England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Thursley St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Thursley lies in the extreme southwest of Surrey quite close to the county's border with neighbouring Hampshire and only separated from Sussex by a thin strip of Haslemere parish. Thursley is located in The Weald roughly 5 miles southwest of the market town of Godalming and sits less than a half mile west of the A3 road linking London with Portsmouth. Thursley is a mid-sized crossroads village with a tail heading southwards for over a quarter of a mile to the parish church. For much of its early life Thursley was primarily a typical Wealden parish, much woodland and head managed for traditional products including charcoal, hurdles, poles etc and also for pannage, interspersed within that environment would have been small isolated clearings with subsistence agriculture. During the 15th & 16th centuries an illicit weaving industry, defying the guilds of "cloth towns" such as Godalming flourished under the control of 2 local families before dying out. Like much of The Weald its timber and iron ore deposits were exploited driven by the needs of the navy. Iron Mills were constructed on the brooks of Thursley Common manufacturing cannon & shot with the charcoal used for smelting furnaces. The industrialisation of northern foundries rendered the business uneconomic and it has disappeared leaving only hammer ponds as a record of the industry that once thrived hereabouts. Thursley's new role came with the creation of the London to Portsmouth turnpike leading to a role as a change-over station for the stagecoaches creating many of the villages inns complete with stabling. A 19th century silk weaving industry lasted only a few years leaving Thursley as a farming parish once again. Modern developments have upgraded the A3 to a modern dual-carriageway highway now passing east of the village, a much quieter place than it once was. Small streams drain off the common northeastwards to join the River Wey, after passing through both Godalming and Guildford the Wey heads north to the Thames, here water turns east, through the capital to the North Sea. Thursley is sited at around 100 metres above the sea, on a greensand ridge, to the south hills rise into the surroundings of the Devil's Punchbowl, a natural amphitheatre with the usual legends associated with it (folklore claims the giant depression was created when the Devil scooped up earth to hurl at Thor, God of Thunder), Gibbet Hill standing above is Surrey's second highest point standing at 272 metres. Like most Wealden parish Thursley parish was extensive, covering almost 3,200 acres it would have supported a population of close to 700 parishioners. Also like most Wealden parishes Thursley in not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Michael's church stands to the south of the main concentration of properties in the village, Highfield Lane heads to some farms, performs a right-angled bend around the churchyard with the church on its northern flank. St Michael is renowned for its preserved early fabric from the Saxon or Saxo-Norman period, the oldest parts of the church, both nave and chancel, are 11th century in origin.  Three original double-splayed Saxon windows (two in the chancel and one in the nave) were rediscovered in 1927. They uniquely retain their original 11th-century oak frames and remnants of painted woad decoration. A finely carved Saxon stone font also survives. Like most churches changes have been made over the centuries since but here they were kept to a minimum, the 13th century Early English Gothic era saw only a new chancel arch and southern porch, the early 16th century saw the addition of the slender, shingled wooden belfry and broach spire rising out of the center of the nave roof. Thus it was not until the 19th century that this splendid survival was significantly altered, restoration work in 1860 built the northern aisle and vestry and between 1883 & 1886 the nave was lengthened westwards, a southern transept was added along with a baptistry and the 13th century southern porch replaced. Highfield Lane is of ample width to allow on-street parking by the churchyard, the site has few obstacles and most easily avoidable by the photographer.