ST. MARTHA'S or CHILWORTH
St. Martha's (1291); (fn. 1) St. Martha and All Holy
Martyrs, and Martyr's Hill (1464); Martha Hill
(1468); Marters Hill (1538); St. Martha on the
Hill (1589).
St. Martha's is a small parish, now ecclesiastically
merged in Albury, 2 miles south-east of Guildford,
bounded on the north by Stoke and Merrow, on the
west by Shalford, on the south by Wonersh, on the
east by Albury. It contains 1,060 acres. Its greatest
length north to south is under 2 miles, its greatest
breadth on the northern border is under a mile and
a half. The soil is chalk in the north, on the downs,
but most of it is on the Greensand, which rises in
St. Martha's Hill to 570 ft. above the sea. The hill,
crowned by what is now called the chapel of St.
Martha, is abrupt and isolated, forming a more
conspicuous object than the height, which is surpassed
by the hills to the south of it, would indicate. It is
higher than the chalk down to the north of it, and
the views from it south-west towards Hindhead, and
eastward along the valley to Albury and Shere, are
among the most picturesque in the county.
The valley to the south of the hill, through which
the Tillingbourne flows, has for long been the seat of
industries dependent upon the good water-power
supplied by the stream. There was a mill in Domesday, a corn-mill and a fulling-mill in 1589, (fn. 2) and from
before that date gunpowder mills, which still continue. (fn. 3)
There was a paper-mill which was burnt down in
1896 and has never been rebuilt. Cobbett, in his
Rural Rides, has a remark, often quoted, upon the
extreme beauty of this valley as God made it, and its
pollution by the two worst inventions of the Devil,
gunpowder and bank-notes being manufactured in it.
Postford Mill is on the boundary of this parish
and of Albury. The road from Guildford to Dorking
and the Reading branch of the South Eastern Railway
traverse the southern end of the parish; Chilworth
and Albury station, opened 1849, is just inside it.
An ancient bridle way from the ferry over the
Wey at St. Catherine's Hill, through the Chantry
Woods, and over St. Martha's Hill, close by the
church, and so down to Albury, has been generally
identified with the Pilgrims' Way. The line,
straight over the top of a steep isolated hill which
might have been easily turned upon either side, does
seem to indicate some ancient route to some object of
interest upon the hill. If to the church, the Holy
Martyr, St. Thomas of Canterbury, one of the
patrons of Newark Priory, to which the church was
appropriated, whose shrine at Canterbury travellers
here might be seeking, may have superseded St.
Martha in popular language as the patron of the
hill.
Neolithic flint implements and flakes are of more
than usually abundant occurrence on this road, on
the hill and in the fields to the north of it. On the
hill, near the top and towards the southern side, were
several curious earth-circles about 28 to 30 yds. in
diameter marked by a slight mound and ditch. The
best was destroyed a few years ago by the Hambledon
District Council, who made a reservoir on the hill to
which water is pumped to supply houses on Blackheath.
The persons responsible for the work made no effort to
observe or record any discoveries. The next best marked
lies nearly due south of the church. To the south-west is
another, fairly well marked, but much overgrown by
heather, ferns, and fir trees. The fourth, nearly obliterated, is south-east of the church. South-west of the
church marks in the ground visible in a dry season
may indicate nearly obliterated hut-circles. Small flint
implements are to be found in them scratched out by
rabbits. At the western foot of the hill, near the road
opposite Tyting, is a large barrow with trees upon it,
which has, apparently, never been disturbed. On the
north side of St. Martha's Hill lies the old farm-house
of Tyting, which from the period of the Domesday
Survey belonged to the Bishops of Exeter. It stands
in a quaint old-world herb-garden, and still retains a
small oratory with a group of three lancets in chalk,
probably of early 13th-century date.
Chilworth is an erroneous name for the parish. It
is an ancient manor, and the few houses usually called
Chilworth are partly in St. Martha's and partly in
Shalford parishes. Of modern houses Lockner Holt
and Brantyngeshay in the part of the parish which
reaches Blackheath to the south are the residences of
Mrs. Sellar and Mr. H. W. Prescott, respectively.
The elementary school was opened in 1873. There
are one or two old houses in the hamlet of Chilworth.
Some of these are probably due to the settlement here
in Elizabeth's reign of workmen employed under Sir
Polycarp Wharton in the manufacture of gunpowder.
MANORS
There are two reputed manors in St.
Martha—Chilworth, to the south, and
Tyting, to the north, of St. Martha's Hill.
