A HISTORY OF SURREY 



Sir Thomas Abney, the friend and patron of Dr. 

 Isaac Watts.'" Mrs. Abney left the estate to her 

 chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Tayler. The Abney 

 family was Presbyterian, and the hall of Tilford 

 House was licensed for Presbyterian services until 

 1776, when a chapel was erected in the present 

 stable yard. By 1854 this chapel was disused,"" 

 and soon after 1857 the pulpit was given to a Wes- 

 leyan chapel at AJdershot, where it now is."' In 

 1 83 1 Tilford House passed into the possession of 

 Anne, vrife of Mr. Martin Ware and daughter of 

 Mr. Tayler, to whom Mrs. Abney had left the 

 property."' Their son, James Ware, died un- 

 married in igo2,'" and the estate descended to 

 his nephew, the present owner, the Rev. Martin 

 S. Ware.'" 



In 1852 a great part of the common of Tilford 

 and the waste of the manor of Farnham was 

 allotted to the bishop and to the holders of land 

 and owners of houses in Tilford. Part of the 



dows. It consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle,'" 

 porch, and western bell-gables in supposed thir- 

 teenth century style. There is a handsome timber 

 lychgate. The teredos is in memory of Mist 

 Charlotte Smith, who resided for a short lime at 

 Tilford House, and who had a reputation as a poet. 



A Congregational church which has been built 

 close by may be considered the centre of a con- 

 gregation which really represents the Presbyterian 

 gathering at Tilford House. 



WRECCLESHAM tithing lies south-west of 

 Farnham and extended formerly across the Hamp- 

 shire border into Alice Holt forest. The river 

 VJey flowing south of the Pilgrims' Road seems to 

 have formed the north-western boundary of the 

 ancient tithing. In all the early rent rolls of the 

 bishops of Winchester Wrecclesham appears as a 

 tithing of Farnham manor, and as owing a rent 

 from certain tenements called ' Castle rent.' '»» 



A considerable village has grown up round 



Tilford. 



Green vrith the Great Oak was allotted to the 

 bishop as trustee for the preservation of the oak, 

 and the rest of the Green, west of the road to 

 Churt, as a recreation ground for the village."' 



By a simultaneous arrangement between the 

 bishop and Mr. Martin Ware 4 acres of the 

 Tilford House copyhold estate were set apart for 

 a new church, vicarage, and schools.'" In 1865 

 Tilford with the vill of Waverley was erected into 

 an ecclesiastical parish. A temporary church, 

 which had been built in 1852, was superseded in 

 1867 by the present church of All Saints, built on 

 the west side of the road south of the river. This 

 is of ironstone, vrith Bath stone coigns and vrin- 



Wrecclesham, and a pottery is established there 

 where the manufacture of the ' green pots ' '" is 

 still carried on. The enclosures round and near 

 the cottages were originally in most cases en- 

 croachments on the waste of Farnham manor, but 

 have been legalised by grants in the court baron.'*" 

 The eastern part of the tithing takes its name from 

 the stream called Bourne or Winterbourne,'*' 

 which flows through it in its course from Alice 

 Holt forest to join the Wey just below Moor 

 Park.'" 



The modern ecclesiastical district of WREC- 

 CLESHAM formed in 1840 includes the ancient 

 tithing of Runwick north of the S^ty, with Willey 



'^ Mrs. Elizabeth Abney was one of 

 the children to whom Dr. Watta in- 

 scribed his Divine and Moral Songs 

 for Children. Dr. Watts was dead 

 before the family came to Tilford. 



i** Bishop Utterton, when vicar of 

 Farnham, proposed to Mr. Ware, the 

 owner of Tilford House, that the chapel 

 should be used for church service 

 pending the building of a district 

 church. The suggestion was not fol- 

 lowed. In 1857 Mr. Ware offered to 

 lend the pulpit for use in a temporary 

 church, but the offer was refused for 

 want of room. 



'" Information from Charles Tayler 

 Ware, Esq., and the Rev. Martin S. 

 Ware. 



>32 Ibid. 



133 Ibid. 



13* Ibid. 



•35 Act for Inclosure, 8 and q Vict. c. 

 n8. 



'38 Information from Charles Tayler 

 Ware, Esq., and papers at Tilford 

 Vicarage. 



'37 Added in 1899. 



'38 Eccl. Com. Rent. R. Bpric. of 

 Winton. 



13» See ante, p. 583. 



594 



^^^ Manning and Bray, ui. 140, and 

 local information. 



1*^ The name is a common one for 

 an intermittent stream which breaks 

 out above the surface only under the 

 influence of autumn and winter rains. 

 Contrary to the usual rule, it seems to 

 be a more constant stream now than it 

 used to be, possibly from the more care- 

 ful draining of Alice Holt Forest into a 

 pond at its source. 



1" The lower course of the Bourne 

 is between Dogfiud and Compton titb* 

 ings on the left bank and Tilford on the 

 right. 



