Charlwood is a village and civil parish in the far southern reaches of Surrey whose village church is less than a mile from the western end of the runway as the crow (or jet plane!) flies at Gatwick Airport which, until very recently, was the busiest single runway airport in the world. This proximity to London’s second airport has resulted in the village living with the threat of total destruction as a consequence of airport expansion since the 1970s.

Home to a little under 2,500 people, Charlwood is a village of Saxon origin (‘The Wood of the Ceorls’; a freeman with the right to bear arms) and, in common with many ancient towns and villages across The Weald, early settlers were drawn to the area by the abundance of iron ore to be found below ground and the timber, required to smelt and forge that ore, that was growing above. By Tudor times, the area was of such importance to the iron industry, particularly in the manufacture of ordnance for the Crown, that Charlwood and Leigh were specifically excluded from an act passed in 1558 for the purpose of protecting mature woodland from destruction.

With the exception of, and perhaps in no small part due to, the noisy hub of international air travel a mere stone’s throw to the south east, Charlwood seems to have escaped much of the urban expansion which is prevalent across the south east of England and, as such, the wider parish is rich in ancient trackways and isolated farmsteads providing us with an increasingly rare window into our past. The Parish has 85 listed buildings – almost 10% of the total number of households – and amazingly 28 of these are of the medieval open hall type, more than in any other parish in the county of Surrey.

This makes Charlwood an ideal place for a Tudor tour and with a richness of ancient architecture dispersed over such a wide area, a single article would not do the area justice so this walk will be spread over two parts and include the neighbouring parish of Leigh, which itself has a handful of magnificent buildings surviving from the Tudor era. This rural tour has a more personal feel for me than those which I usually undertake as I discovered relatively recently that, despite neither of them being born or ever having lived in Charlwood, both of my maternal grandparents have ancestral connections to the area. These are particularly strong on my grandmother’s side and my great great great grandparents, William and Ellen Edwards, are buried together in the churchyard at Charlwood.
In part two we will pull on our walking boots and visit the isolated farmsteads and the parish of Leigh, but for part one we will look at the village itself, and what better place to start than at the grade 1 listed Church of St. Nicholas.

Church of St. Nicholas

The nave and lower parts of the tower of St Nicholas date back to 1080 and are of a typical Norman design, probably built on the site of a wooden Saxon predecessor. Whilst no physical evidence has been discovered, the construction of such a large Norman church so soon after The Conquest demonstrates that a well-established Saxon settlement must have existed here. An alternative theory, presented by some local commentators, is that Charlwood was a centre of Saxon resistance against the conquering Norman forces and that the church was impressively built by forced Saxon labour in order to overawe and subdue the local insurgents and to act as a defendable centre of local Norman administration. This theory is given some credence by the omission of Charlwood from the Domesday Book, though it certainly wouldn’t be the only Saxon settlement missing from the survey.

Over the following 600 years the church underwent significant expansion with the south aisle being added in 1280, the vestry in 1330 and the porch and chancel in 1480. The final change to the fabric of the church came about in 1660 when the tower gained some extra height to celebrate the re-instatement of the Royalist Rector Thomas Mulcaster following the restoration, a change clearly visible in the masonry when viewed externally.

During a mid Victorian restoration it was discovered that the southern wall hosted paintings which had been whitewashed out of sight by Sir Thomas Saunders during the reformation. The paintings tell tales of St. Margaret, St. Nicholas and The Three Princes and it has been established that they are contemporary with the construction of the south aisle in 1280. Separating the chancel from the rest of the church is a fine screen which constitutes the largest medieval wood carving to be found in Surrey. The screen, described as ‘the chief glory of the church’ by Ruth Sewill in her book The Free Men of Charlwood, was constructed in the 1480s when the chancel itself was built in order to expedite the soul of 30 year old Richard Saunders, grandfather of Sir Thomas, to heaven. Amongst the many carvings on the screen are the initials RS, which appear four times. One can assume that the screen survived the reformation solely because it was built in dedication to the grandfather of the man charged with implementing the switch of the church to Protestantism. You will read more about the Saunders family, and their very Tudor connections, in part two. Of other antiquities within the church, the octagonal pulpit dates to the middle of the 16th century and the parish muniment chest was constructed in 1539 to house the parish registers.

Church of St. Nicholas

The 13th century wall paintings, the 15th century screen and the 16th century pulpit and parish muniment chest

During the reformation, inventories of ‘church goods’ were compiled, the aim of such an exercise being to identify and remove anything that could be considered ‘Romish’ and, of course, to fill the King’s already bulging pockets. The Commission for Church Goods, Inventories and Miscellanea in Surrey, headed by Sir Thomas Saunders, visited Charlwood on 17 Oct 1552 in order to compile the inventory of the parish and the items recorded include 6 copes (a cape worn by a priest) of varying colour and material, various vestments (a clerical robe), ‘other clothes’, alter cloths/shrouds and their cases, sliver chalices, 1 pair of great and 3 pairs of small Latin candlesticks, a brass vessel for holy water, Pewter basins, hand bells and crosses. The inventory at Charlwood is very much in line with those taken at other churches across Surrey so this wasn’t an overly wealthy parish with a church laden with valuable chattels donated by well off parishioners.

