England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bramley Holy Trinity

The Parish

The parish of Bramley lies in southwestern Surrey about 3 miles northeast of the market town of Godalming. Bramley sits on the A281 road which connects Guildford with the Sussex town of Horsham. Bramley village is just a small part of the wider parish which extends for some distance on a north to south axis, deep into Surrey's share of The Weald, whilst being relatively narrow from west to east. Bramley, itself, is a rather elongated village too, centred on a crossroads with the B2128, it nevertheless extends for almost a mile to both north and south along the A281. Much of that extension is a result of modern growth. Wealden soils are not the most fertile and the landscape has a mixture of farming types as a result, indeed much of the landscape was utilised for forestry and related products such was the poor soil, today's landscape is dominated by small copses showing the traces of former coppicing. Modern developments have come and gone for Bramley, a branch railway line along the Wey valley having been removed and now forms the local trail of the Wey South Path. The River Wey, in which valley Bramley sits, drains the parish northwards eventually reaching the Thames at Weybridge, thence through the capital to the North Sea. Bramley is sited at around 40 metres above the sea within its valley setting, land is only gently rolling with local heights outwith the valley rising to just over 100 metres. That parish shape leads to a large parish of just over 4,400 acres, very large for a southern parish, and within that acreage there would have been supported a population of close to 1,000 parishioners. In Domesday times Bramley was an altogether much more important place, its population placing it amongst the top 20% of settlements recorded in that book, held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux its assets were impressive, 40 ploughs were recorded amongst the highest anywhere and with extensive meadows & woodland backed by no fewer than 6 mills it was a very wealthy and important holding.

The Church

Holy Trinity church sits at the junction formed by the B281 and B2128 sitting within the southeastern quadrant of that junction and opposite to the Jolly Farmer Inn. Whilst the church has ancient origins little remains of that period following extensive changes within the Victorian period. Traces of the 12th century Norman Romanesque may be found within the western doorway but these have clearly been reset from previous locations. The chancel is the beste example of the medieval being relatively unchanged from the 13th century and completed in the Early English Gothic style of that century, the lancet windows throughout show blunt-ended splays which to Pevsner indicate a date consistent with c1220. The remainder of the church is largely a construct of two phases of Victorian rebuild, the first in the 1850s being followed by a second phase in the late 1870s which almost completely rebuilt the fabric of the main body of the church. The A281 is lined with no parking signs with the exception of a small lay-by, further parking may be found outside some local shops to the south of the site. The rather compact churchyard is fronted by a tall brick wall, the small size means that it is tricky to get adequately far back to acquire a landscape view and as the church sits almost flush to that wall it is also difficult to appreciate the portrait view too, a really difficult subject for the photographer.