different handiwork, although the design has been kept in harmony with the chancel windows.
The church of the middle of the 14th century remains substantially unaltered, save for the insertion of windows in the nave and the rebuilding of the porches. A three-light window, in the west wall of the aisle, of handsome character, with a deep hollow and recessed tracery, dates from the last quarter of the 14th century. Another, of two lights, with a square head, in the west gable of the nave is of an ordinary 15th-century type; and a third, in the south wall of the aisle, of three lights, with an ugly flat segmental head, is dated by the inscription on a brass remaining in the south aisle: 'Pray for the soullis of Olever Sandes and Ione his wife, ye which made this wyndow and this auter, which Olev' dyed ye VII. day of Noveber, ye yer of Our Lord mvxii, on whos soll Jhū have m'cy.' There was another window, of later date, high up in the north wall of the nave, near its eastern end, but this has been renewed in a quasi-13th-century style in recent years. The window in the south aisle to the cast of that of 1512 is a two-light nondescript opening, originally a lancet, with a square mullion and jambs, probably of 18th-century date, to which period the quaint external door to the gallery with its flight of steps, to the east of the south porch, also belongs.
From the churchwardens' accounts[1] we learn that, in 1547, the porch—probably that at the west end—was renewed, and in spite of modern patchings the substance of this remains. The fine panelled door of the inner doorway, well studded with nails, and having a good key-plate, bears in the upper part a small shield of arms—two bends and a canton, impaling a bend—with the date 1626. At the north-west angle of the nave is a huge tapering brick buttress, erected in the 18th century.
The south porch, although its roof appears to be of old timber, is of comparatively modern brickwork. The door of the inner doorway, rough oak-boarding nail-studded, is possibly of 12th-century date.
The ancient oak roofs, of plain character, remain throughout. Those of the chancel and Lady Chapel are of trussed collar construction. The interesting detail of the rafter ends of 12th-century date on the south side has been above noticed. In the tower is a fine bell-cage, probably as old as the 14th century, although altered in 1895 to admit two new bells. The doorway to the tower stairs has a door made up of the carved rails of some 17th-century pews. Of the chancel screen, concerning which we have the testimony in the churchwardens' accounts that it was made in the eighteenth year of Henry VII, there are no remains, but in Brandon's Parish Churches[2] it is described as then (1848) in existence—'a plain Perpendicular rood-screen with its doors.' No other ancient woodwork or mediaeval fittings remain, except the very interesting chest now in the south porch.[3] It bears a general resemblance to the one at Godalming, especially in the stop-chamfered framed ends, and the lid works with a pin-hinge. There is an elaborate locking arrangement, and inside are remains of two hutches for money and valuables. The date is about 1200, and it belongs to a group of early 13th-century chests that were probably made in obedience to the command of Pope Innocent III, to collect alms for the help of poor Crusaders.
The oak gallery at the west end is of 18th-century date.
The church must have been at one time rich in colour, judging from the fragments of wall-painting that remain. Practically all has been destroyed except a very graceful spray of vine pattern, painted in dark red on the soffit of the arch to the chancel east window.
In several windows there are remains of ancient glass, of 13th, 14th, and 15th-century dates. In the south aisle one of the lancets has some good square quarries of green glass, with a rose or cinquefoil within border-lines, coeval with, or only slightly later than, the early 13th-century opening. Another variety is diamond-shaped, with grisaille foliage patterns. In the quatrefoils and interspaces of the Lady Chapel and chancel east windows are the evangelistic symbols, the arms of England, Butler, Warenne, and Clare, and other ornaments contemporary with the early 14th-century stonework. These are some of the best of the little ancient glass left in Surrey. Other windows retain red roses, the Lancastrian badge, probably placed here by James, the second Earl of Ormond, in whose family the manor of Shiere was vested in the 15th century. The device of the Brays, who afterwards succeeded to the estates—the bray, or flax-crusher—appears on the quarries of another window.[4] In the great east window the lower lights are filled with good modern glass.
The ancient floor levels appear to have been preserved, together with a good deal of old stone-paving. There are two steps at the eastern tower arch, another at the access to the sanctuary, and two to the altar platform in the Lady Chapel. From the churchwardens' accounts we know that besides this altar and that of the high chancel there was an altar to St. Nicholas (perhaps that in the south aisle), and images of St. Anthony, St. Roche, St. John the Baptist, and our Lady of Pity.
Close to the west respond of the aisle arcade stands the beautiful font of Purbeck marble, mounted on a stone base-block and step. Its date may be either that of the south doorway—c. 1170—or of the aisle—c. 1200—probably the former. The upper part of the bowl is square with three scallopings, beneath which it changes into a circular form of a bold round section, and the parts left at the angles are carved into the foliated capitals of the four corner-shafts, which, with a stout central drum, support the bowl. These rest upon a continuous base-moulding, which
- ↑ Itm payed for the carryeng of tymbre to the Pytt and for ij. sawyers that dyd helpe lade yt for the new porch, ijs.
Itm payed to the sawyer for the sawyng of tymber for the porche, iiijs. viijd.
Itm payed for the sawying of the porche at another tyme, iiijs. iiijd.
Itm payed for naylles for the selles of the kastors of the porche, iijd.
Itm payed for the naylles for to tacte on the bordes, iiijd.
Itm for iij. lode of tymber for the porche, xijs.
Itm for the carryeng of the same tymber to the churche, xd.
Itm for expences in meatt and drynke when the old porche was taken downe and the settyng of the new porche up, xijd.
Itm payed to John Fraunces for the workyng and framyng of the porch, xxxs.
Itm for iiij. lytell bordei whyche was framyd in the porche, and for the tymber of the box, iiijd.
The last item refers to the 'poore men's boxe,' which was made in the same year, at a cost of vs. xjd. - ↑ Op. cit. 98.
- ↑ Described and illustrated in Arch. Journ. lxiv, 272, 273.
- ↑ Similar quarries, painted with the device of the Brays, are to be found at Stoke D'Abernon.
