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As you will see, the road sign leading to the village indicates that Cranleigh is the largest village in England.  The sign also states that Cranleigh has a Medieval church - which is of course St Nicolas Parish Church.

Cranleigh is situated some 10 miles south-east of Guildford in the county of Surrey not far from the Sussex border.
For further information about local businesses and activities in Cranleigh village visit www.cranleighvillage.net


We hope that you will be able to enjoy a visit to our beautiful church.  St Nicolas Church is first and foremost a house of worship, and we can be thankful that it is possible to praise God in such beautiful surroundings.  If you can, please join us at one of our services - the details of which are given on a separate Services page.

A Little History
When the Church of St Nicolas was first built, Cranley (as it was then spelt) was a tiny hamlet in a clearing of the great forest of the Weald.  The villagers were retainers or tenants of the great feudal estates, the largest of which was Vachery.  One of the duties of the Lord of the Manor was to provide a place of worship, and so the first church was built around the year 1170.

At first a simple rectangle occupying the area of the present nave, it was enlarged later in the 12th century by the addition of side aisles and a tower.  About 1340 a new chancel was built.  The area was very popular with the early Plantagenet Kings and several local families played a part in affairs of state.

The Font
As you enter the church you will see the Font which dates from the 12th century, although the stone carving is a later copy.  The window behind is a reminder of various patrons and benefactors of the living, including Edward IV of the House of York, and Henry VII of the House of Tudor.

The Tower
Note the impressive pattern made by the beams and rafters against the white surface. In the centre you can see a trap door which is never opened unless a bell has to be brought up or down. This was last used when the bells were rehung for the Millennium as part of the restoration work.

In 1552 there were four bells, the largest weighing 17 cwt (865 kg). There is now a peal of eight bells which were recast by Gillett and Johnson in 1954.  To view, save or print details of the Bells in pdf format please click here
The window in the tower wall dates from about 1350 and was recently restored as our Jubilee Window - see below.

The Nave
Notice the striking amount of light falling through the plain windows at the East end of the church.  This dates from 1944 when a flying bomb exploded some seventy yards to the North-East, destroying the Church Room and Infant School, and doing considerable damage to the Church. Of the fourteen stained-glass windows, only three on the south side were preserved.
Walk up the centre of the Church. As you arrive level with the two pillars, surmounted by a statue of
St John on your left, and St Nicolas on your right, you will have been walking very slightly uphill (the slope is 1:80). 
In ancient times the altar would have been just in front of you.  It was mounted on a step which has now disappeared and has been lost in the slope of the floor. 
Look up and see the trussed-rafter roof with its massive tie-beams.
The Lectern is unusual.  It has a rather heavy strapped pediment and supporting column, carved in the shape of a twisted stem.  It is probably Dutch or German in origin and dates from the 16th century.

The Chancel
The screen and rood loft which separated the chancel from the nave were removed in the early part of the 19th century.  Only the vertical grooves in the columns where its woodwork fitted remain.  Between 1840 and 1868 extensive restoration work was carried out, including rebuilding the chancel, with its larger windows and magnificent hammer-beam roof.  The carved heads show delightful expressions - one of them looks so angry as hardly to be human at all. 

The brass cross between the choir stalls is in memory of John Sapte, Rector from 1846 to 1906.  Behind the altar there are Flemish brass panels (c 1565), and to the left there is an English brass of some importance, which shows an unusual depiction of the Resurrection.  The armoral shields behind the altar are those of the families associated with the estate of Baynards, Vachery and Knowle.  On the other side, and on the floor, you can see under the credence table a brass of Richard Caryngton, a former Rector.

A noteworthy feature of the Chancel is the 14th century sedilia set in the south wall.  The piscina is also 14th century but may have been redesigned in the 19th century.
The altar rails were given in 1937. They are modelled on the Old English iron-wrought rails formerly in Uxbridge Church, now in the South Kensington Museum.  As you leave the Chancel, have a look a the pulpit.  The panels are from the 14th century screen which demarked the Vachery Chapel, previously in the North Transept.

The North Transept
On the north side of the pillar is a 12th century carving known as the "Cheshire Cat" reputed to have been the inspiration for the character in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.  
On the north side too, there was formerly a chapel (Vachery chantry). Also worth looking at are the small statue (by Edgar MacKennel) erected as a memorial to Amy Bonham by her mother; and also Joseph Longhurst's painting of "The Nativity".

