WOTTON HUNDRED 



OCKLEY 



Holebrook is a farm in Ockley. William le 

 Latimer (vide Wotton), who died in 1327, held 

 Holebrook in Ockley of Nicholas Malemayns by 

 payment of ^oJ. a year." 



ST. MARGARET is prettily situ- 

 CHURCHES ated in a well-kept churchyard 

 abutting upon the high road, and 

 surrounded by some exceptionally fine trees. The 

 site is level and low-lying, at some distance from the 

 present village, and close to a patch of woodland. 

 It must originally have been surrounded by woods. 



The building is of sandstone and rubble, dug from 

 the neighbouring hills, with a small admixture of 

 clunch, or hard chalk. Before 1873 it consisted only 

 of a nave about 40 ft. by 22 ft., and a short chancel 

 2 2 ft. wide by 1 9 ft. long, with a large tower, about 

 176. square internally, and a porch on the south of 

 the nave ; but in that year it was enlarged by the 

 addition of a spacious north aisle, with an arcade of 

 pointed arches, and an organ-chamber and vestries on 

 the north of the chancel, while the chancel itself was 

 nearly doubled in length. 



There is no trace in the walls of work earlier than 

 the beginning of the 1 4th century, to which date the 

 nave and chancel both originally belonged. 



There are two windows at present in the south 

 wall of the chancel, one of which, to the west, is 

 partly ancient and indicates a date of about 1 300. 

 It is of two lights, cinquefoiled, and has a trefoiled 

 spherical triangle, inclosing a trefoil, in the head. 

 In the eastern window, which may have been removed 

 from the north wall at the enlargement, the latter 

 figure has six foliations. The roof and all other 

 features in the chancel are modern. 



The south wall of the nave appears to be slightly 

 later circa 1 3 20 and has two good buttresses and 

 two well-proportioned traceried windows, each of two 

 lights. The eastern of these retains the original net 

 tracery, executed in local sandstone, but that to the 

 west has been restored. Next to it eastward is the 

 south entrance doorway, which is a plain example of 

 the same date. It is approached through a most 

 picturesque porch of open oak framework on a base 

 of herringbone brick and timber. This has an arched 

 opening to the front and two others on the sides, with 

 arched braces inside, and the sides are partly filled in 

 with a rail and turned balusters. The foliated barge- 

 board is a restoration of that shown in Cracklow's 

 view. Although probably not earlier than the first 

 half of the 1 7th century, this porch retains all the 

 spirit of the mediaeval carpentry in design and execu- 

 tion. The framework is put together with projecting 

 oak pins, and the roof, of somewhat flat pitch, retains 

 its heavy stone healing. 



The massive western tower is another instance of 

 the clinging to a traditional style. It is rude Gothic 

 of 1 700 that being the date, with the name 

 WILLIAM BVTLER SEifc, inscribed on the slope of a but- 

 tress on the west wall. William Butler was a leading 

 parishioner, perhaps churchwarden, in 1 700. The 

 builder was Edward Lucas. The parish account 

 books give the date as 1 699, when the contract for 

 building was signed. The heads of the twin open- 

 ings in the upper stage and of those below are 

 elliptical or obtusely pointed, while in the interior 

 the arch of the nave and the blind arches in the 

 other walls are pointed, but with classical mouldings 



and imposts. The present battlements were heigh- 

 tened at the restoration of 1873.. 



There is a curious square-headed two-light window 

 of diminutive proportions next to the buttresses at 

 the south-east end of the nave. Its openings, though 

 only 8 in. wide, are further protected by stanchions and 

 cross-bars. Its height from the floor removes it from 

 the class known as low side-windows, but it corresponds 

 very curiously with similar openings at Send and 

 Woking churches in Surrey, which also occur in the 

 eastern part of the nave and in the neighbourhood of 

 an altar. All are of late date (c. 1480 to 1520). 



The nave roof is of early 14th-century date and 

 retains its original moulded tie-beams and plates. 

 That of the chancel is modern, but both are ' healed ' 

 with Horsham slabs. 



In the eastern window of c. 1320 in the south 

 wall of the nave is preserved some good glass with 

 crocketed canopy-work, borders, and grisaille quarries 

 of coeval date. There are no old wall-paintings. 



One or two ledgers with heraldry and some tablets 

 of late 1 7th and early 18th-century dates remain in 

 the tower, but with these exceptions the church is- 

 remarkably destitute of ancient monuments. 



The registers date from 1539. They and the 

 parish account books (which commence in 1683) are 

 very full, and contain many curious entries. 



Besides modern pieces, the church plate includes a 

 silver cup and paten of 1614 and a paten of 1716. 



There are six bells, all dated 1701, hung in a good 

 solid cage, which is of the same date. 



St. John's Church on Ockley Green was consecrated 



5 December 1872 by Bishop Wilberforce. It is a 



plain building of stone, with pointed windows and a 



bell-turret. The first reference to 



ADrOWSON the church of Ockley is in the Taxatio 



of Pope Nicholas, 1291. 



In 1 293 the king presented to it on behalf of 

 Nicholas Malemayns his ward. 30 The advowson re- 

 mained with the manor until 



1694 when Sir William Dun- 



combe, at the same time that he 

 sold the manor, sold the advow- 

 son to John Constable of Ock- 

 ley. Edward Bax, who bought 

 the manor (q.v.), was a 

 Quaker, and would not buy 

 the advowson. Constable sold 

 it in 1711 to Edward Bingdon 

 of Dorking, who left it in 1719 

 in trust for his sons James and 

 Edward. It was sold in 1724 

 for 1,000 to Clare Hall, 

 Cambridge. 31 The College 

 probably then knew nothing of the ancient ownership 

 of Richard de Tonbridge, ancestor of their foundress. 

 Smith's Charity is distributed as in 

 CHARITIES other Surrey parishes. 



In 1624 Mr. Henry Spooner left a 

 rent-charge of IO/. a year to the poor of the parish. 



In 1731 Mrs. Elizabeth Evershed left 100 to be 

 invested in land to provide education 'according to 

 the canons of the Church of England ' for poor 

 children of the parish. With other benefactions of 

 the late Mr. George Arbuthnot and the late Mr. Lee 

 Steere, this provides an endowment of about 

 a year for the schools. 



CLARE COLLEGE, CAM- 

 BRIDGE. CLARE impaling 

 DE BURGH all in a border 

 table with drofi or. 



29 Chan. Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill, no. 56. 

 3 



80 Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, p. 

 153 



33. M College Bks., communicated by the Matter. 



20 