CHILWORTH (Celeorde, xi cent.; Cheleworth, xiii
and xiv cents.) was held by Alwin under Edward the
Confessor, and after the Conquest came with Bramley,
in which it lay, into the hands of Odo, Bishop of
Bayeux. (fn. 4) It was afterwards held of the lords of
Bramley by the tenants of Utworth Manor (fn. 5) (q.v.), with
which it descended till 1614, at which date Sir John
Morgan, who was knighted at Cadiz in 1596, (fn. 6) sold
Utworth but retained Chilworth. (fn. 7) Sir John's
daughter Anne married Sir Edward Randyll, (fn. 8) whose
son Sir Morgan Randyll, kt., was seised of the manor
in 1640–1, when he was proved insane. (fn. 9) His
brother, Vincent Randyll, succeeded him. (fn. 10) His son
Morgan Randyll, who was for some years member of
Parliament for Guildford, sold the manor in 1720 to
Richard Houlditch, a director of the South Sea
Company. (fn. 11) After the company's failure the directors' lands were sold to indemnify its victims. The estates
of Richard Houlditch were
purchased by Sarah, Dowager
Duchess of Marlborough, who
bequeathed them to her grandson John, Earl Spencer, (fn. 12) who
was succeeded in 1746 by his
son John, afterwards Viscount
Althorp. (fn. 13) His son sold the
manor in 1796 to Edmund
Hill, (fn. 14) from whom it passed
to William Tinkler, whose son
William owned it in 1841. (fn. 15)
It was sold in 1845, together
with Weston in Albury, to
Mr. Henry Drummond, and is now in the possession
of the Duke of Northumberland. (fn. 16)
Spencer, Earl Spencer. Argent quartered with gules fretty or over all a bend sable with three scallops argent thereon.
On the south side of St. Martha's Hill stands the
manor-house of Chilworth, which has an ornamental
brick gable and porch. On the site of this was a cell
belonging to the priory of Newark, and St. Martha's
was probably always served by a canon resident
here. Their large walled and terraced gardens and
stewponds for fish still remain.
TYTING
TYTING (Tetinges, xi cent; Titing, xiii cent.) was
held by Elmer the Huntsman before the Conquest, and
afterwards became a possession
of Bishop Osbern of Exeter,
who had been chaplain to
Edward the Confessor. (fn. 17) It
was held by the successive
Bishops of Exeter till 1548.
In 1234–5 John le Chanu
and his wife Katherine quitclaimed to William Bishop of
Exeter Katherine's rights in
a carucate of land in Tyting. (fn. 18) From time to time this
manor was assessed among the
Bishop's temporalities. (fn. 19) In
August 1549 John Veysey,
then Bishop of Exeter, sold the freehold to Thomas
Fisher. (fn. 20) He shortly afterwards conveyed it to
Henry Polsted, (fn. 21) whose son Richard, together with
William Morgan, was in possession in 1571. (fn. 22) He
married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William More of
Loseley, and had from him an assignment of a ninetynine years' lease which Sir William and Henry Weston
are said to have acquired in February 1566–7. (fn. 23)
Richard Polsted died in 1576, (fn. 24) and in the next year
Francis Polsted alienated Tyting to Sir William
More, probably as trustee for Elizabeth (Polsted), (fn. 25) but
William Morgan's interest still continued, for in 1602
he died seised of lands and tenements called 'Titing.' (fn. 26)
See of Exeter. Gules St. Paul's sword erect surmounted by St. Peter's keys crossed saltirewise.
Early in the same century both Sir George More,
son of Sir William More, and Ann Randyll, granddaughter of William Morgan, joined with George
Duncombe in a conveyance of the manor to John
Astrete or Street, (fn. 27) who is said to have been holding
the estate in 1602. (fn. 28) He was succeeded by his son
John. (fn. 29) John Street and George Duncombe conveyed
to Francis Williamson in 1637. He sold to Vincent
Rundyn, and the latter to George Duncombe of
Albury, who by his will of 1672 left in it trust for his
family, Richard Symmes being one of the trustees. (fn. 30)
Manning and Bray say that it was conveyed in 1710
to Abraham Woods, from the trustees of whose son
William it came to Philip Carteret Webb, in 1747.
From Mr. Webb it descended to his son, John Smith
Webb, (fn. 31) who sold it to Robert Austen of Shalford, (fn. 32)
in whose family it still remains.
CHURCH
ST. MARTHA'S Chapel
ST. MARTHA'S Chapel, (fn. 33) a wellknown landmark for all the country side,
stands upon the summit of a ridge of
Greensand, about 570 ft. above the sea. Although called
a chapel, it seems always to have possessed the rights of
a parish church; and it is probably to be identified
with one of the three churches mentioned in Domesday as standing on the manor of Bramley, then held
by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who may well have built
the original of the present building. The site itself
is an extremely ancient one, and several circular earthworks still remain on St. Martha's Hill.
