cross and pennon and displaying the bleeding 

 wounds, while guarding the tomb are four soldiers. 

 Detached from the tomb, on the other side of the 

 chancel, was a shield bearing a merchant's mark and 

 the initials R. H. ; and on the tomb itself, beneath 

 the figures, was the imperfect inscription, which when 

 complete read : ' Of your Charite pray for the soulys 

 of Robert Hardyng late Alderman & Goldsmith of 

 London and Agas his Wyffe whos body here lyeth 

 beryed, And departyd this present lyfe the XVIII 

 day of Febrvar y in the yere of ovre Lord God 

 MCCCCC and III for whos Sowlys and all xpen we 

 pray you say Paternoster and Ave.' Above the man's 

 figure were the arms of Harding, which were : Argent 

 a bend sable with three martlets or thereon. 



Among the stones cast out of the church in 1845 

 were three inscribed : 



' 1664. May 1 9 th Sir Richard Onslow, Bart., 

 aged 6 3.' 



' 1679. Aug' 27"" Dame Elizabeth Onslow hii 

 widow, aged 78." 



' 1688. July 21 st Sir Arthur Onslow, Bart., aged 

 67.' 



On the outside of the south wall of the south aisle 

 is a tablet of Sussex marble, very weather-worn, 

 bearing the date 1630. A few others of no great age 

 or importance have been re-fixed on the aisle side of 

 the north arcade. 



The bells are six in number, the oldest with the 

 inscription : PRAIS GOD 1599 AW, and a coin. Two 

 others have : 1638 BRYAN ELDRIDGE ; another is by 

 Bryan Eldridge, 1 660 ; the treble by William Eldridge, 

 1709 ; and the third, re-cast in 1862, used to have 

 the inscription : OUR HOPE is IN THE LORD R.E. 1605. 



With the exception of a silver paten of 1789 the 

 church plate is modern and uninteresting. 



The registers commence in 1566 and have been 

 somewhat irregularly kept. As might be expected, 

 they contain numerous entries relating to the Onslow 

 family. 



The modern chapel of ease of St. Andrew, on the 

 Common, was dedicated in 1900. 



The origins of Cranleigh as a 

 ADVQWSQN parish are unknown. In Domesday 

 it is not recognized. It belonged to 

 the extensive manors of Shiere and Gomshall, and 

 when Shiere was divided in 1 299, the greater part of it 

 was included in the manor called Shiere Vachery or 



" Manning and Bray, op.cit. i, 540. The 

 late Major Heales, F.S.A., in his paper on 

 this church in Surr. Arch. Coll. vi, 30, in 



recording the general disappearance of the 

 old glass, omits to note that parts of these 

 Vachery Chapel fragments still survive. 



9' 



W Perhaps commemorating Richard 

 Caryngton, rector, who died in 1507. 



