England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Woldingham St Agatha

The Parish

The parish of Woldingham lies in eastern Surrey not too far from its border with neighbouring Kent and roughly 2 miles east of the suburban town of Caterham. Woldingham sits a similar distance east of the A22 road which links London with the Sussex town of East Grinstead. Woldingham is a much expanded place, indeed, early maps show little more than a hamlet grouped around a fork in lanes immediately south of St Paul's church whereas today's Woldingham is spread for almost a mile either side and graced by the smaller hub of Woldingham Garden Village to its northwest. At the time of this transcript Woldingham was a minor farming parish with the surrounding North Downs grazed principally by sheep. Woldingham's development came as a result of the construction of the London to East Grinstead and to Uckfield railway lines which graced the tiny place a station and lead to leafy suburban growth. As Pevsner rightly says this was lead by the single landowner, William Gilford, who bought the entire parish prior to the railway's arrival and who directed the size and placement of development leading to retaining the village feel. The other modern development that scarcely grazes Woldingham is the modern M25 motorway which keeps below the scarp slope of the North Downs yet is less than 3 miles south of Woldingham. As Woldingham sits on porous chalk there is no surface drainage until London Clays are reached well to the north, here former watercourse are driven sub-street by the urban nature of Greater London before making their way into the Outer Thames. Woldingham is sited at 230 metres above the sea at St Paul's church with the Garden Village some 70 metres lower, an indication of the strongly rolling landscape of chalk downlands in which it sits, local high points at 267 metres on nearby Botley Hill are followed by the steep drop of the chalk escarpment to the south. Woldingham was probably Surrey's smallest parish at a mere 684 acres within which barely 50 parishioners were supported. In Domesday times Woldingham was equally obscure, a holding of Count Gilbert's son Richard it could muster just 4 ploughs as its sole assets.

The Church

St Agatha's church sits some 3/4s of a mile south of its replacement, St Paul, on the southern side of Church Road and almost the southernmost part of the village. Whilst the former church is first mentioned in documents dated 1296 today's building actually dates from 1832 when it was rebuilt in flint as a tiny chapel. Despite restoration and enlargement in 1889 and the addition of a porch in 1901 it was eventually deemed less convenient than St Paul which stands nearer most residents. Whilst undoubtedly a picturesque small church it was clearly of little architectural interest for Pevsner whose account is a mere 5 lines of largely descriptive text. Church Road heads west from the briskly busy Northdowns Road almost opposite the large golf club, it is narrow and the verges are protected by large rough edged stones to deter off-road parking, wise parking is required. A small churchyard is entered by a wooden gate and has many trees which markedly restrict the angles available for the photographer.