St John the Baptist, Wonersh
Outside
the Church
3Jesus has been found worthy of greater
honour than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honour than the
house itself.
4For
every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
This should be read in association with pages on :- History
of St John the Baptist,
Windows,
Brasses and Pictures,
Monuments,Inscriptions
& Dedications inside the Church
for the full inscriptions.
Outside the Church
The Church is dedicated to St John the Baptist,
cousin of Jesus. It was known by this
name in Norman times, but the earlier Saxon church may have also had this
dedication.
Most people approach the church through the archway and across the stone
flagged footpath of Church Green, passing
through the old gateway to the churchyard.
Notice that the churchyard is some 3 ft higher than surrounding land due
to the fact that for a thousand years inhabitants of the parish were buried in
these few yards, and the ground was “broken” and “rebroken”, to use the old
phrase. Most of the inscriptions on the gravestones are heavily worn; the
oldest gravestone is dated 1742 however for every one you see there are
probably several hundred unmarked burials.
The church is surrounded by the graveyard which has been closed since
1861. Burial then took place at Shamley
Green and from 1900 at the new Parish Cemetery near
Blackheath. However the main tomb
of the Grantley family was moved outside in 1901 and can be seen in the NW part
of the churchyard. There are also some more recent tablets in
the NW corner to remember cremation remains and we are also considering the
establishment of a
The entrance for vehicles from The Street was made necessary around 1765
when the Lord of the Manor appropriated and walled off what was the village
green. The wall, being an important part
of village history, is a listed structure;
this protection came too late for Wonersh House which was demolished in
1929. The church car park was
bequeathed to the church in 1933.
The new Vicarage was built in 1988.
Please respect the privacy of the Vicar.
You see a building much as it would have looked in the 15th
Century, especially the castellated north chapel, chancel and lower two
sections of the 13th century tower.
The appearance of the church was changed significantly in the
restoration by the Georgians in 1793.
Much of the church structure was substantially re-built in 1901 under
the sensitive direction of the architect Charles Nicholson, restoring as much
as possible of the original character and appearance of the ancient
church. The North Chapel was almost
totally rebuilt with windows and door (dated 1902) created to match a painting
of the church in the early 18th century. The heavily weathered carved corbels, one a
grotesque face and the other possibly of a monkey, were discovered when the new
openings were cut in 1901 and included in the rebuilt battlement
structure. Note a closed up door in the
base of the tower used from 1769 until 1901 with an unusual surveyor’s mark
built into the structure of unknown origin or purpose. On the west wall of the tower and on the
nave north wall there is evidence of openings of which nothing is
recorded. There is a stone carved
inscription dated 1751 (with names of two churchwardens) above the clock on the
east wall of the tower, the date that the old spire was removed.
The tablet dated 1901 on the eastern wall of the chancel records the date
when this wall and chancel roof were reconstructed on the foundations of the
original church. At the rear (south) of
the church you will see totally different plain brick elevations of the
Georgian era (built 1793).
Enter the church by the main entrance into the porch (built in 1988).