A HISTORY OF SURREY 



when the new chapel was built. The church has 

 passed through several ' restorations ' of more or less 

 destructive character between 1 840 and the present 

 time, and the tower was repaired in 1908. The 

 tower is of great architectural interest, and the 

 shingled spire with which it is crowned, probably 

 a century later in date, forms a beautiful finish. 

 Square at the eaves, it is splayed off to an octa- 

 gonal plan above. Beneath the eaves is a corbel- 

 table, which originally perhaps supported a low 

 parapet, as at Witley, the corbels being all of the same 

 general design a sort of billet set within a broad 

 hollow, crowned by a quirked bead. Below this there 

 are in each face of the top stage three lancets under 

 conjoined hood-mouldings, the centre lancet a mere 

 recess that has never been pierced." The string- 

 course upon which these larlcets rested is at present of 

 moulded form, but the mouldings appear to be in 

 ' Roman ' cement, and the original section was prob- 

 ably a semi-octagon. The lancets themselves have 



PLAN OF ST. KATHERINE'S CHURCH, MERSTHAM 



been a good deal repaired in stone and cement except 

 on the north side. In the middle stage is a single 

 lancet of similar design, which originally had a label, 

 also standing upon a string-course of semicircular 

 section ; and another lancet appears in the upper part 

 of the bottom stage. In the two upper stories there 

 are plain quoins, but in the lower are wide buttresses 

 of shallow projection, two on the west face and one on 

 the south, but none on the north ; in addition to 

 which a small buttress-like projection occurs at the 

 eastern end of both north and south sides. In the 

 bottom stage on the west side is a three-light tracery 

 window of I 5th-century date standing upon a string- 

 course that has been cased in cement. Below this is 



a very beautiful and interesting doorway, 4 ft. 6 in. 

 wide in the clear, somewhat injured, together with 

 most of the other stonework, by retooling in about 

 1 840. In design it is unusual, consisting of a pointed 

 arch of two orders under a label, the outer 

 order chamfered and the inner having a dog's-tooth 

 moulding on the angle, resting on a nook-shaft, with- 

 in these being a third order consisting of a trefoiled 

 arch, with a bold roll-moulding continued down the 

 jambs. The shape of the trefoil is peculiar, the 

 head being a broad, horse-shoe in shape, and the sides 

 flat curves of much smaller radius. The label ter- 

 minates in the heads of a man and a woman, and is of 

 a section which suggests a 14th-century restoration 

 possibly when the window over it was inserted, but 

 the heads appear to be original. The mouldings of 

 the capitals and bases to the shafts also appear to have 

 been re-cut, and the sill was probably lower originally." 

 The oak door is coeval and still retains its beautiful 

 wrought-iron scrollwork, hinges, straps, and key-plate, 

 the C-shaped curves of 

 the hinges and the ends 

 of the scroll-pieces in the 

 upper part of the door 

 terminating in dragons' 

 heads. The latch-handle 

 and the bottom hinges are 

 plain work of the I4th 

 or 1 5th century. The 

 tower arch is of pointed 

 form, chamfered, and has 

 semicircular responds. 

 There is now no staircase 

 visible, and it is doubt- 

 ful if one ever existed, 

 but in Cracklow's view 

 (c. 1824) there are indi- 

 cations of what may have 

 been a staircase in the 

 south-west angle. 



The nave arcades are 

 of about the same date 

 (c. 1200) and the same 

 general design, and of two 

 chamfered orders and a 

 label of semi - octagonal 



section, but the piers on the north side are of octa- 

 gonal plan, while those on the south are circular, the 

 moulded capitals also being of different design ; and on 

 the north there is a square western respond, while on the 

 south it takes a semicircular form, there being at the east 

 end no responds, but corbels of heavy design, on the 

 north octagonal, and on the south semicircular. 77 Above 

 the arcades is a clearstory in which are quatrefoil and 

 trefoil windows some of the quatrefoils ' lying on 

 their sides ' set in tall, splayed, round-headed internal 

 openings, four on each side, over the columns and 

 responds. 78 The chancel arch is very wide and 

 exceptionally lofty, the half-columns of its jambs being 

 somewhat out of the perpendicular, giving the acutely 



76 The corbel-table and lancets in thii 

 top stage resemble those in the tower of 

 Southwick, Sussex, of slightly earlier date. 



76 The whole design of the doorway 

 resembles that to the frater in the monas- 

 tic buildings at Rochester, the work of 

 Prior Helias in the first few years of the 

 I 3th century. 



71 Cf. the arcades in the neighbouring 



churches of Chipitead and Betchworth, 

 coeval in date. The sections of arches, 

 capitals and bases of the south arcade at 

 Merstham are almost identical with those 

 at Chipstead, and the capitals of the north 

 arcade greatly resemble those in the nave 

 of Betchworth. 



78 Cf. the similar clearstory lights on 

 the south side at the tister church of Chip- 



2l8 



stead, where the internal openings are 

 plain square-edged and round-headed, and 

 the external quatrefoils set in a circle 

 with a surrounding moulding, all now 

 inside the church, as were the clearstory 

 lights at Merstham till a recent restora- 

 tion, when the aisle roofs were lowered, 

 so as to make the clearstory windows ful- 

 fil their original purpose. 



