BOROUGH OF GUILDFORD 



An iron fence now divides it from Quarry Street 

 along its east boundary, and from the other surrounding 

 south and west roads ; entrance gates are at the 

 south-east corner and to the north-east. The church- 

 yard formerly extended farther east, Quarry Street 

 being a mere bridle-way till 1755, when the roadway 

 was widened. In 1825, the road being still very 

 narrow, the east end of the chancel was taken down 

 and rebuilt 1 2 ft. shorter with the original stones. 

 Before this an old plan shows windows on the north 

 and south of the chancel close to the east end. The 

 church rate was doubled for the year, and there was 

 a voluntary subscription besides. 



The original church of HOLT TR1N1TT, to judge 

 from imperfect pictures and a plan of Guildford, had 

 a square-ended chancel and apsidal side chapels like 

 St. Mary's, and a tower with a spire on the south 

 side. The south side chapel was called the Lady 

 chapel, and its vaulting survived the fall of the tower. 

 The old church fell down in 1740 owing to the 

 arches under the tower having been taken away to 

 improve its acoustic properties when the church was 

 repaired in the previous year. The present building, 

 which was erected on the old site (i.e. on the extreme 

 edge of the ancient town) in 1749-63, consists of an 

 apsidal chancel with north and south chapels and a 

 wide aisleless nave with a tower and porches at the 

 west end and a south-west vestry. It is partly 

 modelled upon St. Katherine Coleman, Fenchurch 

 Street. In 1869 the galleries were removed, and the 

 windows altered from two rows to one. The church 

 was enlarged by the addition of the chancel and 

 chapels in 1888. What is now the vestry 

 was formerly a chapel which belonged to Sir 

 Richard Weston (who received a grant of Sutton 

 Place in 1521) and his descendants. It has restored 

 walls of flint and stone set in a chequer pattern, and 

 its two south windows have late I 5th-century moulded 

 jambs, four-centred heads and labels. The last 

 of Sir Richard Weston's family who was buried in 

 the chapel was Mrs. Melior Mary Weston, who died 

 in 1782. 



The tower is of three stages with an embattled 

 parapet and contains a ring of eight bells, seven being 

 cast by Lester and Pack in 1769, and the eighth, cast 

 in 1748, was recast by Pack and Chapman in 1779. 

 Mr. Peter Flutter, Mayor of Guildford, paid for 

 recasting the bells, one of which bears the inscription 

 ' Peter Flutter gave me.' There is an hexagonal 

 oak pulpit with sounding-board and inlaid soffits. 



The chancel and apse walls are covered with 

 paintings, and are separated from the chapels by arcades 

 with Corinthian columns. The north chapel, known 

 as the 'Queen's Chapel,' contains memorials con- 

 nected with the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment. 

 A feature of the nave is the very wide span of the 

 roof. The timbers are hidden by a panelled plaster 

 ceiling, but the extremely ingenious way in which 

 the roof is hung from the rafters can be seen by 

 going above the ceiling. 



The fragments in the porch under the tower 

 include 12th-century scalloped capitals and mouldings 

 of 1 3th and 14th-century dates. There is also a part 

 of a stone coffin lid, on which is carved a foliate 

 cross, probably of 14th-century date. 



The church contains a number of monuments 

 which belonged to the old building. The most 

 important is a large Renaissance tomb, in the south- 



east chapel, to George Abbot, Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, who was born in 1562 and died in 1633. It 

 is of grey, white, and black marble. The sides h.tve 

 plain marble panels, and the end is carved with a 

 grating, inside which are represented skulls and human 

 bones. On the top of the base is a recumbent 

 effigy of the archbishop in cap, rochet, &c., and 

 holding a book in his right hand. From projecting 

 pedestals around the base rise six classic columns 

 which support a large canopy having scrollwork gables 

 on each side. In the end gable is an inscription. 

 Round the canopy are shields bearing Canterbury and 

 others impaling Gules a cheveron or between three 

 pears or a molet for difference. The back of the tomb 

 stands against the east wall and is divided into three 

 panels, the centre one containing an inscription ; the 

 north one a figure of the sun over which are the 

 words ' Hinc lumen ' and the south one another female 

 figure holding a chalice, over which is ' Hinc gratia.' 

 The tomb was erected by Sir Maurice Abbot, Lord 

 Mayor of London, the brother of the archbishop, 

 in 1640, and was placed in the Lady chapel of the 

 old church, the roof of which withstood the fall of 

 the tower in 1740. It was removed into Abbot's 

 Hospital during the rebuilding, and was again removed 

 to its present place, east of the place where the arch- 

 bishop is buried, in 1888. 



On the north side of the porch under the tower is 

 another large monument to Sir Robert Parkhurst, 

 a Guildford man, sometime Lord Mayor of London, 

 who died in 1637, and to Lady Parkhurst his wife, 

 who died two years later, and to the wife of his son 

 who put up the monument. The third figure is now 

 missing. The front of the base is divided into three 

 panels, the centre one containing an inscription 

 recording the erection of the monument by his son, 

 Sir Robert Parkhurst, who died in 1651, and its 

 decoration by Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Robert, 

 in 1 68 1. The other two panels contain brass 

 shields which clearly do not belong to it. On 

 the top of the base is the reclining figure of a 

 man in plate armour, over which he wears a cloak 

 and ruff and his chain of office. Near his feet 

 is the headless figure of a kneeling woman. The 

 back of the tomb is flanked by classic columns and 

 contains the original inscription, 16368. Above it 

 is a stone shield with mantled helm and crest. The 

 arms are almost defaced. This tomb stood in the 

 north side of the chancel of the old church, and after 

 the ruin was piled with other fragments under the 

 western gallery. 



On the opposite side of the porch is another box 

 tomb which has no inscription, but it is almost cer- 

 tainly that of Anne, Lady Weston, afterwards Lady 

 Knyvett, who died in 1582, and gave directions that 

 she should be buried near her first father-in-law, 

 Sir Richard Weston, in Trinity Church. The tomb 

 is said to have been once in the Weston chantry. 

 The front of the base is carved to represent human 

 bones behind two grates. On the top is a painted 

 recumbent figure of a woman in an ornamented fur- 

 trimmed dress and a ruff. But in this case too the 

 base may not belong to the figure, as the monuments 

 were all confused during the ruin and rebuilding. 



On the north wall of the nave is a small brass with 



the following black-letter inscription : 'An M 1 V" 



| LVII | Lett no man wonder | thoghe here lyt 



under | the servant of God I truste | Baldwin Smythe 



567 



