WANBOROUGH
Weneberge (xi cent.); Waneberg (xii–xiii cent.);
Wamberge (xiii cent.); Wanbergh (xiv cent.); Wanborowe (xvii cent.).
Wanborough is a small parish, 4 miles west of
Guildford, containing 1,823 acres and measuring about
3 miles from east to west and one from north to
south. It is bounded on the north by Ash and
Worplesdon, on the east by Compton, on the south
by Compton and Puttenham, on the south-west and
west by Seale. It throws out a tongue, however,
between Compton and Puttenham which just touches
Godalming. The South Eastern Railway, Redhill and
Reading line, runs through it, with a station opened in
1849. It is traversed by the high road from Guildford
to Farnham along the Hog's Back, the via regia of early
deeds and Hundred Rolls. The greater part of the
parish is on the chalk of the Hog's Back, but it reaches
the sand south of the ridge, where Puttenham
Heath is partly in Wanborough, and a further distance
north on to the London Clay. The small hamlet of
Wanborough lies on the north side of the Hog's Back.
It is an exception to the almost universal rule of the
church and village lying south of the chalk hills with
a parish reaching over the chalk or on to it northwards. The village and church are to the north, as
is most of the parish. It is doubtful whether it is an
ancient parish. It was perhaps a chapelry of Puttenham, though in a different hundred (but for this
compare Ash and Frimley).
Neolithic flint implements were found in 1870
near the church, and others at various times and
places. A palaeolithic ovate implement is in the
Charterhouse Museum and a small bronze palstave in
the Archaeological Society's Museum, Guildford.
MANOR
WANBOROUGH was in the early
stages of its history held as two manors
by two brothers,
Swegen and Leofwine, possibly
Harold's brothers; after the
Conquest, however, these two
manors were united in the possession of Geoffrey de Mandeville. (fn. 1) Probably the overlordship of the manor remained
with the Mandevilles, and
passed with the earldom of
Essex from their family to the
de Bohuns, (fn. 2) for Humphrey,
Earl of Hereford and Essex,
held four knights' fees in
Wanborough, Clapham, and Carshalton in 1372,
and the connexion still existed under Henry IV. (fn. 3)
Geoffrey son of Eustace, Count of Boulogne, married
a daughter of Geoffrey de Mandeville. He received
with her the Mandeville land at Carshalton, (fn. 4) and his
grandson Faramus of Boulogne (fn. 5) appears as sub-tenant
of the Mandeville land at Wanborough also, for in or
about 1130, just after the foundation of Waverley
Abbey, he sold it, with the permission of his overlord, to the abbey, for the sum of one hundred marks. (fn. 6)
This sale was some years later ratified by Pope Eugenius
III. (fn. 7) In 1279 the abbey's possessions in Wanborough
were increased by the gift of a capital messuage with
appurtenances from William de Abbecroft. (fn. 8)
Bohun. Azure a bend argent between cotises and six lioncels or.
In 1346 the Abbot of Waverley claimed to have
view of frankpledge in his manor of Wanborough by
right of immemorial custom without charter; and
this claim obtained recognition from the king's
treasurer and chamberlain. (fn. 9)
At the dispersion of the abbey lands in 1536, the
major portion of them, including Wanborough Manor,
was assigned to Sir William Fitz William, afterwards
Earl of Southampton. (fn. 10) At his death in 1542 the
manor passed to his half-brother, Sir Anthony
Browne, (fn. 11) in whose family it remained for some sixty
years. His grandson, the second Viscount Montagu,
demised the manor to a certain Richard Amye (fn. 12) for
a term of twenty-one years from Michaelmas 1603;
but before the expiration of the lease the ownership
of the manor had been transferred to John Murray,
keeper of the privy purse to King James I, (fn. 13) who
created him Earl of Annandale. In 1625 he mortgaged the manor to Thomas Bennett for the sum of
£4,200, (fn. 14) and after his death his son James sold it to
his cousin James Maxwell, (fn. 15) who a few years later
became Earl of Dirletoun. (fn. 16) His widow Elizabeth
survived him for some years, keeping the manor in
her possession. (fn. 17) At her death it passed under the
terms of her husband's will to their daughter Elizabeth, wife of the second Duke of Hamilton. (fn. 18) The
Duchess took as her second husband Thomas Dalmahoy, (fn. 19) to whom she bequeathed Wanborough in
trust to sell. (fn. 20) He conveyed it to Mrs. Elizabeth Colwall, (fn. 21) from whom it passed in due course to her grandson Daniel Colwall. (fn. 22) Daniel in his will devised it
to his half-brothers, Arthur and Richard Onslow,
sons of Foot Onslow. (fn. 23) The manor was shortly afterwards sold to Thomas Onslow, (fn. 24) ancestor of the
present Earl of Onslow, who is lord of the manor.
