BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



WONERSH 



side of the nave at its eastern end,* 6 and with its 

 western wall askew, is in three stages, the topmost, 

 which is embattled and contains the bells, being an 

 addition of 1 7 5 1 , and taking the place of a shingled spire. 

 The upper stage is of brick and rubble, with broad 

 brick string-courses and wide, round-headed, louvred 

 openings. A peculiarity of the lower stages is that 

 there are no dressed stone quoins to the angles, which 

 are formed of thin layers of ironstone rubble, the 

 construction resembling that of the late 12th-century 

 church at Wisley. As however, all the openings are later 

 insertions, it is difficult to pronounce with certainty 

 as to its date : but it seems to have been built up 

 against a nave of pre-Conquest date, in which traces 

 of round-headed windows finished in 

 plaster were discovered in 1901. This 

 nave was probably that of the chapel 

 built in pre-Conquest times, or at any 

 rate before the close of the 1 1 th cen- 

 tury. The early windows were not 

 preserved at the restoration. Until the 

 early years of the 1 3th century this 

 tower was detached on three sides. It 

 opens into the nave by a plain square- 

 edged pointed arch, having chamfered 

 abaci, and this may date from about 

 1 1 80. Early in the 1 3th century the 

 chancel was also rebuilt, on a much 

 wider and larger plan. The fine lofty 

 chancel arch, of unusually bold span, 

 shows by its mouldings that it was exe- 

 cuted about 1 220, and there are the 

 outlines of three blocked lancets in each 

 of the side walls of the chancel, a piece 

 of string-course on its north wall, and 

 remains of a low side window or priest's 

 door on the south, which agree with 

 that date. At about the same time the 

 lancet that lights the ground story of 

 the tower was inserted, replacing per- 

 haps a smaller and earlier opening. 



Towards the close of the I3th cen- 

 tury a chapel was thrown out on the 

 south of the chancel, and as evidence 

 of this the arch of communication be- 

 tween the two, with characteristically 

 moulded capitals, remains. The piers 

 and arch are of the same section, of two 

 orders with narrow chamfers, and the 

 capital is really no more than an impost 

 moulding breaking their junction. No- 

 thing but this arch remains of the chapel, 

 which was rebuilt in brick in 1793. 



In about 1400 perhaps slightly earlier a corre- 

 sponding chapel was made on the north side, opening 

 to the chancel and tower by somewhat elaborately 

 moulded arches, of two orders, with shafts having 

 moulded capitals and bases. A good image-niche of 

 this period, with ogee cinquefoiled head and carved 

 brackets, remains high up in the south wall of this 

 chapel, and hard by is a roughly formed squint having 

 a piscina in its sill ; while eastward of both on the 

 chancel side is a door, low in the wall, with a flight 

 of steps leading to what was perhaps a charnel behind 

 the altar, paved with tiles of various dates. This is 



shown in an 1 8th-century engraving as having a 

 low lean-to roof of stone, just above the ground, 

 with two small lancet slits under gablets abutting 

 against the east wall of the chapel. This curious 

 and rare roofing was destroyed in 1793. Another 

 curious doorway, also of this period, now blocked, is 

 set beneath the lancet window in the north wall of the 

 tower. It also is very low down in the wall and is 

 planned to open outwards : the head is pointed 

 within a square, with a shield and foliage in one 

 spandrel : its presence here is hard to explain, but 

 probably it was merely inserted in the 1 8th century, 

 being brought from elsewhere in the church, as Crack- 

 low's view shows a small porch, now no longer 



WONERSH CHURCH FROM THE NORTH 



existing, against this wall of the tower. The door 

 to the rood-loft, also of 15th-century date, is visible, 

 its sill being at a height of some 8 ft. from the floor, 

 in the south wall of the tower, close to the west face 

 of the chancel arch ; and on the opposite side, against 

 the east wall of the nave, is some wrought clunch, 

 which has formed the jamb of an opening at the 

 corresponding level through the south wall of the 

 nave. This wall, with its arcade to the aisle, was 

 removed when the nave was gutted in 1793. A 

 lancet to the west of the tower in the north wall 

 appears to be modern, and the only ancient feature 



"The neighbouring church of Bramley 

 hasa tower similarly placed and other exam- 



ples of northern towers occur at West Clan- 

 don and (originally) Tooting : while towers 



125 



on the south of the nave are found at Fet- 

 cham, Godstone, and LingticLi. 



