England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Effingham St Lawrence

The Parish

The parish of Effingham lies in the western portion of central Surrey roughly 4 miles southwest of the market town of Leatherhead. Effingham sits on the A246 road which links Leatherhead with Guildford. Like many Surrey villages Effingham has expanded in modern times, early maps show a small and compact village largely built around the church and totally north of the route of the A246; today Effingham has a large modern suburb south of that route too as well as having expanded north of the lane leading in from Great Bookham. Effingham parish is elongated on a north to south axis, the purpose being to allow access to all of the land-forms across the underlying geology from London clays to the northern fringes of the North Downs' chalk. This coverage gave the parish access to a mixed farming regime with both arable and pastoral methods uppermost dependent upon the underlying rock-type. Modern developments came to the parish with construction of suburban lines to Guildford from London and the branch line to cross to Leatherhead's line, Effingham Junction being a station at the meeting point. Effingham is drained northwards by the headwaters of the River Mole which eventually meets the Thames opposite Hampton Court Palace before passing through the capital to the North Sea. Effingham is sited at around 70 metres above the sea at the church but the parish rises southwards via the fore-slopes of the North Downs reaching a high spot of 223 metres on Hackhurst Downs to the south. By southern standards Effingham parish was an extensive one, covering around 3,100 acres it would have supported a population of close to 600 parishioners, modern day Effingham has more than double that population within the confines of the village. In Domesday times Effingham was a more modest affair, shared by Count Gilbert's son Richard with Chertsey Abbey its assets totalled just 5 ploughs together with the usual meadows, pastures & woodland.

The Church

St Lawrence's church sits a little over a quarter of a mile north of the A246 and sits on the eastern side of Church Street which parallels the main street to its east. Whilst the church is medieval in origin Pevsner describes the Victorian restoration of the late 1880s as "amounting to rebuilding" reflecting the major changes wrought at that time with mere fragments of the original building remaining. The southern transept which is described as "big & barn-like" is the earliest remaining major piece of the original church and is given a tentative dating of c1250 reflecting its Early English Gothic styling. The remaining pieces of medieval are restricted to the odd window here and there showing the typical 14th century styles of the Decorated & Perpendicular. All else, including the crenellated western tower dates from that major rebuild which largely rebuilt all remaining aspects of the church. Whilst Church Street is rather narrow it is used for street parking, particularly north of the site where things widen slightly. The main entrance has contrasting brick piers breaking the line of the local stone walling, a diagonal path leads to the church. The churchyard is relatively free of obstacles but is a little cramped to the southeast by neighbouring properties. Visitors should not the presence of the grave of Sir Barnes Wallis, bouncing bomb his major World War II achievement, who is buried to the east of the church.