Alfold

It's a boon that I am able to get anything approaching a day off in the run-up to Christmas, though curiously the last week of Advent (if that's what it is, it depends how you count) is often less busy than the penultimate. I did have a booking in the evening, but it allowed me to pop out and check St Nicholas's, Alfold, right on the southern edge of the county and the Guildford diocese, for signs of Catholicism.

I suspect that St Nicholas's was one of those churches which, as far as High Churchery is concerned, got to the point of a Victorian 'restoration' and then stuck. In Alfold the driving force was the mid-19th-century Vicar, RJ Sparkes, who appears in a dreadfully faded photo in the vestry.

In fact the 'restoration' at Alfold was nothing like as drastic as in other places and the church retains its pre-Victorian feel thanks to its 15th-century pews and massive timbers supporting the belfry. Even the addition of the north aisle merely replaced a medieval one which had vanished over the intervening centuries, and the existing arches were uncovered from within the wall so they are genuine enough.

The fittings of the chancel are a different matter. Here we find a piscina based on a medieval original but in its form definitely Victorian: 

The chancel screen apparently includes medieval bits but its form, too, is modern. At some point it has had its doors removed:

The altar, interestingly, consists of a great slab of Purbeck marble which was dug up from the churchyard by Revd Sparkes in 1845. I'm assuming the tiles are modern, too - though it's not a completely simple matter to tell - if only because they skirt around the altar rather than continue under it.

The quaint 19th-century painted reredos has been banished to the south aisle. It depicts an array of saints of varying relevance to the church - Peter, Nicholas (probably), John the Evangelist, and George - which is a gesture in a Catholic direction, but no more than that. It was perhaps removed at the same time as the 'elaborate painted diaper patterns and figures' on the chancel walls, described in the Victoria County History in 1911 as being 'recent', were covered up.

I didn't see any vestment presses, though perhaps they hang the tat up in a locked cupboard, but there are some coloured brocade altar frontals in a cabinet in the main part of the church (I thought it might be covering up a radiator).