Two Surrey Churches and a Chapel 19th August 2025

Two Chapels and one Church are all within 5 miles drive of each other, just south of the town of Guildford, Surrey. All three designed & built during the second half of the 19th century. The Chapel of St Catherine’s School, Bramley, dates from 1893 when the School received an anonymous gift of £1,000 to build a Chapel and one year later the Archbishop of Canterbury dedicated the building in a splendid ceremony basing his address on the words from Hebrews 6 v.1 “Let us go on”, which was adopted as the school motto. The Chapel is a fine example of late 19th century gothic revival architecture with all the interior decoration and stained glass designed by Charles Eamer Kempe and a fine Henry Willis & Sons Organ. The Kempe window and Willis Organ were restored in 2017. A tour will be given by school administrative staff.

St Thomas’ Church, New Road, Chilworth, was originally built in 1895, not as a church, but to accommodate the Greshambury Institute. A young local architect, William Howard Seth Smith had previously designed Wonersh Congregational Chapel (now the United Reform Church) less than 2 miles away, in 1880, the place of worship for the Seth Smiths. Seth Smith’s design shares features used by contemporary Arts and Craft architects, in particular Voysey, using similar window designs, over-hanging gables and buttresses. The roof lantern is a major architectural feature. Olive Maggs, independent art historian and ACMS Committee member, researched the Greshambury Institute on behalf of the Society and will explain why and how it became St Thomas’ Church.

The approach to the redundant Church of St Peter and St Paul, Albury Park, containing the Drummond Chapel, is through the grounds of Albury Park. The building dates from Saxon and Norman times. The interior is uncluttered and light with a flagstone floor. The door dates from the 13th century, a well-preserved painting of St Christopher dates from the 15th, and there is a brass of John Weston who died in 1440. In 1819, Henry Drummond, the banker purchased the Albury Park estate and engaged Augustus Pugin to convert the house to the Gothic style. In 1839 Henry Drummond brought in Pugin to design the Mortuary Chapel for the Drummond family within the old church. We shall have a presentation on the church.

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