EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



ALBURY 



to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In 1867 it was 

 purchased by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster,^" 

 and has recently been bought from the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners by Mr. Maurice Carr Glyn.*' 



The parish church of ST. M^RT 

 CHURCH stands on a hill at the eastern end of 

 Albury village. The material is flint 

 with clunch dressings and modern roofing of tiles or 

 lead. The church consists of a chancel 28 ft. 6 in., 

 nave 52 ft. by 15 ft. 6 in., aisles 9 ft. wide, west 

 tower 1 3 ft. square, south porch, and a vestry and 

 organ chamber on the south side of the chancel. 



The earliest church of which 

 any portion remains, consisting of 

 a nave, aisles and chancel of about 



1230, now survives only in the 

 chancel, but the Purbeck marble 

 stem and one small shaft of a late 



12th-century font are remains of 

 the 1 2th-century church which is 



known to have stood here.^* The 



nave, aisles and chancel arch were 



rebuilt about 1360. Ninety years 



later the west tower was built, 



and the south porch was added in 



the latter half of the 15th cen- 

 tury. In the 19th century the 



vestry and organ chamber were 



added, and the clearstory windows 



over the south arcade of the nave 



were pierced about the same time. 



The church has undergone much 



restoration in recent years. The 



quoins and window tracery of the 



tower are all new, the south wall 



of the south aisle has just been 



rebuilt, and nearly all the external 



stonework of the windows has 



been renewed. 



The chancel has three modern 



lancets in the east wall. On the 



north side are four original 13th- 

 century lancets, of which the 



westernmost is a low-side window. 



The south side has only two 



lancets, also original, and a piscina 



of the 14th century, with an 



ogee-trefoiled head, and a hood 



mould ornamented with crockets 



and a finial. The bowl is modern. 



The communion table is of the 



late 17th century. There is a 



rood screen of 15th-century work 



which has tracery in the head, 



and the closed panels below the middle rail are 



pierced by small round holes. The chancel arch, 



which forms part of the 14th-century rebuilding, 



is of two moulded orders, with jambs of alternate 



shafts and rolls. This type is followed by the 



arcades of the nave of the same date, which are 



of four bays. The two westernmost bays on the 



south side, however, are plainer in detail, and were 



probably the last to be finished. The clearstory 



lights above the arcade on the south side are modern. 



Three of the tie-beams and wall-plates of the roof 

 are of the I 5 th century. 



In the north aisle, at the east and west ends, are 

 two original 14th-century windows, much repaired, 

 each of three lights. The three i Jth-century windows 

 in the north wall have lost their tracery. There was 

 also originally a 14th-century doorway in the north 

 wall, but this is now blocked up. In this aisle, and 

 in the south aisle also, the trusses of the roof are of 

 the 1 5th century. The south aisle, which, as already 

 noted, has undergone extensive reconstruction, has 

 an original 14th-century east window of three lights. 



Albury Church : East End of the South Aislb 



now inclosed by the vestry and organ chamber, three 

 windows on the south and one on the west of two 

 lights each, also of the original structure ; only the 

 east and south-east windows, however, have escaped 

 renewal, and the latter is in a very decayed con- 

 dition. There is a stoup on the east side of the south 

 door. 



The tower of three stages has diagonal buttresses 

 and an embattled parapet, and is surmounted by a 

 small leaded needle spire. The west doorway has a 



«« Cussans, Hht. of Herts. Ed-winstree 

 Hund, 168 ; see Lond. Gaoi. 28 June 

 1867, p. 3623. 



^' Information from 

 Thomas. 



88 See Advowson 



Rev. J. L. P. 

 The church was 



granted to the treasurer of St. Paul's in 

 the reign of Stephen, 



