10.30am – coffee at St John’s church, Church Lane, Bisley GU24 9DX (in fields about half a mile East of Bisley village)
Park outside gates to the church, and walk 200 yds to the church along a gravel path.
10.50am – tour of the church. The church is 13C with Victorian additions
Set in open country beside a gigantic yew.It has a fine timber porch, and a shingled spire supported by massive oak timbers (visible inside).The simple interior contains a small Jacobean pulpit and a small medieval font. A sketch map will be available to guide to next church, 15 mins 6 miles South.
12.15pm–1.30pm – lunch at St Edward Brotherhood, a Greek Orthodox Monastery Cemetery Pales GU24 OBL (on St Cyprians Avenue inside Brookwood Cemetery)
Park in designated area between the church (pictured above) and the monastic residence It is suggested that all participants bring their own picnic lunch as the huge cemetery (funded 1854 to take a trainload of bodies every day for burial) is a now a beauty spot with fine trees.There are wooden seats beside the parking place. If raining, we can eat inside the refectory.
The Guest master, Father Niphon, will give a brief talk about the church. The monastery, which has received an Surrey Churches Preservation Trust grant and is an SCPT member, is a leading centre of the Greek Orthodox church and guards the relics of the Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Martyr who was murdered in 978.The church is in Arts & Crafts style, 1910. Over the past decade, it has had a new iconostasis and many new icons. Approx 12 miles, 40 minutes to:
3.30pm – St Bartholomew’s church, Wanborough GU3 2JR
Turning left off the main road you will encounter the 14C Wanborough Great Barn on the left which
has a big car park or carry on 100 yards to park outside the church.The church, which has Saxon origins, is one of the smallest in Surrey.
Reconstructed by the monks of Waverley Abbey, abandoned after the Dissolution of monasteries, and then restored in the 19C by Woodyer, it is now a daughter church of nearby Puttenham.We shall be given a brief talk about the church and its history, then tea will be served in the nearby church hall.
Cost: £5 for SCPT members; £10 for non-members. Can be paid on the day
To book a place: please email sjosmond@gmail.com or call 01252 716772.
Sketch maps with directions will be available on the day. I will have my mobile on during the day: 07826 010190
Sam Osmond SCPT Hon Sec and organiser of this tour.
