Astoft

Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey  -  St Mary's Church

Click on photos to enlarge.
Notes in italics from Surrey by Ian Nairn and Nikolaus Pevsner, Revised by Bridget Cherry (1971), Yale University Press, New Haven and London.


Dscn0506-crop-graddodge-u1-h600-u0.5t5-q50.jpg (70489 bytes) BRASSES. Sir John d'Abernon died 1277, the oldest English brass, 6ft6in. long and monumental, with the same superiority in quality over the average C15 brass as the best C13 tombs have over C15 shop-work. Knight in armour, full face, carrying a lance ... Everything completely realized in terms of a single plane and an etcher's line. Shield still coloured blue; it was enamelled on copper and inserted separately.
Feet resting on lion not shown.		 Dscn0507-crop-graddodge-u1t3-h600-u0.5t3-q50.jpg (61253 bytes) Sir John, his son, died 1327, next to him. Already a decline, the figure smaller (although still 5 ft long) and fussier, under an ogee canopy. 


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The church was heavily restored in mid-Victorian times, including the new west end, tower and north transept seen here, and all the roofs.

 Dscn0515-u150-2-540.jpg (66971 bytes) South porch

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Attributed to an early Anglo-Saxon date .... a doorway high up in the S wall which, if the attribution is correct, led no doubt into a wooden W gallery ... The S wall incorporates a lot of Roman bricks.

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Of c.1190 the two easternmost bays of the N aisle, of a type which is not common in Surrey, though it is in Hants: slightly chamfered pointed arches in simple, square, many-scalloped capitals and round piers.
Westernmost bay (left) added in Victorian times.

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Oak chest of crusaders, 13th century.

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New chancel arch replaced a Saxon one.
The two-bay chancel with quadripartite rib-vaulting is of c.1250.
Fragments of C13 painting of an Adoration of the Lamb on east wall. The east window is new.

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Very good work, keeping two original window splays on the S side, exactly adjusted to the size of the vaulting bays (renewed outside). Elegantly moulded ribs and transverse arch. 
No ornament except one band of dog-tooth between two rolls of the transverse arch, a good example of the care taken with the design.
C13 floral patterns (surround of westernmost lancet on S side).

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The Norbury chapel, N of the chancel, is of c.1490 - perhaps as a thank-offering for Bosworth Field - in sloppy Late Perp (e.g the weak arch shapes of the windows on the N side).

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Monument Sir Thomas Vincent died 1613 and his wife (N wall of Norbury chapel).

 Dscn0508-levmid-u1-540-u0.5t3-q70.jpg (55755 bytes) Arch between Norbury Chapel and chancel

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Monument in the Norbury Chapel to Frances Lyfelde died 1592, with lengthy family trees. Small tablet incorporating a naturalistic Elizabethan brass. 

 

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