



COPTHORNE HUNDRED 



Alcock. It is cruciform in plan, having a chancel, 

 transepts, nave, and central tower. The nave is of 

 less length than the chancel. The central tower has 

 a tall octagonal spire of stone. The building stands 

 to the east of the Banstead and Reigate road. It is 

 endowed with a glebe of 3 I acres. 



At Lower Kingswood is a small mission church, 

 dedicated in honour of ST. SOPHI4 OR THE 

 WISDOM OF GOD, built in 1891 by Mr. H. C. 

 Bonsor of the Warren and Dr. Edwin Freshfield. 

 Its material outside is red brick with stone dressings. 

 It has a small chancel, with a round apsidal east end 

 and small vestries on either side, and a nave with 

 narrow aisles divided from the nave on each side by 

 an arcade of two large and two small round-headed 

 bays of Ham Hill stone ; the middle shaft is of dark- 

 green marble, the others of stone ; all three are 

 circular. 



The lower part of the apse, to about a height of 

 I o ft., is lined with marble of various tints, mostly 

 dove-coloured ; the upper part is treated with mosaic, 

 having a rose-tree pattern on dark-blue ground ; the 

 semi-dome is lined with gold mosaic, in which is a 

 cross in red outline between the letters i c x c N I K A. 

 The east wall on either side of the apse is also treated 

 in a similar manner. The floor is paved with various- 

 coloured marbles, and which are continued down 

 the centre passage of the nave. At the west end, 

 beside the three entrances and lobbies, is a small 

 baptistery also lined with marble, in which is a font 

 of yellow marble of a cylindrical shape, with slightly 

 wavy sides of five lobes. 



The furniture of the chancel is of a dark-brown 

 wood, inlaid with lozenges of mother-of-pearl. In 

 the church are nine Byzantine capitals, &c., brought to 

 England by Dr. Freshfield, of which a short description 

 has been written by Mrs. Freshfield. The two largest 

 are capitals closely resembling those of the Corinthian 

 order ; they were brought from Ayasolook, the north 

 quarter of ancient Ephesus, in which stood the 

 Temple of Diana of the Ephesians ; they formed part 

 of a church screen, and were erected by the Emperor 

 Constantine. The third capital, a smaller one, 

 belonged to a second church, of the 6th century. 

 Two other small capitals came from the monastery of 

 St. John of the Stadium, near the Seven Towers at 

 Constantinople, erected about the time of the Em- 

 peror Theodosius ; the capitals date from between 

 the 5th and 8th centuries. The sixth capital is 

 from the platform on which the imperial palace of 

 Blachernae stood, in the west quarter of Constan- 

 tinople. The seventh capital is a small one from 

 Bogdan Serai, Constantinople, and dates from the 

 period of the Comneni. The eighth is a beautiful 

 little capital from near the site of the church of the 

 Blachernae, and was probably part of an internal 

 ornament. The ninth stone is a piece of ornament 

 from the great triple church of the Pantocrator at 

 Constantinople, the mausoleum of the family of the 

 Comneni, dating probably from the nth century. 

 A small cross over it was from another church built by 

 the Comnenus family ; it was in the church now 

 called the Eski Imaret Djami. 



The bell belonging to the church hangs in a 

 detached wooden turret in the churchyard. 



The chapel of ease of ALL S4INTS is situated 

 about three-quarters of a mile west of the parish 

 church. It is a small, unfinished building of red 

 brick and stone, erected at the expense of Mr. J. H. 

 Bridges of Ewell Court and the Rev. John Thornton, 

 vicar of Ewell, in 1894, and of the style of the end of 

 the 1 3th century. It consists of a nave of four bays, 

 north aisle, north porch, and a temporary sanctuary 

 and south organ-chamber ; provision is made for a 

 future south aisle. The roofs are tiled, and at the 

 west end is an oak-shingled bell-turret with an 

 octagonal spirelet. The font is of various marbles ; 

 the other furniture is more or less temporary. The 

 churchyard is small, and has a wooden fence on the 

 north side towards the road. 



The church was apparently not 

 ADyOIVSON situated on the royal domain at 

 Ewell, but on the property of the 

 Abbot of Chertsey there. A bull of Pope Clement 

 III, which was confirmed by letters patent of John, 

 Bishop of Winchester dated I April 1 292, licensed the 

 abbot and convent to retain in their own hands the 

 parish church of Ewell, to reserve the benefice to their 

 own use, and to appoint vicars to the church. 89 In the 

 reign of Richard I we have mention of a suit concern- 

 ing the building of a wall on some land which the 

 Prior of Merton, lord of Ewell Manor, claimed 

 against William the vicar of Ewell. 90 



In 1380 the abbot and convent received con- 

 firmation for the appropriation in mortmain of the 

 church which was of their own advowson. 9 ' In 1415 

 they gave the advowson to the king, 9 * reserving to 

 themselves an annual pension of zo/., to be paid by 

 future rectors. The following year Henry V granted 

 the church to the Prior and convent of Newark, who 

 continued to pay the pension to the Abbey of 

 Chertsey until its dissolution. 93 In 1458 the endow- 

 ment of a vicarage took place under the direction of 

 Bishop Wayneflete, 94 and was ratified by the Prior and 

 convent of Newark as rectors of Ewell. 



After the Dissolution the advowson remained with 

 the Crown 95 until 1 702, when Queen Anne granted 

 it to the Earl of Northampton in exchange for the 

 advowson of the rectory of Shorncutt, co. Wilts, 98 the 

 Crown reserving one turn. 97 In 1703 it was pur- 

 chased by Barton Holliday, 98 and passed with his 

 other estates to the Glyn family. 99 



Lady Dorothy Brownlow, of Belton, co. Lines., 

 gave a sum of money to be disposed of by Henry 

 Compton, Bishop of London, for the benefit of this 

 vicarage ; with part he bought the tithes of the 

 liberty of Kingswood, 100 with the remainder a small 

 farm in Maiden, the rents of which were appropriated 

 to the same use. In 1843 the Maiden Farm was 

 exchanged for a house and land adjoining Ewell 

 Church for the use of the vicar. 



After the suppression of Newark Henry VIII 

 granted to his new monastery of Bisham the ' tithes 

 of the church of Ewell, one of the possessions of the 

 late Abbey of Chertsey.' I01 But on the almost imme- 

 diate suppression of that house also they reverted to 



89 Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. ii. 

 Rolli of the King't Ct. (Pipe R. Soc. 

 iv), i. 



91 Pat. 4 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 27. 

 9J Close, 3 Hen. V, m. 21. 



98 Valor Eccl. (Rcc. Com.), ii, 34. 



8( Winton Epi. Reg. Wayneflete, 

 (2), fol. 52. 



9i See Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.) 1614, 1633, 

 1663, 1676, 1696. 



283 



96 Pat. I Anne, pt. in, no. 52. 

 "Inst Bk. (P.R.O.), 1722. 



98 Close, 2 Anne, pt. i, no. 15. 



99 See rectory. IM Ibid. 



101 L. and P. Hen. fill, xii (2), 1 3 1 1 (22). 



