A nicely composed and well detailed, traditional-detailed building of some architectural quality, built at the expense of railway magnate George Pauling. Set in a burial ground with a lychgate at the entrance, the site makes a positive contribution to the local conservation area.   

The church of Our Lady of Sorrows was opened in October 1913. A presbytery was built at the same time, behind the church. The land was given, and the church built, furnished and endowed by George Pauling, a South African and Rhodesian railway magnate who lived in The Lodge (opposite). Pauling was a Catholic convert, and had previously established a private chapel at The Lodge to serve as a local Mass centre. In 1912 he also paid for the rebuilding of the Catholic church at St Ives, Huntingdonshire. Most sources name the architect for Our Lady of Sorrows as Edward Bonner, but information in him is elusive, and contemporary newspaper reports (e.g. The West Surrey Times, 25 October 1913) name a Mr Hinsley as ‘advisory architect’ and Messrs Gaze of Walton as the builders. ‘Mr Hinsley’ may have been Charles Joseph Hinsley, a London builder and surveyor, who was the older brother of Arthur Hinsley, future Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, who at this time was parish priest at nearby Sutton Park.

From the outset, the church was richly fitted out. The newspaper report cited above wrote: ‘It is doubtful whether there is a more beautiful baldacchino in any village church in the country. This gracefully carved structure over the altar is supported by marble columns with floral carved capitals. The altar is fronted with Verona marble and the altar rails are of the same stone. The holy water stoups are formed of Carrara marble.’ The history on the parish website names Bernard McAdam of Putney as the designer of the baldacchino; sadly, it was removed in a reordering of 1976.

George Pauling died in 1918 and is buried in the churchyard. A stained glass window by Hardman and a Carrara marble Pieta were installed in the church and a lychgate built at the churchyard entrance in his memory.

Description

The church is set well back from the road, within a churchyard and with a lychgate at the entrance. Ian Nairn in the original Surrey volume of The Buildings of England wrote of the building “It looks more medieval than the parish church” and, at first glance, Our Lady of Sorrows might be mistaken for a thirteenth century Downland church. It has a sturdy tower with a pyramidal roof, catslide roofs sweeping down to cover both aisles, and walls faced with knapped flint.

Inside the church looks equally traditional. It has an open timber roof supported by a tall arcade and the walls are painted white. There is a font thought to date from the sixteenth century in the southeast corner, which came from a church in Oxfordshire; it has also been painted white. The baldacchino in the sanctuary was removed in a reordering of 1976, when the marble altar rails were probably also removed and a round window with abstract coloured glass formed in the east wall. At this time also, the memorial Pieta, probably of Italian workmanship, was moved out of the church to its present position in the churchyard (the present tabernacle plinth incorporates part of the original base of the Pieta). A stained glass window depicting St George in the south aisle (by Hardman, 1919), is a memorial to George Pauling. Another window in the south aisle (St Alban and St Anthony of Padua) is in the style of Mayer of Munich and may be a memorial to Pauling’s mother, who died in 1916.

Entry amended by AHP 28.10.2026

Heritage Details