St John the Baptist, Wonersh
Church History – The Grantley Years
1756 - 1901
This account of the history of our church
acknowledges and has drawn heavily upon information provided in the following:-
Wonersh
History Society
Parishes:
Wonersh - British History Online –
History
of the Church by Revd A L Brown.
The History of Antiquities
of Surrey, Manning & Bray 1811 (Manning visited
Click to return to Church History Overview .
The
Incumbents of this Parish during this period (see also CCEd
clergy database) are recorded as being-:
1756-1778 John Proctor Also Vicar of St Martha’s
1779-1803 James Hill, MA.,LL.D Also Rector of Puttenham &
Vicar St Martha’s.
1803-06
James
Fielding Also Vicar
of Cranleigh & St Marthas
1806-52
William
Hodgson Cole,MA Also vicar of
1852-92
Elihu Edmond
Body,MA
1892-98
Joseph Beckett
Sherrin,MA
See also the Registers of this period.
The 17th C saw a general
decline in the spiritual wellbeing of
In 1756 Grace Norton, wife of Fletcher Norton, inherited the Chapple estate, including Wonersh House. In 1765 Fletcher Norton purchased the rights of the Lay Rector of the parish, and in 1770 those of Lord of the Manor and Patron. So the church became under the growing influence of the Grantley Family for the next century or more. After appropriating the village green for their own use they built a high wall around the house circa 1775 thus blocking off for common people access to the church through the old lytch-gate. A plan of the church dated 1781 shows a square pew as Fletcher Norton’s seat in the nave adjacent to the chancel arch; behind it in the chancel was another square pew for his servants. The 1st Lord Grantley died in 1789.
When the weavers of Wonersh fell on hard times in the 16th C the north chapel fell steadily into disrepair and by the early 18th C was in a state of dilapidation. At some date before 1779 it was being used as a vestry; the priest’s door into the north chapel had been blocked off sometime before this. About this time the arches of the tower were also filled in with lath & plaster partitions and a doorway cut through the north wall of the tower with a small brick porch built outside (which is reputed to have born the date 1769) which cut off the lower part of the lancet window above. The whole church floor was about 18ins lower than it is at present. Note that pieces of carved stone of the north chapel priest’s door were discovered in the rebuilding of 1901 and were incorporated into the inner north wall of the tower; this has caused some confusion in later records!.
In 1779 Lord Grantley introduced James Hill as vicar, he was the Rector of Putenham and worked Wonersh in plurality together with St Martha. It appears that he may have been responsible for the structural transformation of the parish church during his incumbency; he died in 1803.
A plan of the church dated 1781 shows that in keeping with earlier ideas the pulpit was the focus of worship and on the north side of the nave stood a three-decker pulpit; one step up for the clerk’s desk three more to the reading desk and six more to the pulpit. The south aisle ran the whole length of the church but there is no indication of an arch at the entrance to the (Tangley) Chancel; it opened to the nave by three arches. The entrance to the church was by a door in the south west corner of the nave and there was a porch. The arch between the nave and tower was walled up, as were those between the tower & north chapel and between north chapel & chancel.
There is a further plan dated 1781 of “Intended Improvements”, with two other later plans. These may have been drawn up for “His Lordship” (Fletcher Norton became Lord Grantley in 1782) but there is no indication that any rebuilding was contemplated.
Shortly before the alterations that
took place in 1793/4, Owen Manning visited Wonersh church and this is carefully
recorded in the reference document Manning & Bray
“The History of Antiquities in
For over two years after 1791 no Devine Service could be held. The marriage register of this time records that for three years 25 couples were married at St. Martha's Chapel as Wonersh church was “in a ruinous state” and could not be soleminised. Baptisms however went on as usual. It is plausible conjecture that the eastern part of the chancel and roof may have collapsed; the responsibility for keeping the chancel in repair rested with the Lay Rector and not the parishioners.
A series of design projects began
in 1781. The first design for a new church was evidently inspired by the newly
built (1763)
Manning recorded that there were five bells and a clock. The sixth bell, a gift by Lord Grantley, was not added until 1804. Also he recorded that the cost of rebuilding was £600, of which £320 was collected by Church Brief and the remaining £280 was raised by the Bridgham Trust by leasing Bridgham Farm.
Gothic style was not appreciated and
plain was the theme of the time.
Internally every vestige of ancient gothic masonry was as far as
possible pared off or concealed. In the
course of rebuilding 1793/4 most of the exterior was taken down, with the
exception of the tower, the north walls of the nave and north chapel, and the
side walls of the western and southern part of the chancel. The south aisle was demolished. A good sized square nave in brick was built
in the plain style of the period (the south wall some 8ft narrower than where
the south wall of the south aisle previously stood), and the dividing arches
between the nave and south aisle demolished (one segment of a column survives,
kept in the tower base). The screen
between the nave and chancel (as observed just prior by Manning) was removed
and the doorways blocked off.
