St George's Church

St George's Church, Esher is a Grade I listed Anglican church in Esher, Surrey, England. Built in the 16th century, it was Esher's parish church for 300 years, though later worshippers included Queen Victoria. However, by the mid-19th century the building was deemed too small for the growing population, and was replaced by Christ Church, built nearby on Esher Green in 1853/4. St George's was not therefore subjected to Victorian ‘improvements’, and its Tudor origins remain evident. It is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.

Esher is mentioned in the Domesday Book, but there is no mention of a church; the first record of a patron and rector appears in 1292, but little remains of any previous building, except a doorway on the south side of the nave and the priest's door on the north side of the chancel, both probably 15th century. A rare example of an English church built during the Reformation, the present building was built about 1540 of a jumbled assortment of chequered sandstone, clunch, undressed flint and brick, and roofed with both stone and clay tiles, with a small oaken timber bell- or clock-turret with pyramid spire. Inside, the Tudor open roof remains, with timber tie and collar beams; referring to its vernacular construction, Simon Jenkins says: ". . . St. George's cannot decide whether it is a barn masquerading as a chapel, or a chapel masquerading as a barn." The wooden clock-turret houses the original clock mechanism from the early 17th century, the face and hour hand being added in 1783. Various additions made in the 18th and early 19th centuries include the three-decker pulpit and reredos of 1722 with fine carving, the Newcastle Pew , and the brick north aisle with crenellated gables .

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