The church is unusual in that, from the time of its building until 1846 when it transferred to the Diocese of Winchester, it was an outlying parish in the Diocese of Canterbury and answerable directly to the Archbishop there; a ‘peculiar’ of Canterbury. The parish must have been a rebellious one because, in 1170, the Rector of Charlwood was ex-communicated by Archbishop Thomas Becket just four days before he was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral.

As we open the 13th century oak door and step outside, we will tread upon the Tudor causeway leading from the door, through the lychgate and offering dry passage for pedestrians heading in both easterly and westerly directions through the churchyard and beyond; a path of local Charlwood stone laid, no doubt, as much for the benefit of the church cleaner as for that of the parishioners, who would have previously waded through the heavy sticky yellow clay, so predominant in The Weald, in order to reach their place of worship.

The Tudor era causeway through the churchyard

From the church we walk eastwards along the causeway and past the yew tree, which is as old as the church itself, towards the Half Moon. Though not listed, the older parts of this public house, which was almost certainly built on the site of a preceding hostelry, date back to 1550. Next door to the pub is Temple Bar House, a relatively modern looking painted brick built house, but underneath the façade is a timber framed hall house that possibly dates back as far as the early 1400s making it a possible, and certainly unexpected, contender for the title of ‘the oldest house in Charlwood’.

In 2003, a project was carried out in Charlwood to dendro-date some of the most important buildings in the parish. This has provided accurate dating for some 20 properties around the area and means that I can say with certainty that the front runner for the ‘oldest house…’ crown is the building opposite the pub, The Cottage. This is the house with the oldest confirmed date of construction within the parish; the cross wing of The Cottage has been dated to 1402 and the road facing section to 1442. This suggests that the main wing was probably constructed in place of an earlier building on the site. The house was originally an open hall with a smoke bay being added in the late 16th century and the chimney was built within the smoke bay during the early parts of the 17th century. Said to be haunted by the ghost of an old lady that only children can see, the house was originally jettied, but this was underbuilt with the brick we see today during the 19th century.

The Half Moon 

Temple Bar House 

The Cottage (The Street)

From your position outside of the Half Moon facing the cottage, you can follow the narrow street either way to reach the main road through the village. Almost opposite either end of the little crescent from which you emerge is Hunts, the main section of which dates back the very early 17th century. The cross wing of 1620 to the right and the later cross wing to the left were both once jettied, but are now underbuilt.

From Hunts, head eastwards for 150 metres or so and then turn left into Rosemary Lane. If you pass the village lock up, a small 2 cell jail of the early 19th century, and continue straight ahead down the rough track you will see to your left the partially timber framed Sun Cottage, dating to the very end of the Tudor period. Returning back to the made up road and heading north east along Rosemary Lane you will soon come to the chocolate box Tudor Cottage. Built in 1550 as a 2 bay open hall, a wooden chimney was added at a later date. Unsurprisingly, the idea of using wooden chimneys as a conduit for smoke removal was soon discarded as they didn’t really possess the qualities necessary for such a job, so the extant brick chimney was built inside the framework of the wooden chimney. Quite rarely, some of this framework survives within the house.

Hunts

Sun Cottage

Tudor Cottage

Continuing along Rosemary Lane as it becomes a footpath will lead you to Swan Lane where you should turn left into the cul-de-sac. The third building on your left, is Mores, a mid-16th century 2 bay open hall house with a subsequent third bay added. Mores is unusual in that first impressions are that the width of the house has been shortened to meet the chimney and we’ve lost a bay at the end of the house, but in fact the smoke bay in which the chimney resides was built outside, meaning that the house has been widened with the half hipped end section of the roof being brought up to a gable end in order to accommodate the smoke bay. Most of the house has been refaced in painted brick and tiles, but the timber framing is still visible on the southern wall. At the end of Swan Lane is Swan Cottage, constructed in 1460 as another 2 bay open hall. The single bay of the hall was floored over and a chimney added in the early part of the 17th century. The original partition between the open bay and the service bay is extant.

Mores

Swan Cottage

Performing an about turn and walking to the eastern end of Swan Lane will take you to Chapel Lane, where a right turn will bring you back to the main road and the common, now playing fields, will be opposite you. Turn left here and after 250 metres you will arrive at Lowfield Heath Road. To the east of the road is a pond and a collection of farm buildings, all part of Charlwood Place Farm which was built in 1590 with an original central chimney – a very early example of such a build which would have been cutting edge architecture at the time! To the west of the road is Spicers Farm Barn, an early 16th century example of a 3 bay barn with a 17th century single bay extension to the left. The barn, which is still in use, predates the current farm house building by a century strongly suggesting a much earlier farm existed here.

Charlwood Place Farm 

Spicers Farm Barn