A HISTORY OF SURREY
��BISLEY
��Busheley and Bussley (xiii cent.) ; Bisteleye (xvi cent.).
Bisley is one of the smallest parishes in Surrey, though now one of the most famous. It is 4 miles north-west from Woking. It is bounded on the north and west by Chobham, on the east by Horsell, on the south by Woking and Pirbright. It contains 922 acres, and measures barely a mile from east to west and a mile and a quarter from north to south. It lies on the Bagshot Sands (Bracklesham Beds) with some strips of alluvial soil by the little streams which run down from the peat bogs of Chobham Ridges. Bisley Common is a large open space adjoining the open ground of Chobham and Pirbright.
The place has become notable as the home, since 1890, of the National Rifle Association, which, with the War Office, owns most of the land. The estab- lishment and ranges for the great rifle-shooting competitions ' are in Bisley parish, and are connected by a short branch railway with the main London and South Western Railway line at Brookwood station. The ranges, however, and the ground utilized extend into Chobham and Pirbright.
The Inclosure Act, inclosing common fields, was passed in 1836, but the final award was not made till 6 August 1858.'
Near the church of St. John the Baptist is an ancient holy well, called St. John's Well, where according to tradition the children used to be baptized. It has recently been protected a little by a wooden cover. Bisley Farm School, in connexion with the National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute children, was opened by Lord Shaftesbury in 1868. In 1873 the Shaftesbury School in connexion with the same charity was opened, and in 1874 a chapel for their joint use. About 300 boys are accommodated. The schools (National) were built in 1 847, rebuilt in 1860, and taken over by a school board from 1893 to 1 899. They are now again unprovided.
BISLET was included within Chobham MANOR in the charter of Chertsey ascribed to 673, and is mentioned among the lands of the monastery in 967 when King Edgar confirmed their possessions to them. 3 No mention of it occurs in the Domesday Survey,** but in 1284 the hamlet of Bisley was held of the abbey of Chertsey by Geoffrey de Lucy, as parcel of the manor of Byfleet. 4 Geoffrey, son of Geoffrey de Lucy, conveyed Bisley with Byfleet to Henry de Leybourne in 1297.* Henry de Leybourne held Byfleet, and presumably Bisley, up to 1305." Soon after it must have passed into the king's hands with Byfleet (q.v.), although some rent from land in Bisley remained due to the monastery, as the account of the possessions of Chertsey Abbey in the reign of Henry VIII includes the entry ' Waybragge and Bysteley z8/."
In 1298 while Leybourne was still in possession,
��he enfeoffed Hugh de Smerhulle of 54 acres of land, 2 acres of meadow, and 4 acres of wood in Bisley.* Hugh de Smerhulle in his turn enfeoffed Amice de Chabenham and Thomas her son of these lands in 1305, and in 1318 they granted them to John and Agnes Darderne, who in I 324 were ejected by the king's bailiff. At the instance, however, of Queen Isabella, to whom Bisley, as part of the manor of Byfleet, had been assigned in 1327, these lands were restored to John and Agnes Darderne in 1328.'
After Bisley, described as a hamlet and member or parcel of the manor of Byfleet, had passed with the latter into the possession of the Crown, it followed the history of this manor (q.v.) until the reign of James I. In 1620 a grant was made to Sir Edward Zouch of ' the customary tenements in Bisley, part of the manor of Byfleet,' and also of 'perquisites and profits of the courts of Bisley.' 10 This is the first reference which suggests that Bisley was recog- nized as an independent manor. Certainly as late as 1540 courts had been held at Byfleet for 'Byfleet with Bisley,' " but it is possible that the court baron of Bisley had really always been nominally distinct, and that on the occasion of the first independent grant of the manor its pleas and profits were separated from those of Byfleet in fact as well as in name. In its subsequent history, which is in no way connected with that of Byfleet, it is usually referred to as a manor and is held as such at present. The grant to Sir Edward Zouch included the manors of Woking, Chobham, and Bagshot. Henceforth the descent of Bisley is identical with that of these manors, and all are now in the possession of the Earl of Onslow."
The church of ST. JOHN THE
CHURCH BAPTIST is a small building consisting
of a chancel 20 ft. loin, by 13 ft. 8 in.,
south vestry, nave 376. 6 in. by i8ft. 2 in., north
aisle 6 ft. wide and a west porch of wood.
The nave is probably that of a 1 2th-century building, but no details of that or even of the two following centuries are left ; in the south wall is a ijth-century inserted window, which is almost the only old feature remaining. The present chancel is modern ; the former one was of brick and timber of 15th-century origin, but fell into a dilapidated state and the arch into it from the nave was closed up. In 1872 the present chancel was built and the church enlarged by the addition of the north aisle.
A tradition still remains in the village that the time for elevating the Host at High Mass was de- pendent upon the moment at which a sunbeam shining through a south window reached a particular spot on the north side of the nave.
The chancel is of brick and is lighted by three eastern lancets and two in the north wall. The chancel arch is modern of two orders of which the inner is carried by corbel shafts. The north arcade
��*See y.C.H. Surr. ii, 149-50.
- Blue Bk. Commons Ind. Awards.
8 Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 470. See Surr. Arch. Call, xxi, 206.
83 It was possibly then included in Chobham as King Edgar's charter (men- tioned above) puts Chobham and Bisley together.
��4 Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, no. 16.
4 Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 10.
'Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 Edw. I, file 116, no. 214.
TVahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 56.
i Cal. Close, 1327-30, p. 292. 9 Ibid.
"Pat. 1 8 Jas. I, pt. vi, m. I ; ibid. 23 Chas. II, pt. ix, no. 6, m. 22-8.
398
��11 Ct. R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 12, no. 19.
"Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 1 6 & 17 Geo. II ; Pat. 23 Chas. II, pt. ix, no. 6, m. 22-8 ; 22 Geo. II, pt. ii, m. 14 ; Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 25 & 26 Geo. II ; Close 26 Geo. II. pt. iii, m. 9 ; Recov. R. Hil. 49 Geo. Ill ; vidt Woking, &c.
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