GODLEY HUNDRED 



THORPE 



out of his private means, with this manor. The 

 college was dissolved in I 54.7 and the manor became 

 Crown property. In 1548 Hall Place, described as 

 a capital messuage and tenement, and the land at 

 High Graveney, was granted to Henry Polsted and 

 William More and the heirs of Henry .** The latter 

 died in 1555, leaving the manor as dower to his wife 

 and after her death to his son Richard. 31 It was after- 

 wards stated that Polsted had purchased the manor 

 from John Avingdon for the sum of lj 14.1. It is 

 probable that Avingdon had merely acted as trustee 

 for the purposes of a settlement." Richard Polsted 

 settled the manor on his wife Elizabeth, daughter of 

 Sir William More, in I 569, and afterwards died there 

 leaving no issue.** His widow married Sir John 

 Wolley, and in 1 5 84 Brian Annesley, Richard Pol- 

 sted's rightful heir, remitted to them and their heirs 

 all his claim in half the said manor. On the death of 

 Elizabeth, who married, as her third husband, Sir 

 Thomas Egerton, the manor was therefore divided, 

 one half going to Brian Annesley, the other half, in 

 which he had remitted his claim, to Francis Wolley, 

 son and heir of Elizabeth by her second husband.* 4 

 Sir Francis Wolley died in 1 609, and left his share of 

 the manor to William Minterne his cousin, with 

 remainder to Elizabeth, daughter of William. 35 She 

 married Sir Francis Leigh, and their son Wolley 

 Leigh inherited the whole of the manor of Hall 

 Place in 1627, his grandfather, William Minterne, 

 having acquired to himself and his heirs the moiety 

 o r "' w ;manor left to Brian Annesley. 36 Wolley Leigh 

 in'Jtrited also the principal manor of Thorpe (q.v.) 

 froiTi his grandfather. Hall Place was henceforth held 

 witjj, f he manor of Thorpe ; it apparently ceased to 

 bi. re 8j).rded as a separate manor, and the whole was 

 calJSu Thorpe and Hall Place in the division of 1768." 

 Hall Place was the manor-house. It was pulled 

 down, by the Rev. John Leigh-Bennett, owner 

 between 1806 and 1 83 5, and the present house, called 

 Thorpe Place, built. 



The church of S3". MART consists 

 CHURCH of a chancel 27 ft. by 17 ft. 6 in. with 

 a small north vestry, a nave 35 ft. 4 in. 

 by 21 ft. 3 in., north transept 1 1 ft. 2 in. deep, north 

 aisle 8ft. 3 in. wide, south transept 13 ft. 10 in. 

 deep ; south aisle 8 ft. 3 in. wide, and a west tower 

 1 1 ft. 8 in. by 1 1 ft. 3 in., all measurements being 

 internal. The early history of the church has been 

 greatly obscured by drastic restorations of a fairly 

 recent date, and it is evident that at various late, 

 though not modern, dates the fabric has been allowed 

 to fall into disrepair and has then been clumsily 

 restored. The chancel arch is in part of 12th-century 

 date though much repaired. The aisles and transepts 

 seem to have been added in the 1 3th century, and 

 about the middle of the I4th century the chancel was 

 rebuilt to its present dimensions. The tower is of 

 1 7th-century date, and the north vestry modern. The 

 old walls are of chalk and flint, most of the new 

 facings being in Heath stone. 



The east window of the chancel is modern and of 

 three lights with geometrical tracery of 14th-century 



design. On the north is a modern door to the vestry 

 with a hood-mould formed by breaking over it a string- 

 course which, passing round three sides of the chancel, 

 is in part of 14th-century date. West of this is a 

 much restored 14th-century two-light window with 

 flowing tracery, containing in the head some original 

 14th-century glass, and following on this is a single 

 cinquefoiled light of which the internal splay is old. 

 The window itself is in two stages, both having cinque- 

 foiled heads and the upper one simple cusped tracery. 

 At the south-east are a trefoiled piscina and double 

 sedilia of one design and mid- 14th-century date. 

 The piscina has a double basin and the sedilia are 

 separated by a shaft with moulded capital and base, 

 and their heads, of ogee form, are moulded. At the 

 west, a modern niche has been placed in exact imita- 

 tion of the piscina, but lacking the drain. The 

 string-course noted above is broken square over the 

 piscina and sedilia, and above it, over the sedilia, is an 

 old moulded bracket. Slightly west of this, and 

 partly broken into by the modern niche, is a window 

 of the same date and detail as that opposite to it 

 on the north. The westernmost window on this side 

 also corresponds exactly to that on the north, and be- 

 tween this and the window last described is a small 

 14th-century door in which, externally, a badly fitting 

 l 5th-century head has been inserted. The chancel 

 arch, of distorted semicircular form, is of two square 

 orders to the west and one to the east. The jambs 

 are slightly chamfered and have hollow-chamfered 

 abaci. On either side of it are two openings with 

 segmental heads and sills at breast height, and on their 

 eastern faces tracery of 15th-century date in two cin- 

 quefoiled lights under square heads ; they have served 

 the double purpose of squints and light for the nave 

 altars. The nave is of three bays, the two arcades 

 being of similar detail with two-centred arches of two 

 chamfered orders towards the nave and a single order 

 towards the aisles. These look like scraped-down i 3th- 

 century work, the second column on the north being 

 octagonal instead of round. All the windows in aisles 

 and transepts have modern tracery of 14th-century 

 style, but in the south transept is a 14th-century 

 piscina. The nave roof is old, but hidden by 

 plaster ; at the east end it is panelled in two bays 

 and has formed the ceiling over the rood. 



The church has very good modern fittings, and at 

 the west end of the nave is a pretty 17th-century 

 gallery with twisted balusters. 



The tower is built of red brick in old English 

 bond, and has round-headed pairs of belfry windows 

 in brick, with a modern Gothic west window and 

 door on the ground stage. It is embattled and much 

 overgrown with ivy. 



On the south wall of the chancel is a brass to Wil- 

 liam Denham, his wife, five sons and ten daughters. 

 He was a citizen and goldsmith of London, and died 

 in 1583. Above are three shields ; the first has the 

 arms of Denham ; the second, the arms of the 

 Company of Goldsmiths : the third Denham impal- 

 ing a cross paty with a bend over all and a ring for 

 difference. 



80 Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. i, m. 32. 



81 P.C.C. 6 Ketchyn ; Chan. Proc. (Ser. 

 2), cxxxix, 4 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cvi, 

 56. 



8a Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), cxxxix, 4. Or 

 possibly Avingdon and Aughton are the 



same name, and this conveyance was the 

 surrender of claim by the Aughton family. 



88 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cclx, 118. 



"Ibid. 



u Ibid. cccxxxiv, 60 ; ccccxxxviii, 

 125. 



439 



"Ibid. (Ser. 2), ccccxxxviii, 25. 



"Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 14 Chas. I ; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), dxxiv, i ; xxxii, 

 10 ; dxxxvii, id ; Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 2 

 Anne ; Recor. R. Hil. 2 Anne ; Mich. ; i 

 Geo. III. 



