Left: Entrance from Mill Lane via the south porch. Right: West entrance from Church Lane, below the tower.
St Martin's Church, Dorking, Surrey, stands in the very heart of this attractive market town in the Mole Valley, replacing two earlier churches here. A widely visible landmark, the Gothic Revival church was designed by Henry Woodyer (1816-1896) and built in 1868-77. The clock dates to 1883, and the Lady Chapel was added in 1905-13. It is built of coursed knapped flint, attractively decorated with ashlar quoins and dressings (particularly noticeable on the tower and buttresses), while the spire is of ashlar, and the roofs are (according to the Builder) of Westmoreland slate. It is Grade II* listed, and the listing text describes it as having a "4-bay nave with 8-bay lean-to aisles and clerestorey, south porch, 3-storey north transept; lower 4-bay chancel with 3-bay Lady Chapel to south and lower 2-bay vestry to north; 4-stage west tower with spire and north-east vice [spiral stairway]." [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Closer view of the spire. Right: Information plaque on the railings outside, indicating the importance of the church to the locality.
The foundation stone of the 210' tower was laid on 29 May 1873 by Dr Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Winchester, only two months before he died after falling from his horse, and the structure thus became known as the Wilberforce Memorial (see "West Tower, Spire and Bells"). There is a Celtic cross at the east end of the nave, but the weather vane at the top of the spire takes the form of Dorking's symbol, as seen on the plaque: a cockerel. The tower and spire are aptly described by Arthur Mee in the "King's England" series as "tall and graceful" (95)
Left: Looking along the length of the nave, to the chancel. Right: The chancel.
Clerestory windows lighten the nave, and there are many decorative elements throughout, by the best possible firms: stone-carving by Thomas Nicholls, with rich fruit and flower carving at the top of the columns in the nave, and in the angles of the arches; painted or mosaic decoration by the firm James Powell & Sons; and tiling by Minton. Particularly fine is the work around the chancel arch, with a fleur-de-lys design at the sides and angels and a mosaic crucifixion in the tympanum. The church's own site tells us that Arthur Powell, a senior partner in the firm, was "a leading member of the congregation and Church Warden in 1871," so naturally he had an important influence on the style here. Adorning the chancel arch alone seems to have been a long process, listed in the Powell Order Book as "1891 Rhead GW Decoration chancel arch 4786/348," also, later, as "1901 Hardgrave? Opus and mosaic, chancel arch 8832/337" and "1901 Chancel arch decoration 8832/200" (p.47). The workmanship of the reredos is also very fine: it is of ashlar and marble, with gilding.
Although Powell's was responsible for the stained glass in the nave and clerestory windows, the stained glass of the impressive east window, like the other chancel windows, is by William Wailes. In memory of Anne Moore, whose brother-in-law commissioned it, it shows "in different compartments, Christ’s entry into Jerusalem; the Agony in the Garden; Bearing the Cross, the Betrayal; scene before Pilate, St. John taking the Virgin home; the Resurrection; and the appearance to Mary in the Garden" ("Provincial News," 380). The church's own site has very helpful descriptions of all the windows here ("Chancel"). The west windows were by Henry Holiday.
Left: One of the Powell firm's mosaic panels in the south aisle of the church: "Hurt not the earth" from the Book of Revelation, 7, 3: "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees." Right: Bronze memorial to Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams in the porch, a much later work (by David McFall, 1961).
The memorials shown above are just two of a number here, some installed from the previous church on the site. The panel shown on the left was in celebration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee of 1897, and, as noted in the inscription, it was funded by (or at least on behalf of) the youngest members of the congregation. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), commemorated by the much more recent bronze panel in the porch, is probably the most famous person connected with the area, having grown up and spent many years here. He was well known and active in Dorking, especially, as can be imagined, in the musical life of the town.
The Surrey Pevsner describes St Martin's as Woodyer's "most important church," with "splendid proportions" and details which are "oddly underplayed" (presumably meaning that they are not flaunted). The result is seen as an inspiringly "thin and fervent" space (195).
Text and photographs of the exterior by Jacqueline Banerjee; photographs of the heritage plaque, and interior, taken by David Dixon, originally posted in the geograph website, and kindly made available for reuse under the terms of the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed. [You may use the images of the exterior, too, without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
"Church of St Martin, Dorking." Historic England. Web. 9 January 2025.
Chancel. St Martin's Dorking. Web. 9 January 2025.
Eberhard, Robert. "Showing windows for St Martin Church in Dorking, Surrey." Church Stained Glass Windows. Web. 9 January 2025.
James Powell (the order book can be accessed here). Web. 9 January 2025.
Mee, Arthur. Surrey: London's Southern Neighbour. The King's England series. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938.
Nairn, Ian, and Nikolaus Pevsner. The Buildings of England: Surrey. 2nd ed. revised by Bridget Cherry. London: Penguin, 1971.
"Provincial News." The Builder (23 May 2025): 379-80.
"South Aisle." St Martin's Dorking. Web. 9 January 2025.
"West Tower, Spire and Bells" St Martin's Dorking. Web. 9 January 2025.
Created 28 September 2012
Last modified (images and commentary added) 9 January 2025