A HISTORY OF SURREY 



of the south-western quarter of the county, and also, strange as it may ap- 

 pear, in the neighbourhood of London, in the priory church of St. Mary 

 Overie, South wark, hard by which was the town house of the Bishops 

 of Winchester. The work of Bishops Godfrey de Lucy and Peter des 

 Roches in the Lady chapel and other parts of Winchester Cathedral 

 is curiously similar to the early thirteenth century portions of St. Mary 

 Overie, or St. Saviour's, Southwark, as it is now generally called. We 

 can trace the same hand in the vaulted entrance to the deanery at 

 Winchester and the undercroft at Waverley Abbey. The architecture 

 of Godalming church probably owes much to its early connection with 

 Salisbury Cathedral (e.g. the remarkable group of lancets in the south 

 chancel and the early traceried windows) ; while the late twelfth century 

 central towers of Witley church and Wimborne Minster (Dorset) show 

 the handiwork of the same school of masons. 



To the monastic bodies established in the county we should natur- 

 ally look for the patterns of architecture followed by the parish churches 

 that were in their patronage, but here we are unfortunately for the most 

 part in the dark, as in nearly every case the great churches and other 

 buildings of these bodies have been destroyed. 



The priory of St. Mary Overie, Southwark, probably of very early 

 foundation, but refounded by two Norman knights in 1 107, and the 

 powerful Cluniac priory of Bermondsey founded by Alwin Child, 1082, 

 became possessed of the lands and spiritualities of many parishes in the 

 county.' And it is possible to trace certain features in the village 

 churches to-day to their influence. Chertsey Abbey (Benedictine), the 

 oldest monastic establishment in Surrey, founded in or about 666, 

 must long have stood alone as the chief seat of monkish learning in the 

 county. It was a great landowner in the county, and has left the im- 

 press of its ownership on several village churches. 



Waverley Abbey, in the neighbourhood of Farnham, historically 

 and architecturally has perhaps the greatest claims to interest of all the 

 monastic foundations in the county. This is not the place to consider 

 its history, except in relation to its architectural remains. Founded by 

 William GiiFard, Bishop of Winchester, in 1 128, the first house of the 

 Cistercian order in England, the church and its surrounding buildings 

 must, when perfect, have formed the stateliest architectural ornament of 

 Surrey. 



In many of the mouldings and carvings the work of the school of 

 late twelfth century masons who have left abundant evidences of their 

 skill m Wmchester and Hampshire is apparent. This is, of course, only 

 to be expected, owing to the close tie between Waverley and Winches- 

 ter. It cannot, however, be said that Waverley in its turn has exercised 

 much apparent mfluence on the church architecture of Surrey. 



-nnlH T"^'"^ Tu °* "^^ P^'' °^ 'J^' important priory (in 1399 raised to the dignity of an abbey) 

 SenthTennTH / f"''''°"- ^T?"^^ ' quantity of worked and carved ston« of twelfth and 

 w Se S^ZZn'tl'r "-"J^ P-^r °^ '^' '"^'"^'^^ "°8^ °* ^^^^^^SS' -"« dug up on land belonging 



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