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Pictures by
kind permission of SHC & John Thorpe |
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Triple decker
pulpit, box pews & font, circa 1828. Note the
Achievent of Arms. |
View from
chancel west, showing nave gallery & Lord of the Manor’s pew(with chimney
& fireplace). |
Apse &
Communion Rail. Note the
simple deal table as the altar. |
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The old
font, discarded in 1900. Inscribed:-
W C Cole Vicar and J Sparkes, E Chitty Churchwardens. 1812 |
View south
from what is now the Lady Chapel. Note the
tower and chancel arches blocked off, and the fire & chimney. This was
used as the vestry. |
The
Grantley Mausoleum. View
looking north, note that there is no access from the church. & the
partition wall. Now used as
the vestry |
The eastern part of the chancel was destroyed (east of the side chapel walls) and a high pitched roof was constructed across the side chapels and chancel at right angles to the nave, with a small apse in the centre as a sanctuary. The small deal table used as the altar is still used elsewhere in the church today. The north chapel was being used by this time as a vestry. It was clad in brick with a single round headed window to match the mausoleum on the southerly side. A good many of the oak timbers of the 15th C roof were worked into the present roof of the nave. Low flat plastered ceilings were also placed throughout the church.
The south chapel was pulled down and replaced on the same foundations by a brick mausoleum for the Grantley family (said to have been designed by their butler!!). It was completely walled off from the church with the only entrance being from the churchyard. Underneath the floor were the family vaults, and when these were subsequently filled the coffins were deposited above ground. The chancel arches to north and south chapels were filled in with lath & plaster partitions, using the 15th century parclose screens as stud framework.
It is thought that the Royal Shield of George III dates from this period and was put in the church at the turn of the century to commemorate the restoration. The nave was arranged in the style of a meeting house, with a broad wooden gallery covering about one third of the nave against the west wall, box pews in rows and a triple tier pulpit against the north wall. Preaching would have been a priority with the focus on the pulpit.
Lord Grantley exercised his manorial right to have a seat in the chancel. His pew became a grand affair built of oak surmounted by curtains for privacy. It extended from the nave into the chancel with a fireplace and chimney located just behind the northern arch. He apparently gave much value to access to the pew through the newly cut door in the tower, through to the vestry and into the chancel, rather than joining the common folk whose entrance to the church was at the south west corner of the nave. This was a feature of the estate property which was included in the sale particulars when it was sold in 1884.
Over the previous eight centuries all the inhabitants of the parish had been buried in the churchyard. With all the “breaking” and re-breaking” of the land the level had steadily risen and no doubt for this reason the entire floor of the church was raised by about 18ins. Most of the gravestones were apparently obliterated in the levelling of the graveyard, with only a few remaining, the oldest gravestone remaining being dated 1742.
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Vicars did not reside in Wonersh,
however Assistant Ministers or Curates are recorded living in the “vickaradge”,
which possibly was in what is now
The parish school continued
at the end of the 18th century to be taught in the north chapel
under Mr William Simmonds until his death
in 1838. There were some 40 boys and 14
girls at the school. The chapel was
being used as a vestry and was described as being low and out of repair. The only heating was a fireplace and chimney
which had been inserted in a corner. The
vicar, Revd Cole, was a master at
In 1846 “heating apparatus “was installed, the cost of £46 16/6d paid over a period of 12 years by the Bridgham Trust.
On the death of Revd Cole in 1852 the new vicar was Revd Elihu Body; he held office for 39 years. There is a sad memorial in the nave which records the death of the wife and two infant children of the vicar in 1855. They died within two months of each other apparently from dysentery. Living conditions in the vicarage were evidently poor and it was demolished shortly afterwards.
As a result of growing population,
Sunday worship took place in one of the school rooms from 1860 until the
consecration of
In 1870 the Education Act put
elementary education on a national footing.
Around 1870 infants were taught in the reading room of Lawnsmead Terrace
and in 1890 Lawnsmead
These were exciting times for the church, and sleepy Wonersh will not have been insulated from influence of the evangelical Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect, and later by the high church Anglicans of the Tractarians (Oxford Movement). There was clearly dissatisfaction with worship for working people in the parish church, as the United Reform fellowship built up from 1860, with the foundation stone for the new URC church being laid in 1880. This was also the period when the Liberal Club was built in the village for working people.
The churchyard was closed for
burials in 1861, and a new graveyard opened at Shamley Green the same
year. A new church was built at Shamley
Green 1864 and Shamley Green became a Parish in its own right in 1881, formed
out of part of the Parish of Wonersh. It
continued as the churchyard for Wonersh until 1900 when a new cemetery site was consecrated near Blackheath between
Barnett and
Description of Wonersh 1870-72 Imperial Gazetteer of England.
In 1883 a period of fresh parochial activity began with the arrival of Revd T W Ward as assistant curate who, with the help of his wife and family did something over the next 9 years to wake the parish up. The interior was painted and the parish magazine was started in 1884.
The 5th Lord Grantley
sold his
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