Shortly before the Dissolution the monks of
Waverley obtained the privilege of holding an
annual fair with court of pie powder on the feast of
St. Bartholomew, in whose honour the church is
dedicated. (fn. 25) The manor house, a fine old gabled
house near the church, is now the seat of Sir Algernon
West, G.C.B.
CHURCH
The church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW
is a small rectangular building measuring
inside 43 ft. 5 in. by 18 ft. 4 in. with a
screen placed 17 ft. 8 in. from the east wall to separate
the chancel from the nave.
All the walls are of 13th-century date, except that
at the west, this having been rebuilt in modern
times. There is no evidence of the existence of a
chancel arch. The building was disused for two
centuries, from 1674 to 1861.
The east window is a late 15th-century insertion
with three peculiar cinquefoil lights and a square
head without a label. The inside jambs are splayed
and have a flat segmental chamfered rear arch.
In the north wall are three 13th-century lancets,
one in the chancel and two in the nave, the first
and easternmost having plain chamfered jambs and
head and inside splays with a semicircular rear arch.
The second is rather wider and has chamfered and
rebated jambs and head and a chamfered rear arch,
which with the internal splays is either modern or
retooled. The third window is similar to the first
except that the jambs are rebated only and the inside
stonework is either modern or has been retooled.
Between the first and second of these windows is a
13th-century doorway, originally external, but now
used as an entrance from the vestry, which is built
of wood and corrugated iron. The jambs and pointed
arch of the doorway are moulded with an edge roll.
The south wall has four windows, two in the
chancel and two in the nave. The easternmost dates
from about 1330 and has two trefoiled lights with
a quatrefoil over and a scroll-moulded label. The
second window is apparently of 15th-century date
and has a single cinquefoiled light. The sill is low
down and the inside is rebated for a shutter, one of
the hooks for hanging it still remaining in position.
The third and fourth windows are similar to the
opposite ones in the nave except that in the third
the jambs are chamfered only and the rear arch is
semicircular.
Between these last two windows is a doorway
similar to that in the north wall of the chancel, but
wider, and having a grooved and hollow-chamfered
label. The jambs are modern.
Below the sill of the south-east window is a small
recess with plain chamfered jambs and square head.
The sill is plastered, but it no doubt once held the
circular piscina basin which is now lying loose on the
window-sill above.
To the west of this is a similar but wider recess
with a stone sill which was probably used as a single
seat.
The west window of the nave is modern and has
two cinquefoiled lights and a two-centred head with
tracery of late 14th-century design.
The walls are of flint in mortar with stone dressings,
except the west wall, which is of brick with a tile-hung gable, from which projects a small bell-cot with
one bell. The buttresses to the south wall are modern.
The roof is of modern open timber-work and is
covered outside with tiles.
The chancel screen has a panelled lower portion,
above which are six lights on either side of the central opening. Each light has flowing tracery in the
head, and the mullions and cornice are moulded.
The central doorway has a flat four-centred head with
carved leaves in the spandrels, and is of 15th-century
date, but the rest of the screen is for the most part
modern, including all the tracery to the lights.
All the other interior fittings are modern. There
are no monuments of any importance, but in the
churchyard outside the west wall is a long tapering
stone which was probably once used as a coffin lid.
Plan of Wanborough Church
The Communion plate is modern and is not silver.
The first book of registers is dated 1598; the entries,
however, are from 1561 and consist of baptisms,
burials, and marriages, which continue until 1646.
During the Commonwealth the only entries are the
births of the children of a certain Joseph Freakes, but
after the Restoration other entries continue up to 1674.
ADVOWSON
The church was early appropriated
to Waverley, (fn. 27) but it does not appear
in Pope Nicholas's Taxation of 1291.
The abbey appointed a vicar in 1327, (fn. 28) but vicars
do not appear to have been instituted afterwards, and
it was probably treated as a donative, with perpetual
curates presented by Waverley without episcopal institution. The 'advowson' which was granted with
Waverley to Fitz William at the Dissolution probably
means the advowson of Wanborough, for there was no
parish of Waverley. Richard Harding, who lived as
a tenant in the abbey buildings, was married and had
his children baptized at Wanborough, and in 1600
William Hampton and Joan Smith, both of Waverley,
were married after having had their banns published
in Wanborough Church. Some of the other names
in the fragmentary register are suspected as being of
Waverley, which was extra-parochial, but of which
this seems to have been still commonly considered the
church. The lay impropriators paid no regular stipend to curates. The names of two survive for 1598–1600 and 1612–13, but services were often performed
by clergy of other parishes. By the exertions of the
Rev. G. C. R. Chilton, vicar 1861 to 1895, a small
endowment fund was raised. The church was disused
altogether for about 200 years, but the parish always
remained separate, and the advowson of the now
restored church is in the hands of Mr. G. McKibben.