EAST CLANDON
Clanedun (xi cent.); Clendon, and Clandon
Abbatis (xii cent.).
East Clandon is a small parish 5 miles east-by-north
of Guildford. It is bounded on the north by Send
and Ripley, on the east by West Horsley, on the south
by Shere and Albury, on the west by West Clandon.
It measures about 2 miles from north to south and
about a mile from west to east. It contains 1,444 acres.
The parish extends from the summit of the chalk
downs over the northern slope of the chalk and the
Thanet and Woolwich Beds on to the London Clay.
Clandon Downs on the chalk are still partly open
ground, and East Clandon Common to the north
is fairly well covered with oaks. The Guildford and
Epsom road (see West Clandon) runs through the
parish. The Guildford and Cobham line cuts the
northern part of it.
The village, which includes
several picturesque timbered
and thatched cottages, lies as
usual just on or below the
limit of the chalk.
Rendel, Lord Rendel of Hatchlands. Six pieces parted nebuly fessewise sable and argent with a ragged staff between two demi-lions in the chief and a demi-lion between two ragged staves in the foot all countercoloured.
Hatchlands, in East Clandon, is often spoken of as the
site of the old manor-house.
When Sir Thomas Heath conveyed the manor to Lord King,
in 1720, he retained this house.
His son Richard sold it, and
in 1749 it was bought by Admiral Boscawen. He pulled
down the old house and built
the present. After his death
it was sold to Mr. W. B. Sumner in 1770, and it continued
in the Sumner family for some generations. It is now
the property of Lord Rendel. It is extremely improbable that it was the site of the manor-house; the
name indicates a different property, and on the original
manor of the abbey, farmed by the villani (vide infra),
there was probably no manor-house at all.
High Clandon is the residence of Mr. F. B. Eastwood, who did much for the restoration of the church.
The schools (National) were opened in 1863, and
enlarged in 1902.
MANOR
The manor of EAST CLANDON
(Clandon Abbatis, xi-xiv cent.) is included among the estates which purport
to have been granted to Chertsey at the foundation in
675, but appears for the first time in the copy of the
charter ascribed to 727, (fn. 1) which is undoubtedly a later
edition and includes all the Chertsey lands of 1086,
some of which were certainly acquired long after 675.
At the time of the Survey the abbey was still holding, and it was recorded that under Edward the
Confessor the abbot had bought two hides in East
Clandon and 'laid them in the manor.' (fn. 2) In 1201
Martin, Abbot of Chertsey, granted the manor to
John Chaper for life, with reversion to the abbey. (fn. 3)
Otherwise the history of East Clandon during the
Middle Ages consists for the most part of a recital of
grants and licences for alienating lands in mortmain.
In 1537, after a reputed tenure of over eight hundred years, the abbey ceded East Clandon Manor
to the king. (fn. 4) In July 1544 Henry granted it to Sir
Anthony Browne, (fn. 5) who a few weeks later alienated it
to George Bigley and Elizabeth his wife. (fn. 6) George
Bigley's tenure was marked by a dispute in connexion
with the copyhold of certain lands in the manor, (fn. 7) but
seems to have been otherwise uneventful. He died
in 1558, leaving two daughters and co-heirs, Dorothy
and Mary; the manor, in default of issue, was
to remain to Edmund son of Richard Sutton, with
contingent remainders to his brothers John, James, and
Jasper. (fn. 8) At the death of Elizabeth Bigley, (fn. 9) some five
years later, Dorothy Bigley had become the wife of
Robert Gavell, while Mary had married Edward
Carleton. There is record of a fine in the year 1565
in which George Carleton and Edmund Sutton
appear as the plaintiffs, while Robert and Dorothy
Gavell with Edward and Mary Carleton defended. (fn. 10)
Probably this suit represented a division of property,
since the manor was afterwards in the possession of
the Carletons. Edward Carleton died in 1582, (fn. 11) and
in the inquisition taken at his death (fn. 12) his wife Mary
is mentioned as having been seised of the manor
jointly with him. (fn. 13) Their son Edward, who had
just come of age at the time of his father's death, (fn. 14)
evidently sold the property, and it came into the
hands of Francis Lord Aungier, who died seised of it
in 1632. (fn. 15) The Aungiers were Royalists and suffered
accordingly. From Gerard son of Francis Lord
Aungier it came into the possession of Thomas Earl
of Pembroke, whose son sold it in 1692 to Sir Richard
Heath of Hatchlands in East Clandon. (fn. 16) The Heath
family did not keep the manor long; it was conveyed
in 1718 under a private Act (fn. 17) by Sir Richard's sons
to Sir Peter King, (fn. 18) whose descendant, the Earl of
Lovelace, is the present owner.
Clandon gives an interesting case in Domesday of a
manor entirely in the hands of the tenants in villeinage. There is no demesne land mentioned,
but the villani paid rent. There was a small
separate holding in Clandon claimed by
Chertsey Abbey, the overlord of the main
part, but taken by Odo of Bayeux. John
de Rutherwyk, the stirring and reforming
Abbot of Chertsey, temp. Edward II and
Edward III, bought out the rights of the
villani in the common field called Siggeworth, 1315. But common fields continued
to exist at East Clandon, and are marked
on old maps. Between James and Malcolm's General View of the Agriculture of
Surrey, 1794, and Stevenson's General View
in 1809, 150 acres were inclosed at Clandon, perhaps the common fields of the
two Clandons. (fn. 19) But there is no reference
in Sir John Brunner's Return, 1903. In
this, however, the final award of the inclosure of the waste is noted on 21 May 1867.
