Church Of St Katharine

Church of St Katharine, Merstham

A Grade II* listed church sited in a large churchyard. The building comprises a tower, nave and chancel of 13th-century origins, with a south porch of 14th or 15th-century date, medieval Perpendicular chancel chapels, a south aisle rebuilt in 1874–5, and vestries added in 1861 and 1895. The structure is built of flint and Merstham stone rubble, except the south chancel chapel which is ashlar masonry; the tower is limewashed. The roofs are tiled with stone slates at the eaves of the nave, and copper roofs to the aisles. The plan comprises a nave with clerestory, chancel, west tower, lean-to north and south aisles, southeast and northeast chapels, and northwest vestries.

The south side forms the principal elevation. A gabled south porch with moulded outer doorway, square-headed hoodmould and carved spandrels is accessed by two flights of steps; a sundial sits in the gable. The 19th-century south aisle features a carved cornice with fleurons and two-light square-headed windows with quirky tracery; cusped rounded clerestory windows sit above. To the east, the ashlar-masonry east chapel has a diagonal southeast buttress and very large square-headed two-light cusped windows with a moulded doorway between them (the masonry was renewed in 1932–33); a three-light Perpendicular east window lights the chapel. The chancel's east window is a five-light 19th-century Perpendicular design. The north aisle contains a two-light window to the east with triangular head and cusped lights. The 19th-century vestries are adjacent gabled blocks roofed at right angles to the aisle. The north chapel has triangular-headed windows with cusped lights to the north and east. The church's dominant feature is a fine 13th-century four-level tower with 19th-century angle buttresses and a substantial broach spire. The tower displays tall 13th-century lancet windows at each stage, a probable 16th-century three-light west window, and a fine 13th-century trefoil-headed west doorway with an order of toothed ornament on slender shafts with bell capitals, its door retaining medieval ironwork.

The interior contains a chamfered chancel arch on semi-circular responds, with remnants of 13th-century blind arcading on the north and south chancel walls. The nave has three-bay arcades: the north with octagonal piers, the south with cylindrical piers and double-chamfered arches. A two-centred double-chamfered chancel arch springs from semi-circular responds. The nave roof is a late medieval tie-beam and crown-post structure with plain crown posts and two-way braces, boarded behind. The lean-to 19th-century aisle roofs are similarly boarded. The chancel has a plaster vault with classically moulded wallplate, probably of 17th-century date, and a single beam with bar step stops to the north, though cut back to the south. Asymmetrical arches lead into the north and south chapels, possibly to accommodate a rood screen across the entire width of the church. The north chancel chapel has a late medieval tie-beam and crown-post roof with moulded post and four-way bracing. The south chapel features a canted plaster vault with moulded wallplate. A 13th-century double piscina in the east wall sits on a corbel carved with stiff-leaf foliage.

Furnishings include 1903 choir stalls with ends and frontals carved with blind tracery; a 1930 altar and timber reredos with painted panels in the chancel; and a 1935 altar and timber reredos in the north chancel chapel. A polygonal timber pulpit of 1885, with open traceried sides on a stone stem, stands in the nave. The font dates to circa the 13th century and features a square bowl with trefoils carved in the corners, arcaded on three sides only, supported on a cylindrical stem with corner shafts. Benches of 1861 have square-headed ends with buttress-like features to the sides. Monuments include a mutilated 15th-century secular effigy and brasses of 15th and 16th-century date. Fragments of medieval glass remain in the east window of the south chapel. 19th-century windows include designs by Messrs Powell of Whitefriars, and a 1935 tower window by Hugh Easton.

St Katherine's represents an ambitious evolved medieval church with a notably fine 13th-century tower and substantial surviving internal fabric including late medieval roof structures.