ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Weald was uninhabited, and Godley Hundred, which was the land of 

 the abbey of Chertsey in fact, in the north-west of the county, was only 

 inhabited along the Thames and Wey valleys, with a few outlying 

 settlements upon the wastes of the Bagshot Sands. 



We are not much assisted by material remains of church buildings 

 in identifying ancient places of Christian worship in Surrey. The 

 remains of pre-Conquest building are at any rate not extensive nor 

 universally accepted as such. 



During the Danish wars Surrey was continually overrun by heathen 

 armies, from a.d. 852 to 1016.' Chertsey Abbey was sacked once, 

 perhaps twice. A minster in Southwark cannot have escaped when the 

 Danes were attacking London from the south side of the river. Any 

 church which existed before the days of Cnut, unless in a very out-of- 

 the-way place, must have been exposed to the ravages of those who 

 specially vented their destructiveness upon Christian churches. Only 

 after the time of Cnut was a church likely to stand unsacked and unburnt, 

 and any existing remains are likely to be eleventh century at the earliest. 

 We are on firmer ground when we come to the time of William. In 

 the Domesday Survey churches are named in Surrey at the following 

 places : Bermondsey, described as nova et pulchra ecclesia, Camberwell, 

 Lambeth, Mortlake, Southwark {monasterium) , Streatham, Lower Tooting, 

 Walworth, all in Brixton Hundred ; Ditton, Kingston, Maiden, Peters- 

 ham in Kingston Hundred ; Stoke d'Abernon, Walton-on-Thames, 

 West Moulsey in Emleybridge Hundred ; Byfleet, Chobham (two) in 

 Godley Hundred ; Henley, Ockham, Send, Stoke, West Clandon, West 

 Horsley, Wisley, Woking, Worplesdon in Woking Hundred ; Farnham 

 on the land of the Bishop of Winchester ; Compton, Godalming (two), 

 Witley in Godalming Hundred ; Albury, Shalford, Bramley (three) in 

 Blackheath Hundred; Abinger, Betchworth, Dorking in Wotton Hun- 

 dred ; Buckland, Gatton, Merstham, Nutfield in Reigate Hundred ; 

 Limpsfield, Oxted, Tillingdon,^ Titsey, Warlingham (probably) in Tand- 

 ridge Hundred ; Epsom (two), Letherhead, Mickleham in Copthorne 

 Hundred ; Banstead, Beddington, Carshalton, Chaldon, Cheam, Couls- 

 don, Croydon, Merton, Sutton (two), Woodmansterne in Wallington 

 Hundred ; Great Bookham in Effingham Hundred. Chertsey Abbey 

 also of course existed. The second church at Godalming was the 

 ancient chapel at Tuesley, now gone. The second church at Epsom 

 was Stamford Chapel, now destroyed. The second church at Sutton 

 was Watendene Chapel, now destroyed. The chapel at Chobham 

 has also disappeared. The three churches at Bramley were perhaps 

 Bramley, Wonersh and Hascombe or Dunsfold or even Alfold ; much 

 of the land of the last three parishes was in the ancient manor 

 of Bramley. This is not likely to be an exhaustive list of the 

 churches existing in 1086. The Domesday Survey was not primarily 

 concerned with churches. At Worth in Sussex, which is included 



* V.C.H. Surrey, i. 331-8. * Tandridge Church, on the manor of Tillingdon. 



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