FARNHAM HUNDRED 



the earliest evidence of date afforded by existing 

 portions of the architecture.'" The original 

 chapel consisted of a chancel 22 ft. by 11 ft., a 

 nave 53 ft. by 21 ft., and a low shingled belfry 

 spire at the west end supported on very solid oak 

 timbers axe dressed. The large corner buttresses 

 at the west end look as if they were intended to 

 support some heavier structure. The ladder up 

 to the belfry is of one baulk of oak cut into steps. 

 Of the fourteenth century are the plain round- 

 headed door now blocked in the chancel, the 

 pointed chancel arch, the middle window in the 

 north wall of the nave, and the lancet westward of 

 it." The east window of three lights was in- 

 serted at the end of the fifteenth or early in the 

 sixteenth century. The present glass in it is 

 modern, but there are some fragments of old glass 

 from it now preserved in the vestry. The eastern- 

 most window in the north wall of the nave was 

 inserted at the same time. At a later date a western 

 gallery was added. Some alterations were carried 

 out in 1845, when the north porch was repaired by 

 the village carpenter, the 

 west window was prob- 

 ably inserted, and part 

 of the gallery taken down. 

 In 1871-2 the vestry and 

 organ chamber were 

 added on the south side 

 of the chancel, and the 

 south aisle (separated 

 from the nave by an ar- 

 cading of five bays with 

 pointed arches) and the 

 south porch were built, 

 the remains of the western 

 gallery being at the same 

 time removed. 



The roof of the nave 

 is open, with heavy tim- 

 bered tie beams. One of 

 these had been cut away 

 to give head room in the 



gallery, and was replaced in 1 871-2. The roof of 

 the chancel is round and plastered, with modern 

 decorations. Manning and Bray say that it was 

 decorated with ' a pelican in her piety,' the arms 

 of Bishop Fox (i 501-15 28), and with fleurs-de-lys 

 and a cross fleury, all in plaster. It is possible 

 that the church was restored in Bishop Fox's time, 

 and that the more easterly of the north windows is 

 of his date. ' Some distance ' west of the chancel 

 arch the foundations of an old wall have been 

 discovered. It is possible that the original chapel 

 was only the present chancel, extending westward 

 to this wall ; unless this cross wall carried a rood 

 screen outside the chancel. 



The font in 181 1 was cylindrical and of sand- 

 stone,i8 but has disappeared. The present font 

 was given by Bishop Sumner in 1845, before which 

 time the late incumbent, the Rev. J. R. Charles- 

 worth, instituted in 1 854, has heard that the chil- 



ELSTED 



dren were baptized from a china basin placed on 

 the Communion Table. At the same date, 1845, 

 a second ' barrel ' was given to the organ, which 

 did duty till 1 87 1-2. The old barrel organ is still 

 preserved in the village. 



There is a silver chalice with London hall-marks 

 of circa 1760, much defaced, and a silver paten, 

 with marks defaced except the maker's, which 

 appear to be T. W. C. W., and which the Rev. T. 

 S. Cooper, author of the Church Plate of Surrey, 

 conjectures to be the mark of Thomas Whipham 

 and Charles Wright, entered in 1757. There is 

 also a pewter flagon. 



There were three bells. One had the inscrip- 

 tion ' Bryanus Eldridge fecit me 1653,' another 

 'John Bayley, John Martin C. W.Richard Phelps 

 made me 1717.' There is an entry in the church- 

 wardens' accounts for recasting the bell in 1653, 

 £Z ip. One of these was broken, another sold 

 by the churchwardens. The third was recast, 

 and two new bells added by the late incumbent 

 in 1865. 





The Wool Pack 



Elsted. 



The Advowson was property in the hands of the 

 archdeacon as rector of Farnham, but in accord- 

 ance with the custom by which the tithes of Farn- 

 ham and of the separate districts were leased, the 

 appointment and the pay of a curate were in the 

 hands of the lessee of the tithes. In 1725, Martin 

 Gruchy, curate, who was also curate of Scale, re- 

 ported that the population was about 300, that 

 Mr. WiUiam Bishop of Frensham, lessee of the 

 tithes, nominated to the curacy ; that there was 

 no dissenting chapel, no lecturer, no papist, ' and 

 but 2 or 3 anabaptists of small account.' There 

 was no endowed school, and no charity except 

 Mr. Smith's Charity for poor persons not relieved 

 by the parish. »» 



By an arrangement made in 1864, and confirmed 

 by Order in Council 29 Novemljer, 1865,2'' the 

 tithes were restored to ecclesiastical use, when the 

 last of the lessees, Mr. Rumball, died in 1868. 



" Elsted Church, Surr. Arch. 

 ii. 195. 



Coll. " There were formerly two similar 



lancets on the south side. 



'8 Compare that at Thursley. 



607 



•° Returns at Farnham Castle. 

 2" See under Farnham. 