The South Transept (Baynards' Chapel)
The wooden screen, which formerly separated the nave from the Lady Chapel, was moved to screen off the Victorian Gothic Baynards' Chapel in 1867 when the latter was built.  
On the south side of the pillar you will see a carved head.  Some say it is Bishop Egynton of Winchester, 1346-1366, or his better known successor William of Wykeham.  His coat of arms (Manners makyth man) can be seen in the window near the font.

The Organ at St Nicolas
The organ was originally built by William Hill & Sons in 1875 and most of the pipework is original. At that time the organ had a tracker (mechanical) action with the console positioned on the north side of the chancel under the pipes.

By 1956 the organ was in poor condition and it was rebuilt by Hill, Norman and Beard. The Swell organ, Pedal organ and couplers were converted to electric or electro-pneumatic action (with the tracker action retained on the Great), the draw stops were replaced with stop tabs, some Swell Contra Oboe extensions were added, and the Great Dulciana was replaced with a Quint (which blended poorly).

The organ was thoroughly cleaned in 1974 and the Cornopean revoiced in 1987, but by the end of the 1980s the electrical relays were failing and the organ required a complete overhaul. A major reconstruction was completed in October 1993 by Browns of Canterbury and the opportunity was taken to address other faults: the organ lacked brilliance and spoke into the Chancel rather than down the nave. Several new stops were added, the ranks were rearranged in the organ chamber and extended out into the North transept to improve projection down the church, and a new detached console was installed south of the crossing with a new electric action throughout.

To view, save or print the organ specification in pdf format, including notes on the extent of the work carried out in 1993, please click here

The Jubilee Window
It was a real joy, after nearly five years of waiting, and having had the new stone mullioned window carved and installed in the tower, to see the new stained glass window completed. Having invited various artists in the early days to design a window which would celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee, it took us quite a while to find an artist who seemed to have the inspiration to create a window that not only would show a sense of rejoicing but would be both traditional and modern in its conception.
For Philippa Martin Stained Glass it has been a labour of love and she has given so much time in bringing the project to fruition. There is much to see in the window, and
it is really worth studying the printed card which explains the significance and meaning of the design.
We had a lovely service on the
Sunday 29 April 2007, when Philippa
and her family joined us for our morning worship. She brought her two granddaughters, Emily and Lily,                                                              Photo by Michael Wild
who feature in the top part of the window.
We were able to express our thanks to her on that occasion, and later on in the year we were privileged to have a proper service of dedication, in the presence of HRH The Duchess of Wessex. This not only combined thanks for the window, but for all the generosity of the people in the parish who enabled us to do the work, which began with the 'Crackin' Good Tower Appeal'.

The Porch and Lych Gate
Both the porch and the lych gate were designed by Henry Woodyer. The Porch was erected in 1864 in memory of a local doctor, Jacob Ellery of Ridinghurst who also set up the obelisk on the corner of the Ewhurst Road.  The splendid stone lych gate was erected in 1880 as a memorial to John Bradshaw of Knowle.

The Churchyard
As you leave the Church glance at the tower.  It has a roof in the shape of a pyramid called a "Sussex Head".  Notice particularly the "put-log" holes.  These were used to support the scaffolding when the church was first built and are rare in England.  The original Church was constructed of a mixture of ironstone and Bargate stone, both of which were available locally. 

Several of the Sunday School children can claim to have touched the weather cock - but only when it was blown down in the storm of October 1987!  The date 1702 is carved on the West Door, but the hinges suggest that it is rather older.  One of the tombs at the back of the churchyard reputed to be the "smuggler's tomb" where contraband was concealed.  A very weather-beaten stone on the south wall dating from the 17th century was in memory of a yeoman, Richard Mower, who discovered the use of lime for lightening the heavy clay soil.  One of the workmen in 1847 left his name (a well-known Cranleigh name) carved on one of the chancel buttresses.

On your right as you walk down the path is a magnificent Cedar of Lebanon tree.  It is said that John Sapte planted it in about 1850 when he returned from his honeymoon in the Holy Land.  Also on your right is a wooden "bed-head" grave marker among the many interesting stone and iron ones.  

Floodlights
St Nicolas Church was pleased to be one of 400 churches throughout the country to be awarded a grant by The Church Floodlighting Trust towards the cost of installing floodlighting in time for the Millennium celebrations.