FARNHAM HUNDRED 



and flint with ashlar dressings of local sandstone. 

 The roofs are now tiled, but it appears that for- 

 merly they were of Horsham slate."" The tower 

 is of the fifteenth century and has three stages with 

 heavy angle buttresses, a square parapet, and low 

 pitched tiled roof. It is possible that the two 

 lower stages are older than the highest. The 

 second stage has small single lights in the west and 

 south sides, the latter being hidden by ivy. The 

 belfry or highest stage has a \vindow of two lights 

 with a quatrefoil in the head on each side. 



The church, when built in 1239, consisted of a 

 chancel and nave, and possibly a western tower. The 

 lancet wrindow in the north wall of the chancel is of 

 this date. It was formerly blocked by a fine early 

 fourteenth century 

 canopied tomb, con- 

 jecturally that of 

 John Bel, who was 

 living in 1326, of 

 which the flanking 

 crocketed pinnacles 

 and shafts alone re- 

 main. It had a shelf 

 with an arched recess 

 below. A fourteenth 

 century grave slab of 

 a priest has been 

 placed here. On 

 the south side of the 

 chancel are two 

 modern two - light 

 windows, with a 

 plain doorway be- 

 tween retaining 

 some old stones. 

 There are a plain 

 piscina of the thir- 

 teenth century and 

 a locker at the end of 

 this wall. A part of 

 the wall of the north 

 chapel, which was 

 used as a vestry in 

 1797 and is now 

 filled by the organ, b 

 old. The present 

 vestry was added 

 about 1852, but the 

 doorway into it 



seems to be the old outer door of the north 

 chapel. The north aisle, and the arcade of four 

 bays with round arches and foliated capitals, 

 are of local work and were erected in 1827,"' at 

 the expense of Mr. Cravirford Davison of Pierre- 

 pont. The south doorway is probably thirteenth 

 century much patched ; it has a plain semi-circular 

 head and jambs vnth a small chamfer. The 

 wooden door and some of the woodwoit of the 

 porch axe of an early date. The nave roof is four- 

 teenth or fifteenth centtuy with cambered tie- 

 beams, and collared rafters with pole-piece. 



Frensham Church. 



^l» Genu, Mag^ 1797, pt. ii. p. 1085. 



^' Diocesan Returns at Farnham. 

 Something was also done to the church in 

 1852 (ibid,), perhaps the vestry added. 



IW This font 



pared with the fonu at Thurslejr and 

 Seale. 



1" Genu. Mag. plate 1797. 



615 



FRENSHAM 



The lowest storey of the tower opens to tlie 

 church by a lofty pointed arch of two hollow cham- 

 fered orders with octagonal capitals, responds and 

 bases of local type. In the west wall is a three- 

 light window with tracery as old as 1797, when it 

 is shown in a view of the church in the Gentleman's 

 Magazine, but not ancient, with a four-centred 

 doorway below. At the south-east corner is a 

 stair in a boldly projecting buttress, entered from 

 inside the tower by an early doorway, with its 

 original oak door and ironwork, which looks earlier 

 than the upper part of the tower. 



There is an ancient square font, whicli dates 

 from the latter part of the twelfth century, and 

 was probably brought from the earlier church. 

 It is of Purbeck 

 marble, on a round 

 stem and angle shafts 

 which were formerly 

 plain cylinders, but 

 have been replaced 

 by ill-designed shafts 

 with capitals and 

 bases.iis On the 

 north and south 

 sides of the bowl are 

 traces of a pattern of 

 arcading of shallow 

 round arches ; on the 

 east and west the 

 relief is nearly ob- 

 hterated, but it was 

 not the same as on 

 the other sides. The 

 font is much wea- 

 ther - worn, having 

 lain in the church- 

 yard from some 

 period unknown till 

 1875. There are 

 five bells in the 

 tower. 



There used to be 

 a gallery lighted by 

 a south dormer win- 

 dow,*" which was 

 removed in 1875 

 when the church was 

 restored. The lec- 

 tern and other wood- 

 «»mng were then executed by Miss Moultrie, of 

 at. Austins, Frensham, 



Aubrey says that in his day there was a screen 

 surmounted by the arms of Arundel of Wardour 

 which no longer exists. There are no ancient 

 monuments m the church. 



■niere is a silver cup with London haU-marks of 

 1716. Round the bowl is the inscription 'Ex 

 dono Henna Salmon Generosi in usum Ecclesiae 

 Parochiahs de Frencham in Com. Surrij Ano. 

 Dom. 1717.' Henry Salmon was buried in the 

 Chancel of Frensham Church in I7i7.i!0 There 

 should be 



. '" "« J'"' on ig April, 17,7. 

 Aubrey, Pcrambulamn of Surrey, i.i, 



