England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Capel St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Capel lies in southern Surrey forming a stretch of the border with neighbouring Sussex. Capel is located roughly 6 miles south of the market town of Dorking and sits on the former route of the A24 road connecting London with Horsham, today that road, thankfully, bypasses to the west of the village. Capel is a rather linear village stretching along the former turnpike road for over a mile with a notional centre around the church and the junction of The Street with Vicarage Lane. Capel lies in Surrey's portion of the northern Weald, normally a rather infertile area given to woodland management, but here soils were of sufficient fertility for arable farming, particularly of wheat & oats, to be the main economic earner supported by the traditional management by coppicing of surrounding woodland. Modern developments have impacted upon Capel, the London to Horsham railway line arrived in late Victorian times and sparked a building boom as it provided neighbouring Ockley with a station, similar development for commuters followed in the later 20th century. Capel is drained southwestwards by the headwaters of the North River which meets the Arun to the west of Horsham, the latter continues southwards to eventually reach the English Channel through the port of Littlehampron. Capel is sited at around 80 metres above the sea in gently rolling terrain where local high spots reach 107 metres to the south at nearby Clark's Green. Wealden parishes are often extensive and Capel was one of these, covering around 5,500 acres it was more reminiscent of northern upland parish in its extent, within that acreage it would have supported a population of around 1,000 parishioners, most spread around the wider parish. Capel is not mentioned in Domesday Book which is sparse in its coverage in The Weald.

The Church

St John's church sits in the notional centre of the village opposite a filling station and on the west side of the former A24, The Street. The church here has ancient origins, originally built as a chapel-of-ease to nearby Dorking as early as 1160 little remains of those earliest days due to rebuilding over the centuries. The earliest fabric remaining dates from the Early English Gothic period of the 13th century and is manifest in the lancet-styled windows on the south side of the chancel. Much else of the medieval, and dendro-chronology has proven the nave roofing to be c1400, was lost by a significant Victorian rebuild of 1865. Dating from that rebuild is the church's centrepiece, its pretty shingled bell-turret topped by splay-footed spire, sits upon an old frame of medieval origin but is entirely 19th century in its creation. The 1865 rebuild also added the northern aisle to complete today's church. Parking in The Street is somewhat restricted outside the churchyard by the presence of the filling station and The Crown Inn in juxtaposition to the neat lychgate forming the main entrance, Vicarage Lane has street parking for convenience. From the lychgate a shaded footpath leads out into a churchyard with few obstacles for the photographer.