Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Wrecclesham

This church was built in 1840 by James Harding to serve Anglican worship in Wrecclesham, which lay over a mile from Farnham's parish church. The site and burial ground across the road were given by William Paine, a local landowner, while his relative J M Paine, who owned a quarry at Dippenhall, provided the stone. The church was consecrated on 15 July 1840 and seated about 400 people. The original 1840 building consisted of a nave, chancel and north transept, with a west gallery added shortly after.

The church underwent major reconstruction in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1861 or 1862, the chancel was rebuilt and a south aisle was added. Then in 1876–77, the west gallery was removed, the nave was rebuilt and lengthened, its roof was raised, and the north aisle and bell-turret were built. The 1860s and 1870s work was carried out by C H Howell. A hall was added to the south in the early 1970s. This piecemeal remodelling reflected both the need for enlargement and the considerable changes in church design that Victorian taste demanded, particularly the enlargement of the chancel.

The church is built of squared, coursed local stone with Bath stone dressings, roofed with Welsh slates and crested red-clay ridge tiles on the nave. It is designed in Early English style, drawing its motifs from the thirteenth century. The plan comprises a nave, chancel, lean-to north and south aisles, a north porch, a northeast chapel under its own gable, a northwest bell-turret, a southeast vestry, and a hall to the south linked to the church by a small glazed passage.

Externally, the nave is five bays long, though the south aisle, built before the nave was lengthened, comprises only four bays and does not extend to the west end. The principal façade faces north, with paired lancet windows to the aisle and a clerestory of circular quatrefoil lights. At the northeast corner stands an octagonal bell-turret with slender openings on each face, capped by a short stone spirelet. The south aisle and clerestory mirror the north ones in detail. The chancel, facing down a steep slope toward the main road, has three graded lancets and stout angle buttresses. The west wall of the nave also has three graded lancets, which are the only windows in the church to have hood-moulds. None of the building's parts have parapets. Utilitarian sheds under a lean-to roof are attached to the west end of the nave.

Inside, the nave is tall and covered by a steeply pitched arch-braced roof, which is thought to incorporate the original 1840 structure. The roof has iron tie-rods for rigidity. The walls are plastered and whitened throughout. The arcades comprise five bays on the north and four on the south, with double-chamfered arches without hoods, circular piers with moulded capitals. The pier bases differ slightly between north and south, reflecting the two building campaigns—moulded on the north but with simple chamfers on the south. The chancel arch is very plain, with mouldings that die into the responds. The aisle roofs are lean-tos with arched-braces to a purlin, while the chancel roof has arch-braces to a collar.

The flooring reveals evidence of different building campaigns. Red quarry tiles at the east end of the nave are probably survivals from the 1840 church, while red and black quarries of the 1860s appear in the south aisle and multi-coloured tiles of the 1870s in the north aisle.

Much Victorian seating survives, with square ends. The two front benches have interesting folding seats supported by iron brackets to increase accommodation temporarily. The stone pulpit has pierced traceried panels and dark marble shafts at the corners. The octagonal font has a square bowl set on a quatrefoil marble base. On the north wall of the north aisle are a pair of brass First World War memorial tablets signed by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, the well-known church furnishing firm. The organ is said to have come from the redundant church of St James, Farnham, built by Hunter in 1877 and enlarged by his firm in 1895, though the case bears the date 1909. Stained glass in several windows dates from the late nineteenth century to 1933, with a south aisle west window signed by Wm Aikman.

The chancel stalls were removed in 1977 and resited at the west end of the nave.

To the south is the Leverton Hall, a 1970s addition in buff brick with timber cladding and a concrete tile roof, linked to the church by a glazed passage. It is named after the Reverend Charles Leverton and is administered by a separate body of trustees rather than by the church itself. Across the main road to the east stands a timber and tiled lychgate leading into the burial ground.