The building as we now see it is largely of modern
date, an object-lesson of the mischievous results of
fanciful restoration, the nave, which had long lain in
ruins, being rebuilt in a pseudo-'Norman' style, and
the chancel and transept largely reconstructed in
1848. The chancel and transepts had remained
intact until about 1846, although the nave was a
roofless ruin, and only fragments of the large west
tower existed; but in that year part of the roof fell
in and services were suspended. The then Lord
Loraine co-operated with two other neighbouring
county gentlemen, Mr. H. Currie, of West Horsley,
and Mr. R. A. C. Godwin Austen, of Shalford, to
rebuild the ruined nave and restore the eastern limb,
the last fragments of the western tower being at the
same time removed. This tower, which seems to
have been very massive and large, is shown in ruins
in the engraving published in Grose's Antiquities, from
a sketch taken in 1763, (fn. 34) it having been thrown down
by a severe explosion at the Chilworth gunpowder
factories in that year. This view shows part of the
vault (apparently a plain quadripartite one without
ribs) as then existing, and beneath is a circular squareedged arch opening into the nave. The simple character
of this arch, which was devoid of ornament except
for a chamfered impost at the springing, suggests that
it may have been part of Bishop Odo's work of the
last decades of the 11th century; and a small round-headed window in the south wall of the nave, shown
in Cracklow's view of 1824, coincides very well with
this date. There seems to have been a plain early
doorway in the north and south walls, features that
together with the windows have been reproduced in
some sort in the new work. The nave, built on the
old foundations, measures 45 ft. in length by 15 ft. 1 in.
at the west, and 16 ft. at the east; the central crossing, 12 ft. 6 in. by 13 ft. 6 in. wide; the north
transept, 11 ft. 8 in. by 12 ft., and the south transept,
12 ft. 8 in. by 12 ft.; while the chancel is 23 ft.
long by 16 ft. 8 in. The thickness of the present west
wall (3 ft. 6 in.) represents that of the walls of the destroyed western tower. The transept and crossing
walls are 2 ft. 3 in. on an average.
Plan of St. Martha's or Chilworth Church
The authority for the present central tower is
very questionable, and in any case its 'Norman' style
is out of keeping with the plain early pointed arches
on which it stands, parts of which are original work
of circa 1190.
Probably the first chancel was apsidal, and this
square space represented the quire.
There is no window in the west wall of the north
transept or the north wall of the chancel, and all the
other windows are restorations. It is on record that
foundations were discovered in the ground to the
east of the transepts, probably those of chapels, perhaps
apsidal. Three aumbries were found in the chancel, and
two stone coffin-lids, with floriated crosses, much worn,
were dug up, and now lie on the floor of the chancel.
Two buttresses against the south wall of the chancel
are probably not mediaeval, but a sort of buttress
projection in the angle between that wall and the
east wall of the south transept was possibly made to
allow of a squint being pierced from the transept to
command the high altar.
There is reason to believe that the barrel-shaped
font, of sandstone, is the one described by Manning
and Bray as at Elstead Church, whence it had disappeared before 1845. The St. Martha's font was
brought 'from another church,' where it had been
thrown out into the churchyard in 1849, and the
carving added on the spot. The original was early
Norman, like that at Thursley. (fn. 35)
The silver cup and paten bear the London hallmarks of 1780.
The bells are all modern.
An iron church in Chilworth hamlet was built in
1896 and is served from Shalford.
ADVOWSON
St. Martha's was probably one of
the three churches appurtenant to
Bramley in 1087, (fn. 35a) and the advowson
alienated by the lord of Bramley, at the time when
Chilworth was granted out to
the lords of Utworth, for Elias
of Utworth (fn. 36) owned late in the
12th century, and granted it to
the Priory of St. Thomas the
Martyr at Aldebury. (fn. 37) The
priory retained the advowson
until its surrender in 1538. (fn. 38)
In the episcopal registers of
1463 record is kept of an indulgence granted to pilgrims to,
or benefactors of, the church of
St. Martha and All Holy Martyrs. (fn. 39) After the surrender of
the priory the advowson seems
to have become the property of
the lords of Chilworth Manor,
with which it has since descended.
The church in 1291 is called ecclesia not capella,
and the canons of Newark were endowed with all
the usual parochial revenues in 1262. (fn. 40) They presented a vicar previous to 1330, (fn. 41) and as late as
1412. (fn. 42) Latterly it was a donative, probably from
the time of the Dissolution, and an annuity was
paid to a curate by the patron. The duty was
usually done by the incumbent of some neighbouring parish or his curate. The registers are in
consequence imperfect, entries being in existence
in Wonersh, Albury, and elsewhere referring to
St. Martha's; but there is a register with some
entries of baptisms and burials from 1779, and of
marriages from 1794. Since 1849 it has been
attached to Albury, and the rector of Albury, the
Rev. H. E. Crossley, was instituted by the Bishop
of Winchester as rector of Albury and vicar of St.
Martha's in 1904.