Although it has unfortunately been somewhat spoiled by restoration, the
general appearance of the fifteenth-century parish church of
Sanderstead, with its square tower and shingled spire, is much what it
{145} was when, in 1676, the mansion replacing the old
manor-house--that is said to have been constructed of the materials of
a twelfth-century monastery--was completed, and amongst the monuments
preserved in it are three of considerable antiquarian interest: that of
Joanna Ownstead, who died in 1587; that of her brother, John Ownstead,
who was for forty years in the service of Queen Elizabeth, and passed
away in 1601; and that to Mary Bedell bearing the date 1655. Within a
short walk of Sanderstead is the village of Purley, generally believed
to be named after William de Pirelea, who bought the land on which it
and the mansion known as Purley Lodge are built, some time in the
twelfth century, from the abbot of the neighbouring Monastery of Hide,
of which no trace now remains. The date of the building of Purley
Lodge is not known, but it is famous as having been the residence of
John Bradshaw, who was President of the High Court of Justice that
condemned Charles I. to death. Later it was the home of William Tooke,
who often received in it his more celebrated friend, the Rev. John
Horne, who took the name of his host in gratitude for the kindness
shown to him in the long struggle with the Government during the War of
Independence. After the imprisonment of Horne for getting up a
subscription for the widows and orphans of those who fell at Lexington,
or, as he expressed it, were murdered by the king's troops, Tooke gave
him an asylum at Purley, and it was there that he completed the quaint
_Epea Ptroenta_, to which he gave the sub-title of the 'Diversions of
Purley.' On his {146} death William Tooke bequeathed £8000 and Purley
Lodge to Horne, who, though he had a house at Wimbledon, where he died
in 1812, was often at Purley. He wished to be buried in the garden of
the Lodge, and had prepared his grave and tombstone, the latter bearing
the inscription--'John Horne Tooke, late Proprietor and now occupier of
this spot, born in June 1736, died in--aged--contented and
grateful'--but his relatives disregarded his instructions, and he rests
in the parish where he breathed his last.
Other still secluded hamlets of north-east Surrey are Farley, with a
very interesting Norman and Early English church, and a quaint old
moated manor-house, now a farm, and Warlingham, long celebrated for its
beautiful common, that was, alas, enclosed in 1864 with the exception
of five acres that were reserved for a recreation-ground, the latter
with a well-restored old church of uncertain date, the first, according
to tradition, in which the service of Edward VI. was used.
[Sidenote: Caterham]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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