CHURCH
The church of ST. THOMAS OF
CANTERBURY has a chancel 31 ft.
3 in. long by 18 ft. 8 in. wide, nave
36 ft. 4 in. by 20 ft. 5 in., a short north aisle 10 ft.
wide, with a vestry to the west of it, and a south porch;
all internal measurements.
The nave, which is short for its breadth, is evidently
of early origin, probably dating from the end of the
11th century; but no architectural details of the original building are left to give a clue to its exact age.
The building originally consisted of this nave and a
small chancel, but the latter was rebuilt and considerably enlarged about the year 1220, and a few years
later a north aisle with an arcade of two bays was
added. The western bay is now closed up, and there
is nothing to show when this was done; but it may
have occurred as far back as the 15th century, when
the present wooden bell-turret seems to have been
constructed.
The aisle is now modern, having been rebuilt in
1900, when the vestry also was added and the church
restored and re-seated.
In the east wall of the chancel are two 13th-century
lancet windows with splayed inner jambs and arches.
One of the external jamb stones of the south lancet
is made of the small pointed head of a rebated and
splayed lancet of very early 13th-century or late 12th-century date. On either side of the chancel are two
lancets contemporary with the east window, all four
more or less renewed. The pair on the north side have
plain square jambs and are very much patched. To
the south-west is a rectangular low side window with
chamfered jambs and lintel, inserted probably in the
14th century. Opposite to this is a blocked doorway
with a shouldered lintel, probably of the date of the
chancel.
The chancel arch, also of the same period, has chamfered jambs and a two-centred arch with a plain
chamfered label; the angles of the jambs have been
partly repaired with oak, and the abaci are now
entirely replaced by modern oak copies.
The arch to the north aisle has a half-round east
respond and a circular pillar partly buried for its west
respond; the filling in of the other bay is plastered
on both faces and shows no indication of a blocked
arch; the responds have moulded bases and capitals,
and the arch is a pointed one of two chamfered
orders with a grooved and hollow-chamfered label;
in the east respond is a vertical groove (now filled in)
showing where the arch was boarded up in later times.
A plain opening in the wall above, to the east of the
arch, is the passage-way to the former rood-loft from
the aisle, and contains several steps in the thickness of
the wall.
Plan of East Clandon Church
There are two windows in the south wall of the
nave; the first is a single trefoiled light near the east,
and was inserted presumably to light the pulpit; it is
modern externally, but has an old pointed hollowchamfered rear arch of clunch; the second is an insertion close to it dating from the 15th century and
consisting of three trefoiled lights much renewed
under a square head with a square-cut moulded label;
the jambs outside have been partly restored with
cement.
The south doorway appears to have been renewed
in chalk, and has a pointed head and jambs of a single
chamfered order. The west window is of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over in the pointed head,
and is entirely modern. Below it is a blocked late
16th-century doorway of two chamfered orders in
red brick with a four-centred arch.
In the north aisle is a small 13th-century piscina
next to the respond with a mutilated round basin. The
east window of the aisle is all modern except its inner
jambs, which are of chalk; it has two trefoiled lights
under a pointed head inclosing a quatrefoil. On the
north side are a doorway and a square window of two
lights, and at the west a doorway into the vestry, which
is lighted by a north window of two lights and a single
west light.
The walling of the nave is of flint and stone, some
of the flints in the south wall being set more or
less in herringbone fashion, and the masonry has a very
early look about it; this wall has been strengthened
by modern buttresses of brick and flint. The chancel
walls are also of unbroken flints, and have similar
modern buttresses.
The roofs of the chancel and nave are gabled and
have open collar trussed rafters, which were formerly
plastered on the under side. The aisle has a modern
lean-to roof. Above the west end of the nave is a
square wood bell-turret supported on posts from the
floor of the nave; the posts against the west wall are
old, but the eastern pair are modern; the turret is
covered with oak shingles and is crowned by a foursided spire, also shingled.
The altar table is a modern one of oak. The altar
rails, date from the last half of the 17th century
and have turned balusters of good section flanked by
scrolled brackets. A modern desk in the chancel also
contains some pieces of 17th-century carving of a
honeysuckle pattern. The pulpit is modern. The
font dates from the 18th century and is of stone,
with a small cup-shaped bowl on a turned baluster
stem.
There are three bells: the treble is a pre-Reformation
bell from the Reading foundry, c. 1500, inscribed
'Sancte Toma or'; the second is by Eldridge, 1679,
and the tenor by R. Phelps, 1737.
The communion plate includes an Elizabethan cup
and cover paten of 1569, also a cup of 1661; a paten
of 1776, a standing paten of 1675, of which it is possible that the foot is older than the top, and an electroplated paten of 1883.
The earliest book of the registers contains baptisms
from 1558 to 1707, marriages to 1690, and burials to
1711; the second continues the baptisms to 1754 and
marriages and burials to 1787; the third has all three
from 1788 to 1812. There is also a vestry book
from 1591.
ADVOWSON
The church of East Clandon,
which is mentioned at the time of
Domesday, was, like the manor,
held by Chertsey Abbey until the Dissolution. (fn. 20)
Henry VIII granted it to Sir Anthony Browne with
the manor, with which it has descended ever since.
CHARITIES
Smith's Charity is distributed as in
other Surrey parishes. Greethurst's
Charity, consisting of £20, was supposed to have been left by a person of the name resident in East Clandon, the name occurring in the
registers. The interest was given to the poor.
A convalescent home for children suffering from
hip disease, called 'Welcome,' was founded in 1902.
It is in connexion with the Alexandra Hospital,
London.