England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Merrow St John

The Parish

The parish of Merrow lies in western central Surrey, an northeastern extension of the town of Guildford and barely 2 miles from the latter. Merrow sits on the A25 road which connects Guildford with Dorking. Whilst, at the time of this transcript, Merrow was a distinct village separated by a couple of miles of fields from its larger neighbour, today Merrow is a mere suburb of the larger place. The early village was grouped around the church at the junction of A25 with an unfenced lane, Trodds Lane, heading for Merrow Downs. The village had extensive views of the narrow chalk ridge formed by vertically tilted chalk that forms Surrey's famous Hogsback Ridge. Merrow was a farming village but much of the land was un-managed common, with only 50% of the parish acreage cropped, a further 25% set to pasture. Modern developments have come to the parish, the London to Guildford railway line carving through the northern portion of the parish bringing growth to Guildford which has spread steadily eastwards to engulf the former village. Merrow is nowadays the eastern fringe of an urban area that stretches for over 4 miles westwards. Much of Merrow's surface drainage is no beneath ground but heads northwards for the River Wey, the latter meets the Thames at Weybridge before passing through the capital to the North Sea. Merrow is sited at around 80 metres above the sea but land rises onto the ridge to the south reaching a local high spot of almost 200 metres on the forested slopes above Clandon Park. Merrow parish was sized typically for a rural southern parish, covering close to 1,600 acres it would have supported a population of around 250 parishioners. Merrow is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St John's church sits at a very busy junction where the A25 meets Trodds Lane on the southern side of the main road and alongside the Horse & Groom Inn. Whilst the church has its origins in very early times a major rebuild occurred in 1842 which saw most of the building effectively rebuilt. A few fragments of the 12th century Norman Romanesque remain, Pevsner points to the arch of the northern door with its chevron moulding and scallop capitals and to the southern arcade giving a date of c1200 for them. The work of 1842, however, was major and most parts of the church are not the building in which these marriages occurred. Further restoration work in both 1872 and 1881 added to the changes wrought. The church sits at a very busy junction with no hope of parking close by unless permission is achieved from the inn to use its extensive car park. The churchyard is surrounded by a tall and rather rough flint wall and is extensive with few obstacles for the photographer, the western end is a little restricted being close to that western edge and restricting views of the attractive splay-foot shingled spire.