Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin

PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin at Cuddington is a late 19th-century church built in 1894–95 to designs by the architects Whitfield and Thomas, with A. Thomas credited as the lead designer. The building was constructed on land that formerly formed part of the great park of Nonsuch Palace, Henry VIII's favourite residence begun in 1538. The builders were Goddard and Son of Farnham, a major firm undertaking numerous church-building projects. The church was extended to the west in the 1950s under architect David Nye, with the western end and choir vestry dedicated in 1959 by contractors Ides Ltd. A further extension of 1995 added a linked block to the northwest accommodating parish offices and rooms.

The church is constructed of knapped flint with red brick and stone dressings, topped with red clay tiled roofs. A timber flèche with lead covering marks the junction between nave and chancel.

The plan comprises a six-bay nave with north and south aisles, slightly shorter than the nave itself, a polygonal apsidal chancel under continuous roof with the flèche straddling the gable, a south chapel to the chancel, an organ chamber at the northeast with transverse gabled roof and lower hipped roof vestry attached to its north, and parish rooms and offices attached at the northwest corner.

The architectural style is Early English, characterised throughout by lancet and Y-tracery windows. The nave and chancel have plain eaves, whilst all other components have plain parapets. The six-bay nave is flanked by lean-to aisles and features a clerestory with two lancets per bay, each bay demarcated by a flat brick pilaster. The five-bay aisles have Y-tracery windows with short, stepped buttresses. The chancel is dominated by a polygonal apse with tall, stepped brick and stone buttresses and chequered flushwork decoration below the eaves; single-light lancet windows with brick surrounds light the interior. The east face of the apse bears a foundation stone dated 1894. The south chapel stands under its own gable with single-light lancets on the south side and a triple-light window on its east face. At the junction of aisle and chapel stands an octagonal clock tower with timber-framed belfry, shingled roof and a clock dated 1933. On the same axis is a small dormer to the nave roof and the slender octagonal flèche with lucarne windows. The west end displays a triple-light window with intersecting tracery and an inserted square-headed doorway flanked by lancet windows. The north elevation is less prominent and includes the protruding block of 1995 at the northwest.

Internally, there is no obvious distinction between the late 19th-century church and the 1950s western extension. Walls are rendered with stone dressings. The chancel arch is moulded with shafts and moulded capitals; the aisles' arcades are similarly treated with quatrefoil piers. The chancel contains an arch to the organ chamber and a two-bay arched opening into the south chapel with a large pierced quatrefoil in its head. The arch-braced and boarded nave roof has stone wall-shafts rising from foliate corbels. The apse roof is boarded with moulded ribs and central boss, all painted in 1974. The aisle and chapel roofs are similarly boarded, the latter decorated with moulded ribs.

A good coved timber screen marks the division between nave and chancel, featuring a wide central opening decorated with carved angels. The apse is lined with alabaster with a mosaic floor to the sanctuary; the choir floor comprises encaustic tiles. Brass altar rails with fine scrollwork in each division run before the sanctuary. Against the east wall, a carved stone reredos panel depicting "Suffer the Little Children..." sits in a painted stone frame. The sedilia consists of a two-light late 13th-century-style recess whose design reflects the arches into the chapel. Choir stalls have decorative traceried open fronts. The nave contains wooden benches with shaped ends. A polygonal stone pulpit with open traceried sides and angel head decoration stands in the nave. The font has a Caen stone quatrefoil bowl with foliate carving between bowl and base, the base supported on four stubby green marble shafts. Windows include work by Clayton and Bell, with the west window by Lawrence Lee. The Father Willis organ dates from 1898.

In 1865, the Landed Estates Company Limited had purchased part of the former Nonsuch Palace park as development land with a plot set aside for church and parsonage. The church became a focus for housing development, with the present dense suburban layout emerging in the 1920s and 1930s.