St Laurence's Effingham has had a definite Catholic tradition though as with many churches it isn't what it was. Holy water stoups are all empty at the moment, but Effingham's greets you along with a little statue of the BVM on a windowsill nearby:
You will have noticed that the holy water stoup is made from a medieval original, and the church as it is now is something of a co-operation between eras. The east end is all lavish Victoriana, a restoration of 1888 with additions ...
... while the south transept is medieval and totally different. Pevsner, more than a little unfairly, describes it as 'the only part of the church with any character':
It's here that you can find an icon of Our Lady (just about visible on the wall in the photo) and an aumbry, again set into a medieval niche and clearly still used although the rather spindly stand for tealights acting as the sacrament lamp is at present unlit:
The splendid high altar is presently neglected in favour of a strange though very Gothic and Catholic sort-of cupboard pressed into sacred service in the nave:
Finally there are perhaps traces of former practices to spot. Was the prie-dieu in the transept there for confessions, and was the War Memorial in the churchyard originally a War Shrine? The corpus might suggest so.
A short and easy footpath takes you from St Laurence's to Little Bookham church, somewhat disconcertingly as it doesn't feel that the two buildings should really be this close together. Here, the restoration of 1869 left virtually nothing of the older church visible, and after that event the Catholic movement seems to have gone no further; there wasn't even a dedication until 1986, when the church became All Saints'. The reredos and east window are splendid, but that's about it.
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