BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



SHERE 



different handiwork, although the design has been 

 kept in harmony with the chancel windows. 



The church of the middle of the 1 4th century 

 remains substantially unaltered, save for the insertion 

 of windows in the nave and the rebuilding of the 

 porches. A three-light window, in the west wall of 

 the aisle, of handsome character, with a deep hollow 

 and recessed tracery, dates from the last quarter of the 

 1 4th century. Another, of two lights, with a square 

 head, in the west gable of the nave is of an ordinary 

 I 5th-century type ; and a third, in the south wall of the 

 aisle, of three lights, with an ugly flat segmental head, 

 is dated by the inscription on a brass remaining in 

 the south aisle : ' Pray for the soullis of Olever Sandes 

 and lone his wife, ye which made this wyndow and this 

 auter, which Olev' dyed ye VII. day of Noveber, ye 

 yer of Our Lord MVXII, on whos soil JhQ have m'cy.' 

 There was another window, of later date, high up in 

 the north wall of the nave, near its eastern end, but 

 this has been renewed in a quasi- 13th-century style in 

 recent years. The window in the south aisle to the 

 cast of that of 1 5 1 2 is a two-light nondescript opening, 

 originally a lancet, with a square mullion and jambs, 

 probably of 18th-century date, to which period the 

 quaint external door to the gallery with its flight of 

 steps, to the east of the south porch, also belongs. 



From the churchwardens' accounts '" we learn that, 

 in 1 547, the porch probably that at the west end 

 was renewed, and in spite of modern patchings the 

 substance of this remains. The fine panelled door of 

 the inner doorway, well studded with nails, and 

 having a good key-plate, bears in the upper part a 

 small shield of arms two bends and a canton, im- 

 paling a bend with the date 1626. At the north- 

 west angle of the nave is a huge tapering brick 

 buttress, erected in the i8th century. 



The south porch, although its roof appears to be of 

 old timber, is of comparatively modern brickwork. 

 The door of the inner doorway, rough oak-boarding 

 nail-studded, is possibly of 12th-century date. 



The ancient oak roofs, of plain character, remain 

 throughout. Those of the chancel and Lady Chapel 

 are of trussed collar construction. The interesting 

 detail of the rafter ends of 1 2th-century date on the 

 outh side has been above noticed. In the tower is a 

 fine bell-cage, probably as old as the 141)1 century, 

 although altered in 1895 to admit two new bells. 

 The doorway to the tower stairs has a door made up 

 of the carved rails of some 17th-century pews. Of 

 the chancel screen, concerning which we have the 

 testimony in the churchwardens' accounts that it 

 was made in the eighteenth year of Henry VII, there 

 are no remains, but in Brandon's Parish Churches* 

 it is described as then (1848) in existence 'a 

 plain Perpendicular rood-screen with its doors.' No 

 other ancient woodwork or mediaeval fittings remain, 

 except the very interesting chest now in the south 

 porch. 131 It bears a general resemblance to the one 



at Godalming, especially in the stop-chamfered framed 

 ends, and the lid works with a pin-hinge. There is 

 an elaborate locking arrangement, and inside are 

 remains of two hutches for money and valuables. 

 The date is about I zoo, and it belongs to a group of 

 early 13th-century chests that were probably made in 

 obedience to the command of Pope Innocent III, 

 to collect alms for the help of poor Crusaders. 



The oak gallery at the west end is of 1 8th-century 

 date. 



The church must have been at one time rich in 

 colour, judging from the fragments of wall-painting 

 that remain. Practically all has been destroyed 

 except a very graceful spray of vine pattern, painted 

 in dark red on the soffit of the arch to the chancel 

 east window. 



In several windows there are remains of ancient 

 glass, of 1 3th, I4th, and 15th-century dates. In the 

 south aisle one of the lancets has some good square 

 quarries of green glass, with a rose or cinquefoil 

 within border-lines, coeval with, or only slightly later 

 than, the early 1 3th-century opening. Another 

 variety is diamond-shaped, with grisaille foliage pat- 

 terns. In the quatrefoils and interspaces of the Lady 

 Chapel and chancel east windows are the evangelistic 

 symbols, the arms of England, Butler, Warenne, and 

 Clare, and other ornaments contemporary with the 

 early 14th-century stonework. These are some of 

 the best of the little ancient glass left in Surrey. 

 Other windows retain red roses, the Lancastrian badge, 

 probably placed here by James, the second Earl of 

 Ormond, in whose family the manor of Shiere was 

 vested in the I5th century. The device of the Brays, 

 who afterwards succeeded to the estates the bray, or 

 flax-crusher appears on the quarries of another win- 

 dow. 133 In the great east window the lower lights 

 are filled with good modern glass. 



The ancient floor levels appear to have been pre- 

 served, together with a good deal of old stone-paving. 

 There are two steps at the eastern tower arch, another 

 at the access to the sanctuary, and two to the altar 

 platform in the Lady Chapel. From the church- 

 wardens' accounts we know that besides this altar 

 and that of the high chancel there was an altar to 

 St. Nicholas (perhaps that in the south aisle), and 

 images of St. Anthony, St. Roche, St. John the Bap- 

 tist, and our Lady of Pity. 



Close to the west respond of the aisle arcade stands 

 the beautiful font of Purbeck marble, mounted on a 

 stone base-block and step. Its date may be either 

 that of the south doorway c. 1 1 70 or of the aisle 

 c. 1 200 probably the former. The upper part 

 of the bowl is square with three scallopings, beneath 

 which it changes into a circular form of a bold round 

 section, and the parts left at the angles are carved 

 into the foliated capitals of the four corner-shafts, 

 which, with a stout central drum, support the bowl. 

 These rest upon a continuous base-moulding, which 



ul Itm payed for the carryeng of tym- 

 bre to the Pytt and for ij. sawyers that 

 dyd hclpe lade yt for the new porch, iji. 



Itm payed to the lawyer for the sawyng 

 of tymber for the porche, iiijj. viijt/. 



Itm payed for the lawying of the porche 

 at another tyme, iiiji. iiijj. 



Itm payed for naylles for the selles of 

 the kastors of the porche, \\]d. 



Itm payed for the naylles for to tacte 

 on the bordei, iiij</. 



Itm for iij. lode of tymber for the porche, 

 xij.. 



Itm for the carryeng of the same tymber 

 to the churche, x./. 



Itm for expences in meatt and drynke 

 when the old porche was taken downe 

 and the tettyng of the new porche up, 

 xij</. 



Itm payed to John Fraunces for the 

 workyng and framyng of the porch, xxxi. 



Itm for iiij. lytell bordei whyche wai 



framyd in the porche, and for the tymber 

 of the box, iiijj. 



The last item refers to the 'poore 

 men's boxe,' which was made in the 

 same year, at a cost of v. xjJ. 



>" Op. cit. 98. 



IM Described and illustrated in Arch. 

 Journ. Ixiv, 172, 173. 



1M Similar quarries, painted with the 

 device of the Brays, are to be found at 

 Stoke D'Abernon. 



