A HISTORY OF SURREY 



nd spreading in width to 20 ft. at the east, the walls 

 being 2 ft. 6 in. thick ; north aisle of the same length, 

 1 1 ft. 8 in. wide at the west, and 1 2 ft. at the east end ; 

 a south aisle of the same length by 1 5 ft. 6 in. wide ; 

 western tower 15 ft. from west to east by 14 ft. 6 in., 

 the walls being 4 ft. 9 in. thick ; south porch I oft. 

 by 7 ft. 6 in. ; chancel 446. 6 in. by 19 ft. ; north 

 chapel 30 ft. by 1 5 ft. 3 in. at west and I 5 ft. 6 in. 

 at east; south chapel 30 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. 6 in. at 

 west, and 1 6 ft. 3 in. at east. On the north of the 

 north chapel is that comparatively rare feature 

 a vestry, or sacristy, built in 1513, double-storied, 

 13 ft. 3 in. from north to south and 1 1 ft. 8 in. from 

 east to west. From these figures it will be seen that 

 the walls of the body of the church are not parallel, 

 but diverge towards the east, and that this peculiarity 

 is repeated in the outer walls of the north and south 

 chapels. In Compton Church the divergence of the 

 walls of the pre-Conquest nave is in the reverse 

 direction, and in both cases it is so marked as to be 

 evidently intentional, and not due to a mistake in 

 setting out. The axis of the chancel inclines slightly 

 to the north. Another peculiarity is the irregular 

 spacing of the nave arcades, none of the columns of 

 which are opposite to each other, the width between 

 each pair on the north side being about I 5 ft., and 

 on the south from 1 3 ft. 2 in. to 14 ft. 2 in. and 

 this in spite of the fact that the two arcades must 

 either have been built at once or within a few years of 

 each other, the date of commencement being about 

 1 1 80, and the execution of the work probably occupy- 

 ing about ten years. Three arches and three columns 

 on the north, with the western respond, belong to 

 this period, and four arches with four columns and 

 both responds on the south ; the two eastern arches 

 on the north side and the easternmost arch and half 

 the easternmost column on the south representing an 

 extension eastwards of the nave about two hundred 

 years later. It would appear probable that the church 

 before 1 1 80 consisted of an aisleless nave, the same 

 width as the present, and about 70 ft. long, with a 

 long chancel, possibly a low central tower and almost 

 certainly shallow transepts. There is no proof of the 

 early church, which was probably herein the llth 

 and 1 2th centuries, having been of stone, excepting a 

 fragment of interlaced carving preserved in the room 

 over the vestry," 8 but it seems likely that the arcades 

 were pierced through existing walls. 1 " There is 

 practical certainty that they represent the church re- 

 edified on an extended plan by Hamelin Plantagenet, 

 half-brother to Henry II, who in 1164 acquired the 

 title of Earl de Warenne and Surrey by marriage with 

 Isabel, the first earl's great-granddaughter. The 

 character of the work and its resemblance to the dated 

 work (i 175-8) in the quire of Canterbury Cathedral 

 sufficiently fix the date at about 1 1 80, and the south 

 arcade as the later of the two. The western respond 

 of this is a square pier, with very peculiar foliage to 

 its square capital, exactly like a similar square respond- 

 capital in the quire of Canterbury Cathedral. The 

 column next to this, which is octagonal, has a singu- 

 larly beautiful capital, with moulded abacus of octag- 



onal form, the bell of the capital being carved with 

 foliage in a mixture of the English trefoil and the 

 French ' Corinthianesque ' variety so well represented 

 at Canterbury. The second column circular, with 

 a round capital has ruder foliage of a more ex- 

 perimental type curiously like one of the capitals at 

 Carshalton Church, where the work generally resem- 

 bles this and is evidently by the same masons." The 

 third column is of a kind of quatrefoil plan, the four 

 ' foils ' being flat segments of a circle joined by sharp 

 hollows, which at first sight look as though intended 

 to receive slender marble shafts, but the evidence of 

 the capital, the necking of which is on the same plan, 

 negatives this idea. Here the carving is an experi- 

 mental sort of stiff-leaf consisting of a row of knops 

 on separate stalks, and in this case alone the upper 

 member of the abacus is square-edged in section, with 

 pear-shaped members below, all the other abaci 

 excepting that of the west respond of the north arcade 

 having rounded or pear-shaped members, the work 

 recalling in these and other respects the coeval quire 

 arcades of New Shoreham Church, Sussex. The 

 respond of this south arcade, of octagonal section, was 

 turned into a whole pillar when the nave was 

 extended eastwards in the J4th century, and the 

 eastern half of the capital has been fashioned in 

 accordance with the prevailing style, but a crosslet 

 carved upon the south face of the cap is modern, having 

 been cut by a workman in 1845 out of a projecting 

 knob of stone originally hidden in the west wall 

 of the demolished transept. Both arcades were prac- 

 tically rebuilt stone for stone at the later restoration 

 by Sir Gilbert Scott, and a piece of interesting evi- 

 dence was then obliterated in the shape of a vertical 

 joint from top to bottom of this hybrid pillar, by 

 which the two dates were clearly displayed. The 

 eastern arch, which has no respond, but dies into the 

 chancel arch pier, is of two hollow-moulded orders, 

 with a deep hollow between. What gives the original 

 arches of this south arcade additional interest is that 

 the outer of their two orders is carved with conven- 

 tional palm-branches which form an ornamental band 

 all round, exactly as in the arches of the north quire 

 arcade at New Shoreham, the only instance of the 

 employment of this ornament now remaining in 

 Surrey, although formerly it was to be found as the 

 hood-moulding to the prior's doorway at St. Mary 

 Overy, Southwark." 1 All the bases have been restored, 

 from evidence found by Sir Gilbert Scott. The 

 arches themselves are pointed, and have a pear-shaped 

 member on the angles of the inner order, and a 

 quirked hollow to the outer order on the aisle side. 



On the north side the arcade is somewhat differ- 

 ently treated, and probably was not begun till the 

 south arcade was finished. Its arches, also pointed, 

 are of two orders, but with narrow chamfers in place 

 of mouldings, stopped just above the springing ; the 

 western respond also is semicircular on plan instead 

 of square as on the south side, the three succeeding 

 columns being alternately octagonal and circular, and 

 the fourth or easternmost, which, with the two eastern 

 arches, belongs to the period 13801420, is again 



318 Thi fragment may be only a piece 

 of a coffin lid of gth or I oth-century date, 

 re-uied as old material, and may well have 

 been laid down originally within or out- 

 side a timber church. 



919 The advow3on was given by the 

 .Kcond Earl of Warenne to the monastery of 



St. Mary Overy early in the 1 2th century, 

 and the partially destroyed prior's door 

 and the work in the western bays of the 

 nave of the priory church, now South- 

 wark Cathedral, bears a close resemblance 

 to that of these arcades. 



"" The capital referred to is one thrown 



24.0 



out of the church at the recent enlarge- 

 ment. 



231 Crusading influence no doubt ac- 

 counts for all three cases, as it does also 

 for several instances which occur in Kent 

 along the Dover road, as at Bapchild, Mil- 

 stead, Frinstead, Rodmersham and Hartlip. 



