Wonersh United Reformed Church

Summary

United Reformed (originally Congregational) church. Built in 1880 to designs by William Howard Seth-Smith.

Reasons for Designation

Wonersh United Reformed Church, built as Tangley Congregational Chapel in 1880 to designs by William Howard Seth-Smith, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a well composed and executed Gothic Revival church to designs by a well-regarded and eclectic architect;
* for its high degree of survival both internally and externally;
* for the quality of craftsmanship and use of materials.

Historic interest:

* as a tangible illustration of the important social role played by Nonconformist churches, and of the expansion of their congregations during the C19.

History

The origins of the Wonersh United Reformed Church lie with William Colebrook, a Guildford butcher and devout Congregationalist, who by 1860 was hosting services for his workers in the kitchen at his home at Great Tangley Manor. As the congregation grew services were transferred to a barn on the estate. By 1880 the barn was no longer considered large enough and land on which to build a new church in Wonersh was donated by a local Nonconformist architect, William Seth-Smith who had purchased the Little Tangley Estate in 1865. Seth-Smith’s son, William Howard Seth-Smith was commissioned to design the church. The foundation stone for the, then-named, Tangley Congregational Chapel was laid on 21 April 1880 and the building opened on the 22 September of the same year. It was constructed by Goddard and Son of Farnham and Dorking and cost around £2,500, raised through donations.

In 1921 the church was renamed the Wonersh Congregational Church and in 1924 the shed and stables to the south-west of the church were converted into a two-storey church hall containing meeting rooms and a garage. The upper storey was originally used as a youth club but was converted to accommodation in 1977. In 1933 an organ was installed in the south transept by S Wort of Camden Town. During the Second World War the church was used for classes for evacuees. In 1948 a new Scout hut was built from redundant army buildings, immediately to the north of the church. The church became the Wonersh United Reformed Church in 1971 when the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches joined to create the United Reformed Church. Around 2002, a single-storey, flat-roofed toilet block was added at the western end of the church.

William Howard Seth-Smith (1852-1928) came from a noted architectural family of Scottish descent. His grandfather Seth Smith (1791-1860) was responsible for property developments in Belgravia and Mayfair in the early to mid-C19. WH Seth-Smith was articled to the London architects Habershon and Pite and commenced practice in 1879. He went into partnership with A R G Fenning and, from 1905, with William Ernest Monro. He was President of the Society of Architects in 1888-1891 and of the Architectural Association 1900-1902. He enjoyed an extensive practice with commissions in London, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire and elsewhere.

Details

United Reformed (originally Congregational) church. Built in 1880 to designs by William Howard Seth-Smith.

MATERIALS: Bargate stone with Bath stone dressings and interior walling of cream brick. The roofs are clad with replacement red clay tiles. An undated watercolour in the church shows a striped roof of red and grey (possibly slates) tiles. The spires are also shown with red clay tiles.

PLAN: nave with broad eastern apse, southern transept (now containing the organ loft) and adjoining angled south porch. On the north side of the nave is a larger, and off-centre, north transept containing the Sunday school. This is partitioned from the nave by a two-bay arcade with timber screens and has a small porch at the eastern end and a door giving access to the northern spirelet in the north-east corner. The transept has a western projection with a pitched roof and is divided internally by a two-bay arcade. To the west of the nave, and accessed by doors on either side of the nave and from the western end of the Sunday school via a small lobby, is a transverse vestry with an office and kitchen to the west. A flat-roofed toilet block was added to the western elevation in 2002 and there is a small brick outshut of probably late-C20 date at the western end of the north elevation.

EXTERIOR: designed in a free Gothic Revival style, walling is of coursed Bargate stone with fenestration of Bath Stone segmental pointed arches. The nave and apse have two-stage diagonal buttresses with Bathstone capping and framework. Half-hipped roof to the west and hipped to the east with a two-stage hexagonal spirelet (the lower part is clad in red clay tiles and the upper part in replacement grey tiles) with a weathervane. The central section of this was originally open timberwork but now has timber panels. Gables have bargeboards, ridge tiles and finials.

