GODLEY HUNDRED 



CHERTSEY 



window and at the south-east a small baptistery or 

 chapel serving as an approach to the vestry ; this 

 baptistery has a modern single-light east window, and 

 in its south wall an old chalk piscina has been re-set ; 

 it has a sixfoiled drain and a plain pointed and 

 chamfered arch. 



The roof of the chancel is gabled and has a modern 

 panelled ceiling. The nave roof has an apparently 

 old truss with a king post from which struts branch 

 four ways. Over the west end is a modern wood 

 bell-turret partly supported by wood posts from the 

 floor to the nave ; it has two pointed lights in each 

 side and is hung with oak shingles. Over it is an 

 octagonal spire also covered with shingles. The aisle 

 and other roofs are modern. 



The font dates from the ijth century and is 

 octagonal in plan with quatrefoil panelled sides to the 

 bowl ; three of these panels contain heads of angels wear- 

 ing diadems, and two others have plain shields, the other 

 three inclosing paterae of foliage. The stem is 

 panelled with two trefoiled sinkings on each face, and 

 the base is moulded. The pulpit is six-sided and 

 bears the initials and date RS 1 6 1 6 RS ; each face has 

 two rectangular panels, the lower and larger one 

 inclosing a lesser formed by a moulded rib. 



Set in the north jamb of the chancel arch is a brass 

 figure of a priest above the following inscription : 



'Hie jacet Thorns Teylar rector ecclie pochialis 

 de Biflete et unus canonicor' ecclesie cathedralis 

 Lincoln qui quidfn Thorn's obiit . . . die mensis . . . 

 A dfii millio cccc LXXX . . . cuius anime f piciet' 

 De'.' The exact date of the death has never been 

 filled in. The figure is dressed in a fur almuce, alb, and 

 cassock. The stone slab from which the brass was 

 taken still remains in the chancel floor. 



Over the north doorway are the remains of a mural 

 painting, apparently that of a seated king under a 

 canopy, and the wall is covered with a masonry 

 pattern of double red lines with flowers in each com- 

 partment. This formerly covered the whole surface 

 of the nave walls, and was revealed in 1853 ; the 

 work is probably of early 14th-century date, and a 

 little to the west of the doorway is also a painted 

 consecration cross with expanded arms ; the masonry 

 pattern seems to be painted over the cross, although 

 probably nearly contemporary with it. Other instances 



of the painting over of consecration crosses in this 

 manner have been noticed. 



The three bells are modern, dating from 1853, the 

 old tenor having been a mediaeval bell, inscribed 

 ' Protege Virgo pia quos convoco Sancta Maria.' 



The oldest piece of the Communion plate is a cup 

 of 1 764 ; there are also two cups, two patens, and a 

 flagon, all of silver, given in 1893. 



In the register the baptisms begin in 1698, the 

 marriages in 1755, and the burials in 1728. 



There is a small iron mission church of St. John 

 at Byfleet Corner. 



The church of Byfleet was among 

 JDVOWSON the possessions of the abbey of Chert- 

 sey at the time of the Domesday 

 Survey," and it so continued until after 1284, in 

 which year Geoffrey de Lucy, who held Byfleet of the 

 abbey, was patron of the church." Shortly after this, 

 however, the church passed into the king's hands with 

 the manor (q.v.). 73 From that time until the present 

 the patronage has remained in the gift of the Crown." 

 The living, a rectory, is now in the gift of the 

 Lord Chancellor. 



The chapel of Wisley was attached to Byfleet as 

 early as 1535," presentation to the chapel being 

 included in that made to Byfleet until after 1646.'" 

 In 1648 George Bradshaw was appointed to Wisley 

 alone. 



The rectory of Byfleet was sequestered during the 

 reign of Charles I. In June 1645 the wife of the 

 rector, Hope Gifford, petitioned for aid towards the 

 maintenance of herself and her children. A fifth part 

 of all tithes due to the rector was ordered to be paid 

 her by any person to whom the rectory might stand 

 sequestered. Mr. Scuddamore, the person in question, 

 refused, however, to do this, and in 1646 suffered 

 sequestration himself on this account." Nevertheless 

 Calamy gives him among the ejected ministers of 1662. 

 The charities include Smith's, as in 

 CHARITIES other Surrey parishes, also a sum of 

 11 i os. under the will of 'Lady 

 Margaret Bruce,' probably Margaret daughter of the 

 fourth Lord Balfour of Burleigh, who would have 

 been Baroness Balfour of Burleigh but for the at- 

 tainder in 1715 of her elder brother, whose heir 

 she was. She died in 1769. 



CHERTSEY 



Cerotesege (earliest charters, ascribed to vii cent.) ; 

 Certesia (in Latin of the same) ; Certesyg (xi cent.) ; 

 Certeseye (xiii cent.) ; Chertesay (xiv cent.). 



Chertsey is a market town on the Thames 9 miles 

 from Windsor and about the same from Kingston. 

 The parish is bounded on the north-west by Egham 

 and Thorpe, on the north-east by the Thames between 

 it and Middlesex, on the south-east by Weybridge, 

 Byfleet, and Pyrford, on the south-west by Hcrsell and 

 Chobham. It measures about 4 miles each way, 

 being roughly quadrilateral. The north-eastern and 

 eastern parts are on the gravel, sand and alluvium 

 of the Thames Valley and of the Wey Valley. The 



old course of the Wey forms part of the eastern boun- 

 dary, and the actual confluence of the Wey and the 

 Thames is in Chertsey parish, not Weybridge. The 

 Bourne Brook and the stream from Virginia Water 

 which joins it flow through the parish to the Thames. 

 The western and southern parts of the parish are on 

 higher ground where the barren heaths of the Bagshot 

 Sand begin, these stretching back to the commons 

 of Woking and Chobham. Eminences of the Bag- 

 shot Sand stand out above the river valleys also, the 

 most striking being St. Anne's Hill, west-by-north of the 

 town. It is only 240 ft. above the sea, but from its 

 situation in the middle of the valley it commands fine 



V.C.H. Surr. i, 310*. 

 73 Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, no. 16. 

 ' See Cal. Pat. 1317-21, p. 102. 

 ^Ibid. 1381-5, pp. 306, 325,4"! 



1385-9, p. 145 i 1388-92, p. 121 ; 1399- 

 1401, p. 543 i 1422-9, pp. 5, 155, 388. 

 Vide references to manor. last* Bki. 

 (P.R.O.). 



403 



?' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 31. 

 7Inst. Bkfc (P.R.O.); Ldi. Jour*. 

 (1648), 588. 



fl Surr. Arch. Coll. ix, 248-9. 



