COPTHORNE HUNDRED 





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and much modernized. The present nave and aisles 

 were built in 1824, when the old church was pulled 

 down ; a print of about this date shows it to have 

 had a nave with a north aisle, and a north-west 

 tower. The chancel was evidently of the 1 3th 

 century, and had a lancet window midway in its 

 north wall, but all the other windows shown in the 

 chancel and aisle are wide ugly single lights fitted 

 with iron casements. The aisle had been raised to 

 contain a gallery and a second tier of windows added. 

 The nave of 1824 has arcades of four bays with 

 plastered piers and arches ; the aisles are lighted by 

 two-light pointed windows, and are filled with 

 wooden galleries, shortly to be removed. The walling 

 of the nave and aisles is of flint and stone, and that 

 of the new portion is of rubble with stone and brick 

 dressings, the chancel and nave having alternate 

 bays of cross and barrel vaulting ; the new work is 

 soon to be extended to the present nave and aisles. 

 The jambs of the openings into the tower from the 

 nave and north aisle are moulded and the arches are 

 blocked. The tower is of flint and stone, and has 

 cemented angle buttresses and a north-west octagonal 

 stair turret ; an old oak door opens into the turret, 

 the steps of which are inscribed with various names 

 and 18th-century dates, and a stone records the 

 recutting of the steps in 1737. The bell-chamber 

 is lighted by plain pointed windows of two lights, 

 and surmounted by a plain parapet, from which 

 rises a very slender wooden spire covered with oak 

 shingles. 



Under the tower is a ijth-century font; it is 

 octagonal with quatrefoiled sides to the bowl and a 

 hollowed under-edge on which are carved heads, a 

 shield, a fish, &c. There is also a fine chest of 

 carved mahogany ; on the lid are carved in the 

 middle Adam and Eve in the garden, and in the two 

 side panels David and Goliath ; on the front are other 

 figures in late 16th-century dress. 



On the floor on the north side is a small brass 

 with an inscription to William Marston, or Merston, 

 1511, and there are wall monuments to Richard Evelyn 

 of Wootton, 1669; Robert Coke of Nonsuch, grandson 

 of Lord Chief Justice Coke, 1 68 1 ; Robert Coke, 

 1653 ; Richard Evelyn, 1691 ; and others. 



There are eight bells : the treble is by Samuel 

 Knight, 1737 ; the second by R. Phelps, 1714 ; the 

 third by Thomas Janaway, 1781 ; the fourth has no 

 date, and is inscribed : ' Although I am but small I 

 will be heard above them all ' ; the fifth is dated 

 1737 ; the sixth by R. Phelps, 1714 ; the seventh by 

 Thomas Swain, 1760; and the tenor by Richard 

 Phelps, 1733. 



The plate is all modern, consisting of a chalice and 

 paten of 1 904 given by the parishioners, and a chalice 

 and paten given by Lord Rosebery in 1907, besides 

 six Sheffield plate almsdishes and two cups and an 

 almsdish about a hundred years old. 



The first book of the registers contains baptisms and 

 marriages from 1695 to 1 749 and burials to 1750; 

 the second repeats the baptisms from 1695 to 1749 

 and the marriages from 1695 to 1719; the third 

 has baptisms and burials from 1750 to 1773 and 



marriages 1750 to 1754 > l ^ e fourth, baptisms 

 to 1812 ; fifth, burials 1773 to 1812 ; the sixth, 

 marriages 1754 to 1783 ; and the seventh continues 

 them to 1812. 



The greater part of the churchyard, which sur- 

 rounds the building, lies to the north of it. The 

 west entrance is towards the road, and is approached 

 by a flight of stone steps and a flagged landing. 

 There are several large trees about it. 



CHRIST CHURCH, originally built as a chapel 

 of ease to the parish church in 1843, is now the 

 church of a separate parish. It was rebuilt in 

 1876. It is a small building of flint and stone 

 situated on the edge of Epsom Common, and consists 

 of a small chancel with a north transept and south 

 organ chamber, nave of four bays with north and 

 south aisles and a clearstory, and a south-west tower 

 and porch. At the west end is a passage-way con- 

 taining the font. There are eight bells by Mears & 

 Stainbank, 1890. 



ST. JOHN'S, chapel of ease to St. Martin's, is a 

 small building of red brick and stone, off East Street, 

 erected in 1884. 



ST. BARNABAS, Hook Road, is a chapel of 

 ease to Christ Church. 



Two churches on the abbey estate 

 ADrOlTSON are mentioned in Domesday, 110 but 

 all trace of one has disappeared ; 

 there was a Stamford Chapel in Epsom, near or on 

 the lord's waste, close to where Christ Church, 

 Epsom, now stands, belonging to Chertsey Abbey, 

 which may have been the second church. 111 Licence 

 to appropriate was granted to the convent by a bull 

 of Clement III, 1 " 1187-91, and a vicarage was 

 ordained before I29I. 113 A further endowment was 

 carried into effect in 1313"' when John Rutherwyk 

 the then abbot was inducted. 115 In 1537, when 

 Henry VIII acquired Epsom Manor from the con- 

 vent of Chertsey, the rectory and the advowson of 

 the church were included, 116 and he granted them 

 with the manor to Sir Nicholas Carew, 117 from which 

 time they have always been included in the grants 

 and sales of the manor till 1770, when the manor 

 went to Sir Joseph Mawbey, and the great tithes and 

 advowson to John Parkhurst. They descended to the 

 Rev. Fleetwood Parkhurst, vicar of Epsom, 1804-39. 

 The advowson has since belonged to the Rev. Wil- 

 fred Speer and Captain Speer, and now belongs to 

 Mr. H. Speer. 



In 1453 John Merston received a grant for found- 

 ing a chantry in Epsom Church, to be called ' Mer- 

 ston's Chantry,' and for purchasing lands to the value 

 of 20 marks for the use of it. 118 There is no record 

 of the chantry at the time of the suppression under 

 Edward VI. 



Smith's Charity is distributed as in 

 CHARITIES other Surrey parishes. 



In 1691 Mrs. Elizabeth Evelyn 

 left a rent-charge of 10 a year for clothing six poor 

 women. 



Since 1692 the rent of a piece of land called 

 Church Haw has been received by the churchwardens, 

 now by the local authority, for the use of the poor. 



V.C.H. Surr. i, 308* " Ibid, note 2. 



111 Pat. 10 Edw. I, m. 1 1 (1192). In- 

 speximus and confirmation of letters 

 patent of the Biihop of Winchester re- 

 citing the bull. 



ut Pofe Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 209. 

 114 Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 556. 

 116 Winton Epi*. Reg. Woodlock, fol. 

 79*- 



277 



118 Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 29 Hen. 

 VIII. 



W L. and P. H,n. VIII, xii (2), njo 



118 Manning and Bray, Surr. ii, 612. 



