HTAG Guildford - St Mary's Church History

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St Mary's Church History

The tower is the oldest part of St Mary's and it is best to start a tour of the church there, at its base. The Saxon settlers in this area would have become Christians in the 600's, and there was probably first a timber church on this spot. In about 1050 the church was rebuilt in stone. Only the tower survives of the Saxon work. Small Saxon windows, widening both inwards and outwards, can be seen above the round-headed Norman arches in the north and south tower walls. These arches were cut through to give access to the transepts; these were added in about 1120 when Merton Priory acquired St Mary's. The canons of Merton may also have rebuilt the chancel and nave around this time, giving the church a cross-shaped plan.

Moving into the chancel, you can see the stone-vaulted ceiling, with 'dog-tooth' decoration on the ribs dating from the early 1200's. The chancel extended several feet further east until 1825, when it was shortened to widen Quarry Street - at George IV's request, it is said. Two features here are of special interest: a 'squint' through the column in the south-western corner, to let people in the south transept see the high alter, and a pair of curious slanting passages from the side chapels. These may have been for processions round the church.

Turning to the north, you enter St John's chapel. This, like St Mary's to the south, was added in about 1140. The east walls of the transept were knocked through to enlarge the chapels. Both have rounded ends, or 'apses'. On the arch above the alter can be seen traces of the bright painting which would have covered nearly every part of the church in the Middle Ages. Set in the floor by the north wall are two small brass plates of a man and a woman in the costume of about 1500. The plate that would have given their names is missing.

The first aisles were added in about 1140 and were narrower than at present. At the same time the nave walls were pierced with arcades: the plain cylindrical columns with scalloped Norman capitals supporting pointed arches in the newer "early English" style. The aisles were rebuilt at their present height and width in about 1250.

The corbels (stone brackets supporting the roof timbers in the aisles) are elaborately carved. One, on the south side of the north aisle, shows a pair of ravens placing food into Elijah's mouth. Two others, high up at the east end of the north aisle on either side of the arch to the chapel, are of angels - with their heads knocked off. It is likely that this damage was done at the Reformation in the mid 1500's. Attitudes changed at that time about the ways in which a church should be decorated and used. The angels, as carvings of spiritual beings, would have been considered idols and smashed.

There is evidence of the Reformers' zeal elsewhere in St Mary's. Apart from whitewashing over the bright paintings on the walls, they removed all but one of the six or seven alters that formerly stood in St Mary's. The two in the side chapels have now been replaced, but there was another at the east end of each of the aisles. In the north aisle wall can be seen an alcove where communion vessels were kept for the alter there, and similarly across the church in the south aisle is a 'piscina' or basin to wash the vessels of another alter. The piscina was crudely hacked back flush with the wall when the alters were removed. A third alter stood in front of a wooden screen that blocked the central arch between nave and tower. This screen had a 'rood' or crucifix standing on top, with a balcony that could be reached through the little doorway visible high up to the left of the arch. All this was swept away by the reformers who emphasised that it was the King or Queen, not the Pope, who now controlled the Church of England by displaying the royal arms.

The arms over the north door are those of Queen Anne: They date from the time that an upper gallery was added to the end of the church. The gallery was removed in 1863 when St Mary's was 'restored' by Thomas Goodchild: much of the stonework was renewed at the same time. The pulpit is Victorian, and in it the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) would sometimes preach when staying at his family's home, 'The Chestnuts', nearby. In 1979 the west end of the church was partitioned off for the S.P.C.K. Bookshop, and in 1988 a fine two manual pipe organ by Saxon Aldred was installed.

A particularly fine feature is the low, square window at the west end of the north aisle. Blocked by iron bands and a wooden shutter, it may have been used to hear confessions.