The southern elevation has a large window at the western end of the nave with simple bar tracery, quoins and Bargate stone voussoirs. The southern transept has a blind gable-end with paired Bath stone banding and a plain Bath stone shield set in a square-headed surround with hood mould and quoins. The western side of the transept has a plain lancet window. The eastern side of the transept is adjoined by an angled gabled porch with an arched entrance with Bargate stone voussoirs and flanking buttresses, reached by three steps. The white-painted doors have decorative hinge straps.

The three bays of the trigonal apse are separated by diagonal buttresses. The windows to each bay have plain bar tracery, quoins and Bargate stone voussoirs. Each bay is topped by an individual gable. Below the window in the central bay is a foundation stone bearing the date 21 April 1880. The northern elevation of the nave has two plain arched windows and, at the intersection with the north transept, an octagonal bell tower with a tall, two-stage, square-section spire clad in grey replacement tiles. The central section of the spire was possibly originally of open timberwork but later had louvres, now replaced by wooden panels. The transept has a timber porch to the east elevation. This is set on a stone plinth with a pitched roof, tripartite lead-glazed windows and decorative hinge straps to the white-painted door. The north elevation has stone banding and a single large, five-light arched window. Adjoining the westward extension of the transept is a later small brick outshut with a tiled shed roof. The western gabled end has an entrance with an arched doorway and tiled shed roof supported on timber brackets with polygonal stone corbels. This is flanked by a pair of plain arched windows with quoins and Bargate stone voussoirs. The southern window is truncated by a 2002 single-storey, flat-roofed, brick extension containing WCs.

The southern elevation of the nave has a small square-headed window at the top of the gable but is otherwise obscured by the pitched-roofed vestry range. This has a pair of segmental arched windows with quoins, tile sills and replacement metal-framed glazing, and a door also with a segmental arch. Beneath the elevation are steps giving access to a basement boiler room. These are covered by a modern timber-framed, corrugated-metal roofed, pentice. The western elevation of the vestry range has a pair of doors set in segmental arched openings with quoins. Between the doors is a tripartite window with timber frames set within a segmental arch with tiled sill.

INTERIOR: both the nave and porch are lined with cream brick laid in English garden-wall bond. Other rooms are plastered. The porch has a softwood boarded roof, a bench and inner arched doors with leaded glazing. The boarded hammer-beam nave roof has trusses springing from stone corbels decorated with plain heraldic shields. The two trusses at the western end of the nave are set diagonally with a pendant where they cross. At the eastern end, the roof over the trigonal apse is supported by four hammer-beam trusses fanning from the principal lateral truss, again with a pendant at the junction. The floor is of soft-wood boarding. The nave has dado-height vertical board panelling and there are three blocks of pews (and a pew to the east wall) with the front few rows of pews having been removed and replaced by modern chairs. The pulpit takes the form of a raised dais reached by a flight of steps on either side and fronted by a timber balustrade with fretwork decoration, moulded handrail and octagonal newel posts with facetted finials. The centre of the balustrade incorporates a lectern with panelling below. The rear of the dais has vertical board panelling dado panelling with a raised central section, set within a large, recessed blind gothic arch. The arches to the north and south transepts have angled corbels and those to the north transept spring from a central column. The openings have panelled timber screens with folding doors. The south transept contains an organ dating from 1933. Windows have multi-coloured glass in leaded lights.

The Sunday School has a modern suspended ceiling cutting through the two-bay arcade which divides the north transept from its western projection which has a boarded roof. All stonework has been overpainted. The arch to the eastern porch has a pair of doors with panels of diagonal boarding. The doors to the vestry have arched panels and are set in a square-headed opening.

The vestry has a pair of stone fireplaces divided by the top part of a painted, diagonally-boarded, timber partition which could be used to split the room into two halves; the lower part having been lost. Opposite the fireplaces is a timber coat rack with a wooden bench below. The office has a corner fireplace, dado-rail and fitted cupboards.

Sources

Books and journals
O'Brien, C, Nairn, I, Cherry, B, Buildings of England: Surrey, (2022), 768

Other
Joyce Reason, A Fellowship of Churches 1662-1962 (Date unknown) pp. 29-31

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