England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Great Bookham St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Great Bookham lies in central Surrey a little over 2 miles west of the market town of Leatherhead. Great Bookham sits on the A246 road which connects Leatherhead with Guildford. Once a discrete village on rising ground north of the North Downs Great Bookham grew substantially during the 20th century to become contiguous with neighbouring Fetcham and almost so with Leatherhead. It is estimated that Great Bookham's population increased by 50% between 1845 & 1961. At the time of this transcript, however, this was a distinctly rural area of the county, farming dominated with the majority of land set to arable production, a large portion of the parish was also in common. Great Bookham saw an initial spurt of growth when the branch line connecting it to Leatherhead was opened and a station constructed on the edge of the common, the rural setting attracting London commuters. Today Great Bookham is a small town itself with a busy High Street paralleling the A246.Great Bookham is drained by small tributaries of the nearby River Mole which heads northwards to reach the Thames opposite Hampton Court Palace, from here through the capital to the North Sea. Great Bookham is sited at around 60 metres above the sea and land rises up the escarpment of the North Downs to the south reaching 143 metres at nearby Polesden Lacey. Great Bookham parish was fairly extensive for a southern rural parish, it was also extended north to south, like most here, to catch all available land-use types in the area, the parish covered a little over 3,200 acres and would have supported a population of just under 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Great Bookham was a significant settlement, amongst the largest 20% recorded in that book, held by Chertsey Abbey it could offer an impressive 20 ploughs as well as meadows, pastures & woodland and also a mill.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits at the heart of the original village on the junction of Lower Road with Church Road. Whilst there has been major restoration including the almost complete reconstruction of the eastern end the church does retain sufficient evidence for a rather early origin. Traces of Norman Romanesque style and a 12th century origin remain in the southern arcade and also in two blocked windows above the northern arcade, the latter is Transitional in style between Norman Romanesque and the Early English Gothic. An inscribed stone dates the chancel to precisely 1341 but this is built to Norman dimensions and Pevsner speculates an 11th century origin for the foundations. Perhaps the church's most handsome feature is its weatherboarded western tower which Pevsner describes as having "a most attractive vernacular style". The church, however, has received at least three campaigns of restoration, in 1845, 1858 & 1885 and much else dates from those campaigns. The corner site is busy with traffic and parking has to be found along Church Road where bays sit outside the shops. The churchyard, surrounded by a low flint & brick wall, is spacious and criss-crossed by paths and has few obstacles for the photographer.