As built All Saints’ was a composite work of art, paid for by a priest blessed with wealth and good taste. The overall design of the exterior, with its sensitive blend of brick, stone and flint, and the even finer interior, with its rood beam and screen framing the altar and reredos at the east end, made it a quite exceptional building. Although most of its treasures have been retained and ‘stitched’ into the fabric here and there, the powerful drama of the original interior has been compromised. 

The original church was built in 1913-14 (chancel) and 1918-19 (nave) for Fr Algernon Lang, who financed the construction. This and the passionate interest of Fr Lang in every aspect of the design ensured that he got the best from the architect and designers.

The architect, James Leonard Williams, came from Harpenden in Hertfordshire. In 1906, in his application for fellowship of the RIBA, he wrote that he “had been many times abroad, sketching and studying in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany in Holland.” It also says he had worked for fifteen years in the office of J.B. Wade, ARIBA, before setting up practice on his own in 1897. The commissions listed in the 1906 RIBA document are all for houses, including several at Oxted. The only two churches he is known to have designed were built considerably later; All Saints, Oxted (1914-28) and St George’s, Sudbury, Middlesex (1926-7). Williams died in 1926, before either church was finished.

An extension was built at the west end in 2001 (architect Deirdre Waddington). Amongst other alterations, the finely carved rood screen, designed by Leonard Williams and made by Bridgeman of Lichfield, formerly at the east end of the nave, now forms part of the division between the new entrance hall and the nave. Part of the pulpit has been set into the wall at the west end of the south aisle. The font is now in the entrance area.

There is a fine presbytery to the west of the church. It was built in 1913 by a builder who had demolished an old house in Godstone and used the salvaged materials in the construction of the new one. It contains some fine plasterwork and fireplaces.

The list description, below, predates the alterations of 2001. It mentions some of the furnishings provided by Geoffrey Webb, but not his two-light window on the north side of the chancel, depicting St Anne and St Joachim (1929). On the south side of the chancel is a single-light window depicting St Hedwig, by Sr Margaret Rope (1923). 

List description

II

Roman Catholic church. Chancel 1913-14, rest 1918-19. By Leonard Williams. Coursed squared stone basement, red and burnt brick above with small panels of flint forming a simplified chequer pattern. Plain tile roof. Late Perpendicular style combining Arts and Crafts elements. Chancel, nave and aisles in one over part basement. Buttresses with set-offs. Chancel has four-light east window and two-light windows to north and south. Nave has low three-light windows. West end has two three-light windows to nave above two Tudor-arched doorways. Two-light windows to aisle ends.

INTERIOR. Arcades with moulded arches dying back into plain piers and responds. Painted and gilded wagon roof the decoration carried out 1928 to the design of Geoffrey Webb. Triple sedilia. Elaborate carved, painted and gilded reredos erected 1927, and made by the Art and Book Co.  It is a copy of Fra Angelico’s Coronation of the Virgin now in the Louvre.  Finely carved rood screen designed by Leonard Williams and made by Bridgeman of Lichfield. Organ Gallery and screen designed by Geoffrey Webb and also made by Bridgeman. Pulpit and sounding board, and font and cover.

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Amended by AHP 11.09.2024

Heritage Details