ELMBRIDGE HUNDRED STOKE D'ABERNON 



one of the Vincent family in the time of Charles I.*' 

 The priory of Newark by Guildford as early as the 

 reign of Henry III had a small holding in Stoke 

 D'Abernon granted by Hugh de Fetcham and con- 

 firmed by John D'Abernon, 40 taxed in 1291 at 

 12*. 6</. 61 After the Dissolution John Carleton of 

 Walton on Thames received a grant from the king of 

 * the messuage called Pryorne (i.e. the Priory) in Stoke 

 D'Abernon which belonged to the late Priory of 

 Newark, Surrey.' M 



The church of ST. MARY THE 

 CHURCH riRGIN consists of a chancel 23 ft. 6 in. 

 by 15 ft. 6 in. ; a north chapel 21 ft. by 

 1 3 ft. ; a nave 49 ft. by 2 1 ft. 3 in. ; a north aisle and 

 north transeptal organ-chamber ; a north-west tower 

 and a south porch. The earliest parts of the church are 

 the chancel and the two eastern bays of the nave, 

 which are, so far as the walls are concerned, of pre- 

 Conquest date and represent a church consisting only 

 of a chancel and nave, the latter being 35ft. long. 

 There was also very probably a south porch. In the 

 closing years of the 1 2th century a north aisle of two 

 bays was added, windows were inserted in both nave 

 and chancel, and a new chancel arch was built. At 

 the beginning of the 1 3th century the chancel was 

 vaulted and buttresses and new windows were in- 

 serted in the south wall of the chancel, and prob- 

 ably in the north wall as well. A window was also 

 inserted in the nave. In the middle of the 1 3th 

 century a new south door was inserted and the early 

 porch was destroyed. Probably at the same time a 

 nave altar recess was constructed to the north of the 

 chancel arch. This, however, no longer remains, but a 

 water-colour sketch made before the modern restoration 

 shows this feature very clearly. 43 Towards the end 

 of the i 5 th century the north chapel was built and 

 the rood stair inserted. In 1866 the whole church 

 was enlarged and ' restored." The nave and aisle 

 were lengthened (the latter being completely rebuilt), 

 the old chancel arch was destroyed with the nave altar 

 recesses and the squints, and was replaced by a modern 

 one. The old bell-cot over the west end of the nave 

 was destroyed and replaced by the present tower at 

 the north-west, and various new windows were in- 

 serted. 



The east window of the chancel is a modern triplet 

 of 18th-century design. On the north of the chancel 

 is an arcade, of two dissimilar bays, to the chapel. 

 The first of these has an obtuse four-centred head 

 flanked by fluted pilasters, with moulded capitals and 

 bases, which are carried up to an embattled cornice. 

 The spandrels are filled in with plain moulded panels, 

 and the soffit of the arch and the jambs are panelled. 

 Between this and the arch to the west is a short length 

 of walling. The second arch has a more acute four- 

 centred head, and is continuously moulded with a 

 deep hollow between a double ogee and a hollow 

 chamfer. There is no label or canopy. On the 

 south are two windows of the same date as the vault- 

 ing, both single lancets with wide splays and pointed 

 bowtel-moulded internal jambs and rear arch. The 

 moulded external jambs, head and label, are com- 

 pletely restored in modern material. The chancel 

 arch is entirely modern and of late 13th-century de- 

 tail. It is two-centred and of two chamfered orders 

 with a plain chamfered label The jambs have circular 



half shafts with plain moulded capitals and bases. 

 The chancel is vaulted in two bays. The circular 

 vaulting shafts are single in the angles and triple 

 clustered on the north and south walls, where they are 

 placed between the two arches and the two windows 

 respectively. The capitals are circular, moulded, of 

 varying design, and have plain bells. The bases have 

 a water-mould of somewhat unusual angular profile, 

 and are also circular. The vaulting ribs are moulded 

 with undercut rolls and the cross ribs are enriched with 

 dog-tooth. The vault is quadripartite with a filling of 

 small stuff now stripped of its plaster. At the inter- 

 section of the diagonal ribs of the west bay is a small 

 rosette boss. At the east is an elaborate modern 

 marble reredos with stations of the cross in very high 

 relief. On the north is a modern wall arcade of 

 1 3th-century design. 



Above the chancel arch, and visible from the nave, is 

 an opening to the space over the vaulting ; and over 

 and to the north of the north jamb is the rood loft 

 door, a plain pointed one, of 15th-century date. The 

 two western bays of the nave arcade have two-centred 

 arches of one chamfered order, and a plain chamfered 



Preconqueit. Dill C.1850. 

 C- U90 . ^ C.l+90. 

 C. '1210 m Modern. 



>o s a 



4O SO 



Scale of Feet. 

 STOKE D'ABERNON CHURCH BEFORE l86f. 



label. The respond is square with plain abaci, and is 

 much restored. The column is circular with a circular 

 roll-moulded base standing on a square plinth and 

 having plain angle-spurs. The capital has a plain 

 fairly shallow bell worked from the circular shaft to a 

 square hollow-chamfered abacus. The third and 

 fourth bays of the arcade are quite modern. At the 

 south-east of the nave is a piscina of late 15th-century 

 date. The head is segmental and with the jambs 

 continuously moulded with a double ogee. The 

 western jamb, however, has been mutilated to a 

 different form. The back is curved and the basin 

 circular with five channels, and the drain is masked 

 by a small boss. Near this is a small modern door to 

 the modern vestry, in the building of which a plain 

 lancet window of the same date as those in the south 

 of the chancel was blocked up. West of this again 

 is the original south door, now blocked up. This is 

 of mid-i3th-century date and has a drop two-centred 

 head. It is continuously moulded with a roll set in 

 a hollow chamfer. In the east jamb is a recess for a 



49 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2) cccclxvii, 



'4- 



5 B.M. Add. Chart. 5544. 



a Pofe Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 206. 



459 



"Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt ii, m. 22. 

 u Surr. Arch. Coll. xx, lo. 



