St Mary’s Church (formerly Church of St. Martin)

Description

St Mary, Pixham Lane. An attractive village church by Lutyens, 1903, paid for by Mary Mayo as a chapel of ease to Dorking. Roughcast exterior with echoes of Philip Webb (the twin weatherboarded gables on the n side) and H. H. Richardson (massive round arch above the entrance doors of moulded brick with a radiating pattern in tiles and a central octagon of Ham Hill stone). Double bellcote. The interior was and remains dual-purpose, with a curtain to screen off the sanctuary when the nave is in use as a clubroom or nursery. Totally different treatment of the two parts: the nave has a big plain tunnel-vault in white plaster looking almost like concrete with the tall windows breaking upwards under dormers; the sanctuary, in Lutyens’s sweeter version of Bentley’s Westminster Cathedral style, has a beautifully proportioned dome on a square base, patterned with chalk, tiles and sandstone. Nave fireplace with arched overmantel inscribed as a memorial to the founder’s brothers. Lofty meeting room (n) with double-transomed stone windows. (O’Brien et al., 2022, p.584-5)

Bibliography

O’Brien, C., Nairn, I. and Cherry, B. (2022) Surrey. Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Also Cited In

Nairn, I., Pevsner, N. (1971) Surrey (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England). 2nd edn. Yale University Press.

Listing Grade

II*

Listing Reference

1279086

Client

Miss Mary Mayo