GODLEY HUNDRED 



PYRFORD 



William Beauchamp in trust for Richard Bonsey, 

 Richard Roake, John Collyer, and John Scotcher, each 

 of whom was to enjoy a fourth share, and who, as 

 lay improprutors, had the right to appoint the curate." 

 Manning gives the date of this conveyance as 1682 

 but it was probably a few years later, since, as has 

 been shown, the small tithes at least were held by 

 Godfrey Lee as late as 1684. In 1725 the advow- 

 son was in the hands of ' four lay impropriators.' " 

 In 1 804 Henry and Edward Roake, Richard Fladgate, 

 and Henry Collyer were the lay impropriators, John 



Collyer having purchased Bonsey's share and Richard 

 Fladgate that of Scotcher. 57 As late as 1879 the south 

 seats in the chancel were occupied by the Roake 

 family and those on the north side by the Collyer and 

 Fladgate families. 4 * Throughout the 1 9th century 

 the patronage remained in the hands of landowners at 

 Horsell. 48 It is at present held by Mr. John Pares 

 of Southsea. The curacy was styled a vicarage by 

 the Act of 1868." 



Smith's Charity is distributed as in 



CH4RITT 



other Surrey parishes. 



PYRFORD 



Pirianford (x cent.) ; Peliforde and Piriford (xi 

 cent.) ; Purford (xvii cent.). 



Pyrfbrd is a small parish formerly a chapelry of 

 Woking, on the Wey, 7 miles north-east of Guild- 

 ford, and rather less from Chertsey. It is bounded 

 on the north by Chertsey and Byfleet, on the east by 

 Wisley and Ockham, on the south by Ripley, on the 

 west by Woking. It contains 1,869 acres, and 

 measures rather over 2 miles from east to west, 

 rather less than 2 miles from north to south. It 

 is traversed by the Wey navigation, by part of the 

 natural river which helps to form its eastern boundary, 

 and by the main line of the London and South Wes- 

 tern Railway. The upper or western part of 

 Pyrford is on the lower Bagshot Sand, the lower or 

 eastern part is the alluvium, sand, and gravel of the 

 Wey Valley. A few palaeolithic and neolithic flints 

 have been found, but in no great quantity. Pyrford 

 Stone is a Sarsen stone from the Bagshot beds standing 

 not far from the Warren. It is put up on end 

 artificially, but while it may very well be one of the 

 few ancient standing stones in Surrey, nothing is known 

 of the date of erection. The parish is well wooded, 

 picturesque, and out of the world. Historically Pyr- 

 ford is interesting as having been included in Windsor 

 Forest, according to the charter of the Conqueror to 

 Westminster ; while by the evidence of Domesday 

 3 hides here were in the forest. The subsequent 

 attempts to extend Windsor Forest over all Surrey 

 were met by the contention that no part of the county 

 was anciently in the forest ; which is untrue in the 

 case of Pyrford, and presumably therefore untrue in 

 the case of places not named in Domesday lying 

 between Pyrford and Windsor. In the Domesday 

 Survey it is rated in Godley Hundred, the only place 

 named in that hundred not held by Chertsey Abbey. 

 Subsequently it seems sometimes, but wrongly, to have 

 been considered as in Woking Hundred, probably 

 because ecclesiastically it was in the parish of Woking. 



The church stands upon the brow of a steep bank 

 above the broad meadows and the River Wey. From 

 whichever direction it is approached a hill has to be 

 climbed, thus giving an unusually detached and 

 isolated aspect to the tiny building. Tall elms and a 

 thicket of silver birches and young saplings, through 

 which a winding path ascends to the church, make a 

 beautiful setting for the shingled spirelet, grey walls, 



and long, low, red-tiled roofs, as viewed from the 

 south-west ; and close to the little gate of the church- 

 yard is a noble old oak. Near the church are some 

 old red-brick houses with good chimney-stacks. 



The Inclosure Award was made 29 September 

 1815, under an Act of the same year. 1 Certain waste 

 land was put into the hands of trustees to provide fuel 

 (peat) for the inhabitants. 



The schools (provided) were taken over in 1891 

 and new buildings erected ; the first school had been 

 built in 1847. 



There was a duck decoy in the low ground near 

 the old river when Manning and Bray wrote. It 

 had been disused before their time and revived. 

 Evelyn mentions it in his Diary, 23 August 1681. It 

 is now disused again. 



Sherewater Pond, on the borders of Pyrford and of 

 Chertsey parishes, was an extensive mere on the 

 Bagshot Sand, and was drained and planted at the 

 time of the inclosure. Aubrey la and Brayley," follow- 

 ing him, have confused it with a pond by the 

 Guildfbrd road on Wisley Common, drained by Peter 

 seventh Lord King at rather an earlier date. Shere- 

 water Pond is marked on Rocque's map ; Sherewater 

 Farm is close to it, just north of the London and South 

 Western Railway line. 



In 956 King Eadwig granted land at 

 MANORS the Pyrian ford, described as PTRFORD 



or Pirford on the 

 Wey in Surrey, to Eadric to 

 hold free of all services save 

 the trinoda necessitas? Pirford 

 was held under King Edward 

 by Harold, 4 and was among 

 the lands which the Conqueror 

 reserved for himself at the time 

 of the Conquest. 6 He, how- 

 ever, granted it to the monas- 

 tery of St. Peter Westminster 6 

 certainly before 1070, for the 

 charter is addressed to Stigand 

 as archbishop. At the time of 



the Survey it was held by the abbey. Before Harold 

 held it it had been assessed for 27 hides ; afterwards it 

 was assessed for 1 6 at Harold's pleasure. There seems 

 to have been some doubt as to whether it had been 

 really fixed at so much, and in 1086 it paid geld for 



WESTMINSTER ABBIT. 

 Cults St. Ptar'i crosttd 

 ktyt or. 



* Manning and Bray, op. cit. i, 162, 

 163 (quoting from inform, received from 

 Rev. E. Emily ; ice Woking). 



<* Bp. Willii, Viiitatioo. 



7 Ibid. 



" Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 166. 



69 Clergy Liltt. 



60 Act 31 & 31 Viet. cap. 117. 



1 Blue Bk. Incl. AviarJs. 



** Hist, and Antiq. of Surr. iii, 197. 



43 1 



'Hist, of Surr. ii, 14.7. 

 8 Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 136. 

 V.C.H. Surr. i, 306. Ibid. z8z. 



'Ibid.; Dugdale, Man. Angl. i, 301, 

 307 ; Cott. MS. Fault A. iii, foL 112*. 



