1000 Years
1000 Years of History
Welcome to
house of prayer for all people
The spiritual life of our community has been made visible for over 1100 years in the fabric of this ancient House of God.
These walls bear silent witness to all human experience; new life celebrated in baptism and confirmation, marriage vows made before God; generations remembered at funerals; and, every day, prayers offered by and for individuals and the community.
Stay awhile here and be still
Let go your burden and share in the serenity of this place.
May you have the strong assurance that God cares for you;
And may the peace of Jesus Christ go with you.
During your visit, please pause for a moment and become aware of God’s love for you.
Restoration Project
Our Current Restoration Project
With a building which is over 1000 years old there is always something which needs work. Our current project is the restoration of the Octagon. Built in 1969 it is in need of major repair and we also plan to enlarge it.
The first phase will cost an estimated £230,000 of a total of £500,000. The building of the first phase will start in early 2005. Although the most modern part of the church (it was built just 30 years ago), the Octagon is part of our Grade 1 listed building and we would love to see it brought up to a standard worthy of our ancient church.
The Appeal Leaflet gives the background.
“The present Octagon was completed in 1970. It has served the parish well but now needs major renovation, extension and development – the corridor is quite rotten, the roofs leak and the accomodation is now insufficient fro the requirements of both present and future generations.”
The Rector has written:
For an entire Millennium, the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul has served our community of Godalming. It’s presence has provided opportunities and challenges for successive generations who have developed the building so that it more appropriately meets the needs of their time. Now is the time to take up another challenge to provide further opportunities to meet the needs of our community. I heartily commend the present project to repair and substantially improve the Octagon as an undertaking worthy of the history of our Parish Church and one which will provide not only for our generation, but also for those to come.
THE ORGAN
Built in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, the organ has a good west facing case designed by Dr Arthur George Hill (shown right).
This fine instrument has three manuals, pedals, forty speaking stops and 2268 pipes. A complete restoration, with additional stops, was completed in 1999. A new booklet, “The Organs of Godalming Parish Church” (by Derek Dewey), has been published – price £1 (proceeds to the organ fund).
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
The Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Godalming (it already enjoyed that dedication in 1220 when Dean Wanda of Salisbury referred to it in his Inventory) is built of Bargate stone. The dressings are of clunch, or hard chalk, except for the nineteenth-century additions, where Bath stone was used. It possesses the oldest dateable man-made objects in Godalming – the carved Anglo-Saxon stones of c.820-840. The demands of a continuously expanding town, based originally upon wool, then upon the leather and paper industries – and in this century augmented by commuters – have left a legacy in the fabric and furnishings of the church from each of the last eleven centuries – a considerable rarity for a parish church. The main features include:
Ninth – Twelfth centuries
Godalming is first mentioned – as a ham (village) – in King Alfred’s will, c.880. It probably contained a church of which the Anglo-Saxon stones were part. The second Church, parts of which survive in the present fabric, dates from the late tenth or early eleventh century and consisted of a chancel and nave. These are on the site of the present choir and first two eastern bays of the nave. The east wall of the nave (originally also the west wall of the chancel) is Anglo-Saxon – two oculi (eye-hole windows) which originally lit the nave may be seen in the belfry. The original chancel arch was replaced by Sir Gilbert Scott with the present gothic one in 1879. In 1086, Domesday Book recorded that Rannulf Flambard, justiciar of William Rufus, held Godalming church. Indeed, he held it until his death in 1128, when it came into the possession of the Deans of Salisbury with whom it remained until 1846. Probably before 1100, Flambard had built the first tower and the great chancel – the wall paintings on its window frames have recently been re-exposed. Also to the Norman period belong the transepts – small windows may be seen in the west wall of the north and south transepts above the aisle arches. The chest dates from c.1200.
Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries
In the thirteenth century, the cruciform church of the Normans was converted into a rectangle by the construction of the north and south chapels and nave aisles. The south (or Lady) chapel is especially interesting. Originally provided with lancet windows (c.1220) – three in the east wall and five in the south – they were gradually replaced. The geometrical window in the east wall and the grouped lancets, with their Sussex marble columns, date from c.1270. The other south windows are of the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Some of the wall paintings around the lancet windows have been re-exposed. The Norman chancel was extended to the east and is supported by characteristic diagonal fourteenth century buttresses. The fine original crown post roof over the chancel of before 1400, survives. But the most important feature of this period was the construction of the magnificent oak timbered spire, clad in lead. This was completely restored in 1988, when 12 tons of lead including the original 10 tons, were fabricated to re-cover the huge mediaeval wooden frame.
Fifteenth – Eighteenth centuries
One further major construction occurred in the earlier part of this period: the addition of one bay to the west end of the Anglo-Saxon nave. Apart from this, the problem of additional seating was solved in the eighteenth century by the placing of wooden galleries in the nave and transepts (notches in the stonework show evidence of this). Happily, some of the beautiful furnishings survive from this period: glass, c.1470; roof bosses, c.1500-30; pulpit c.1600; altar table , c.1600; chandelier, 1722.
Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries
Two great restorations of the church occurred – in 1840 and in 1879. The former extended the nave westwards to the road. The latter, by Sir Gilbert Scott, RA and Ralph Nevill, FSA, has left the church substantially as it is today. The aisles were extended westwards and widened. The Anglo-Saxon chancel arch was replaced by a gothic one. The Norman east tower arch was raised, but the old imposts, which survive, show its original position. The choir stalls, pews and encaustic tile floors all date from 1879. The north chapel was refurbished – and the old west aisle windows of the church were placed on the north side there. The twentieth century has seen the construction of the porch (1911), the building of the vestries (1925) and the Octagon (1970). The exterior of the church was floodlit in 1995. In 1996 new lighting was installed in the interior. This incorporates ostrich eggs which have been suspended in some eastern churches since antiquity as ‘a symbol of God’s watchful care’. Some of the eggs were already in the church, others have been donated from South Africa. Apart from these additions, there has been a 25-year programme, just completed, for the restoration and conservation of what John Aubrey called in the 1670s ‘a fair pile of building’.
FURNISHINGS AND OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
The following notes describe the principal Items of Interest.
1. Anglo-Saxon Carved Stones (south chapel)
Dated by the British Museum c.820-840. The smaller stone was found as rubble in the Anglo-Saxon chancel wall and therefore certainly predates the late tenth or early eleventh century church. The ring, carved with interlaced carving and animals’ heads, was perhaps part of a holy-water stoup or an outside window frame.
2. Wall paintings (chancel and south chapel)
Chancel: windows (now blocked) have abstract decorations of c.1086-1100 on their jambs.
South chapel: a series of life size paintings of saints painted on the jambs of the lancet windows (c.1220). St. John the Baptist is the only identifiable figure (south wall). The figure on the south side of the present east window was rediscovered in 1992, having been blocked up since c.1270.
3. Mediaeval altar furnishings (chancel, south and north chapels)
These consist of sedilia (seats for the clergy), piscinae (basins with drains used for washing sacred vessels) and aumbries (cupboards for the Reserved Sacrament).
4. Chest (south transept)
Made of oak c.1200, it has three locks. These chests were placed in churches for the collection of alms for the Holy Land.
5. Carvings on Pillars (chancel)
Graffiti carved by pilgrims and others, these consist of crosses, merchants’ marks and a fish.
6. Monuments (chancel, north and south chapels)
There are two brasses – to Thomas and Joan Purvoche (1509) and to John Barker (1595) in the chancel. There is also here a good mural monument to Judeth Elyott (1615). In the south chapel, there is the table tomb of John and Elizabeth Westbrook (1513) and in the north chapel, the monument (1801) to the Rev’d Owen Manning, vicar of Godalming ‘upwards of 37 years’ and co-author of Manning & Bray’s History of Surrey (1804). Peter Warlock is buried in the Nightingale Road Cemetery.
7. Roof Bosses (nave roof)
These were assembled here in the 1840 restoration from various parts of the church and consist of 152 bosses of which 133 date from the Tudor period. Two have the cypher ‘H.R.’ for Henry VII or Henry VIII. Three have the Prince of Wales’s three ostrich feathers. There are 55 Tudor coats of arms including those of Bishop Fox of Winchester (ob.1528), Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey (ob.1524) and local families associated with the manor of Westbrook. The letters ‘W.C.’ with a true lovers’ knot, which appear five times, may refer to sixteenth century donors. The remainder are largely Tudor roses, most of which are original.
8. Glass (east, south and west walls)
In the east window of the south chapel is a white rose-en-soleil of York (a badge first used by Edward IV). The remainder of the glass is of the nineteenth century. The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins by H. Arthur Kennedy (1881), in the north chapel is very fine.
9. Fonts (south chapel and south aisle)
Large, disused font made of chalk of c.1500 (south chapel). Font of 1879 (south aisle).
10. Pulpit (nave)
Made of oak and dating from c.1600. Originally part of a pulpit with a tester and later, part of a three-decker pulpit.
11. Altars and other woodwork (south chapel, chancel and nave)
The south chapel altar dates from c.1600. The Vestry screens date from 1925. The lectern was given to commemorate the Coronation in 1953.
12. Chandelier (chancel)
Made of brass and inscribed ‘this branch was made in the year 1722’.
13. Organ (north transept)
Built in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, it has a good west facing case designed by Dr Arthur George Hill. This fine instrument has three manuals, pedals, forty speaking stops and 2268 pipes.
14. Bells (tower, south transept)
There are eight bells of which the oldest is dated 1740. The Tenor weighs 22 hundredweight. There are, additionally, two Sanctus bells – one in the bellcote at the south east corner of the spire, the other, the M.V.Hauraki ship’s bell (1947) is in the south transept.
15. Plate
The oldest piece is a fine silver basin of 1633. There is also a flagon of 1814 and a Processional Cross made by Omar Ramsden (1934).
16. Parish Registers
The earliest Register dates from 1582 but there are transcripts dating from 1540. The Registers run to some 20 volumes.
17. Lists of Rectors and Vicars (west wall of nave)
The Rectors begin in the eleventh century, the Vicars in the twelfth century.
18. Oglethorpe – Georgia memorial (south aisle)
General James Edward Oglethorpe of Westbrook left Godalming in 1732 to found the Colony of Georgia in America. The memorial was put up in 1982 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this event.
A fuller account of the church may be found in A Guide to the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Godalming, 1997 by Alan Bott, OBE, MA, FSA