St Paul's, Nork

I was looking forward to going to see Nork church, and my expectations weren't disappointed. Nork was a daughter church of the longstanding Catholic parish of Banstead; the building, dating from the 1930s, was intended to remain a parish hall but when it became clear that the permanent church was never actually going to be built, the hall was retained as the church itself. The aisles are a 1950s addition. St Paul's was made a parish in its own right in 1959, and then amalgamated with Burgh Heath in 2018. Nork hides away in the suburbs of Epsom, but a community with its own identity.

St Paul's a perfect illustration of the law that liturgical fittings and arrangements linger long after the patterns of worship that gave rise to them have changed. There is an aumbry, but I suspect empty; a holy water stoup, but with no water. At some point the church has been reordered, leaving the old font (very like the one in Guildford Cathedral) lost at the west end, and replaced by a portable one; the high altar has given way to one that can be brought in from the side; there is a shadow of an old pulpit on the floor. The Lady Chapel survives (with a luminous window of the Virgin, dedicated in memory of Marie Lloyd of all people) but is stuffed with chairs. 

I was lucky enough to be shown around by the administrator, so in the vestry-cum-office I found a nice black Roman set and some Lenten Array, which probably gets used no more often than the thuribles and incense-boats in their box.