A HISTORY OF SURREY 



-J^*M^iMi 



church of Farnham with its chapels ' by the gift of 

 the Bishop of Winchester, and with the confirma- 

 tion of his right by the Popc,« as early as the 

 episcopate of William de Raleigh (1244-1250).' 

 There is evidence in the Waverley Annals that 

 Frensham church existed before 1 239, as there 

 is an account of the rebuilding and dedication of 

 the church by Luke, Archdeacon of Surrey, in that 

 year.' The architecture of Elsted church goes to 

 prove that Elsted was also one of the early chapelries 

 of Famham, since there are traces of early English 

 work dating from the beginning of the thirteenth 

 century.* There is seemingly no evidence that 

 Scale or Bentley chapelries, which by 1535 were 

 attached to Famham church, s existed so early ; 

 the probability appears to be that ' Farnham 

 church with its chapeb ' meant in the thirteenth 

 century Famham with Frensham and Elsted. In 

 1 291 the ' ecclesia de Farnham cum Capella ' is 

 mentioned in the taxation of Pope Nicholas as 

 worth j[So.' In 1535 the Archdeacon of Surrey 

 held the church of Famham with its chapelries of 

 Frensham, Elsted, Seale and Bentley.' It seems 

 that Elsted and Seale were in some sense parishes 

 by 1539, since the parish 

 registers of both date 

 from this year. By 

 1553 Frensham also had 

 become a parish, for an 

 inventory made in that 

 year of goods and orna- 

 ments in the churches in 

 Famham hundred, in- 

 cludes the churches of 

 Farnham, Elsted, Seale 

 and Frensham, but curi- 

 ously Seale is the only 

 one of the four called a 

 parish church.' The 

 Frensham parish regis- 

 ter does not begin until ■ 



1648. In 1865 an ar- „, 



rangement was made by 



which the tithe rent 



charges in the parishes 



of Frensham, Seale, Elsted and Bentley,' which had 



formerly belonged to the rectory of Farnham, held 



by the Archdeacon of Surrey,'" were to be given 



over to endow the several churches as the leases by 



which they had been alienated fell in." 



The district of Waverley was probably extra- 

 parochial from the date of the foundation of the 

 Abbey. 



The following ecclesiastical districts were erected 

 in the restricted parish of Farnham, not including 



Frensham, Elsted and Seale, during the nineteentii 

 century under the Church Building Acts of i8ii 

 1838, and i840.>' Wrecclesham dutrict with iti 

 church consecrated in 1840 ; Hale with iti chuich 

 consecrated in 1841, although the district was not 

 formed till 1845 ; Bourne with its chorch conse- 

 crated in 1862 ; Tilford with its church conse- 

 crated in 1867. Rowledge, in 1 87 1, was partly 

 formed from Farnham and partly from Fren- 

 sham. 



The parish lies on the west of the county. Its 

 greatest breadth from west to east is about four 

 miles and a quarter, from north-west to south-east 

 it is about six miles, from north-east to south-west 

 about five miles, covering an area of 9,768 acres. 

 It is traversed by the Wey, which rises in Hamp- 

 shire in the upper greensand and flows past Alton 

 to Farnham in a north-easterly direction ; just 

 beyond Farnham it is joined by a brook from the 

 north, and turns somewhat abrupdy to the south- 

 east, away from the chalk downs, and runs in a 

 tortuous but generaUy south-easterly course past 

 Waverley, where it is joined by a stream from the 

 south-west — the Bourne — to Tilford bridge, where 



View from Batts Corner. 



it is joined by another considerable branch from 

 the south, made by the junction of several small 

 streams which drain the lower greensand from 

 Hindhead and the high ground near it." The 

 united waters then continue in an easterly direction 

 towards Godalming. 



The greater part of Farnham parish is on the 

 lower greensand formation, but it extends north- 

 wards over a narrow outcrop of gault and upper 

 greensand on to the chalk, on which Farnham 



' Cal. of Papal Lett-rs, \. j-g, 294, 

 +05, 406. 2 rbid. 2-9. 



» Ann. M-.r. (RoUs Ser.), ii. 515. 

 Ecclesia dc Ferncsham transponitur hoc 

 anno de loco nbi prius sita fuit, ad 

 alium locum. 



* Surr.Arcb. Coll. vii. 195. 



5 I'alor Eccl. (Rec. Com.1, ii. 52. 



« Pop<: \Ub. Tax (Rec Com.), 208. 

 It IS difficult to explain 'cum Capella," 

 unless the abbreviation may have been 



wrongly extended for 'cum Capellis,' 

 for the CalcnJar of Papal Letters, i. 279, 

 etc., refers to Farnham and its chapels. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii. 32. 



" Surr. Arch. Coll. iv. zg ; Aug. Off. 

 Misc. Bks. 511. 



'They were none of them rectories 

 or vicarages however, but were served 

 by curates appointed by the lessees of 

 the tithes of the various parts of Farn- 

 ham. Vide infra. 



582 



10 Valor Eccl. (Rec Com.), ii. 32. 



" Lond. Gas. Dec 1, 186;. Vide 

 infra. 



»' Stat. I and 2 Will. IV. c. 38, t 

 and 2 Vict. c. 107, 3 and 4 Vict, c 60. 



" This stream is also now commonly 

 called the Wey. It used to be called 

 the Tilford river. See Loseley MS. 

 letters from Viscount Montague, 9th 

 March, 1 590, about the fishing in the 

 Tilford river. 



