A HISTORY OF SURREY 



acquired by Sir Clinton E. Dawkins, K.C.B. Captain 

 the Hon. Ronald H. Fulke-Greville bought it in 1906. 

 The manor of High Polesden was in 1 784 united with 

 the reputed manor of Polesden Lacy in Mickleham, 

 and is now commonly called Polesden Lacy. 



The church of ST. NICHOLAS 

 CHURCHES has a chancel 34 ft. 8 in. by 1 7 ft. 6 in., 

 north vestry, south chapel 1 9 ft. by 

 1 8 ft. 8 in., nave 5 2 ft. 8 in. by 1 8 ft. 9 in., north aisle 

 48 ft. 10 in. long and 19 ft. wide. The south aisle 

 forms a continuation of the south chapel, and is of 

 the same width for 3 5 ft. 6 in. in length, the remainder 

 of the aisle at the west end being of the original 

 5 ft. 9 in. in width. There is a west tower 1 6 ft. 6 in. 

 wide by 1 5 ft. 6 in. deep. All these dimensions are 

 internal. 



The church is mentioned in Domesday, and it is 

 not improbable that the present nave is of the same 

 size as that of the nth-century building, and may 

 have some of the original stones incorporated in its 

 walling. The first addition to the plan was a south 

 aisle and the existing arcade between the years 1 140 

 and 1150, and about one-third of this narrow aisle 

 still remains at the west. Some thirty or forty years 

 later a north aisle followed. Two of the pillars of 

 the north arcade are octagonal, but the middle pillar 

 is square on its east side and semi-octagonal to the 

 west ; it is evident that the two western bays were 

 completed first, with the semi -octagonal east respond, 

 and that the intention was to make this respond into 

 an octagonal pillar when the two other bays were 

 added. The octagonal pillars have two whole and 

 two half scallops on each face of their capitals ; it will 

 be seen that the scallops on the middle pillar were 

 similarly treated with a view to the ultimate splaying 

 off of the eastern angles to complete the octagon. 

 This was, however, not done, and the scallops were 

 continued round a square-edged block forming the 

 east half of the column. The reason was perhaps the 

 difficulty experienced in bringing the arches, cut in 

 the older and thicker wall, on to the octagonal abaci 

 of the capitals. It is probable that the west tower 

 was also an addition of the end of the izth century. 

 The next increase was in the chancel, which is a most 

 valuable instance of dated 14th-century work, an 

 inscription on its east wall recording that it was built 

 in 1341 by Abbot John de Rutherwyk, of Chertsey. 



Late in the 1 4th century a south porch with a 

 parvise over was added. When, late in the 151)1 

 century, a large south chapel was set out, the eastern 

 half of the aisle was pulled down and the new south 

 wall brought out to the width of the porch, which 

 was included in the chapel by the removal of its east 

 wall and the abolition of its upper chamber. It is 

 not certain whether the tower was ever carried higher 

 in masonry than at present ; but if so it was pulled 

 down to its present level and the existing timber 

 structure and spire built in its place some time in the 

 1 5th or following century. A small archway at the 

 west end of the north wall of the chancel is also of 

 late 14th-century workmanship ; it is very narrow, 

 and presumably opened into a small chapel, perhaps 

 made by lengthening the north aisle eastward. 



The westernmost bay of the north arcade is now 

 blocked ; this is said to have been done to form a 

 vestry there (now removed), and dates probably from 

 the beginning of the last century. The narrow aisle 

 was pulled down and the present wider one built 



about 1845, when the former late 15th-century 

 windows appear to have been re-used. The vestry is 

 also a modern addition ; and time and weather have 

 necessitated the repair partly or wholly of many of the 

 windows and other external stonework. 



The east bays of both arcades of the nave have been 

 altered, probably to accommodate a rood-loft passage, 

 and are both higher and wider than the rest. 



The east window of the chancel is an original one 

 (c. 1341) of three ogee trefoiled lights under a two- 

 centred head filled with net tracery ; the jambs and 

 arch are double-chamfered outside, and the latter has 

 a moulded label with large bearded head-stops, nick- 

 named locally ' the Parson and the Clerk,' of very 

 coarse rough work, and later in date than the window. 

 The easternmost of the three north windows (which 

 are all coeval with the chancel), is of two cinque- 

 foiled sharply-pointed lights with a quatrefoiled span- 

 drel in a two-centred head. The second window is 

 like it, but has been closed up with stone, doubtless 

 when the vestry was added; the third window is a 

 cinquefoiled single light like the others, but somewhat 

 differently drawn, and perhaps due to a later altera- 

 tion. Below it is a low-side window. To the west 

 of it is a late 14th-century arch with semi-octagonal 

 jambs, moulded bases and capitals, and a- moulded 

 two-centred arch of two orders a wave mould and a 

 double ogee with a wide hollow between. A modern 

 doorway between the second and third windows opens 

 into the vestry, which has a two-light east window and 

 a north doorway. 



In the south wall is a piscina with old chamfered 

 jambs stopped out above the sill, and a modern tre- 

 foiled head. The two south windows are like those 

 opposite, and at the south-west is a wide late 1 5th- 

 century arch to the south chapel. 



The chancel arch is entirely modernized, and has 

 plain chamfered jambs, the chamfers on the east side 

 having splayed stops, and on the west side broach 

 stops ; the arch is pointed and of two chamfered 

 orders, the inner springing from moulded corbels. 



The north arcade of the nave has four bays; the 

 east respond is square, and of modern stonework with 

 a chamfered abacus ; the first arch is of square section, 

 and is pointed. The first pillar is octagonal with a 

 base-mould of two rounds, and a chamfered sub-base, 

 and the scalloped capital is octagonal with a cham- 

 fered abacus ; the second pier is square on its east 

 side, and half-octagonal to the west, the base is as that 

 of the other pillar, but is not continued round the 

 east side ; the capital is scalloped, with the irregu- 

 larity in the spacing of the scallops already referred 

 to on its north and south faces ; the third pillar is 

 partly buried in the filling of the western bay, and it 

 is octagonal, like the first ; and the west respond is 

 wholly buried. The arches are pointed and of a 

 single chamfered order, and the filling of the western 

 bay is pierced by a modern window of two plain 

 pointed lights. 



The south arcade also consists of four bays, and has 

 a modern square east respond, and an east arch wider 

 and higher than the rest ; the pillars are circular, and 

 the west respond corresponds with them ; the bases 

 are square with a moulding following the form of the 

 pillars, and leaf spurs at the angles ; the scalloped 

 capitals are square above, and have chamfered abaci ; 

 and the arches are semicircular of a single square order. 



The north aisle is lighted by two north windows, 



332 



