St Mary’s Church in Quarry Street is the oldest surviving building in Guildford and is almost certainly the original church of the town. The Saxon settlers in the area became Christians during the 7th century AD and would at first have built a wooden church, very probably on the present site. The present stone tower was built between 950 and 1100: the shallow vertical strips or lesenes are characteristic of Saxon building, as are the narrow, double-splayed windows visible inside. There is no reason to suppose that the tower was intended for any military purpose, as has sometimes been claimed.
After the Conquest the chancel, to the east of the tower, was rebuilt in stone in the Norman style: traces of the windows can still be seen in the side walls. In about 1220 two transepts were added to the north and south of the tower, and arches opened into them through the tower walls. It was probably at this time that the King, Henry I, gave the privilege of appointing the priest – the advowson – of St Mary’s to the Canons of Merton Priory, who held it until the Reformation. About twenty years later the chancel was reconstructed and two side chapels with rounded or apsidal ends added on either side: St John’s to the north and St Mary’s to the south. There was by this time a nave to the west of the tower and later in the 12th century narrow aisles were added, a pillared arcade being opened in the walls of the nave (see plan). The wall-paintings, traces of which are still visible in St. John’s Chapel, were probably executed around 1200. Early in the 13th century the chancel and the side chapels were remodelled in the current ‘Early English’ style, with ribbed vaulting. Under Henry III in the mid 13th century the aisles were extended to their present width and height, and the north doorway made.
Essentially, St. Mary’s church has changed little since this work was finished at the height of Guildford Castle’s prosperity. Later in the Middle Ages windows were added or replaced and in the 15th century the whole church was re-roofed, with the exception of St. John’s chapel, which retains an earlier scissor-brace roof. There would have been at least six altars in the church in the later Middle Ages: the High Altar in the chancel, one in each of the chapels, one of the east end of each aisle (where the niches to contain the sacramental vessels can be seen) and finally one in front of the rood screen. This was a wooden screen blocking the arch between the nave and the tower. Above it would have stood a large crucifix or rood, with a gallery or loft reached by the doorway visible high up in the tower wall.
The west end was partitioned off in 1979 to house the SPCK bookshop, which closed in 2003. St Mary’s main function as a place of worship, however, continues today as it has for over a thousand years.
Guildford Museum, Castle Arch, Guildford, Surrey
(01483) 444750
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