Elmbridge Online covering Cobham, Esher, Oxshott, Walton and Weybridge

Church Street

Church Street is now the only place in the village where, according to Nairn and Pevsner in their volume on the buildings of Surrey, "fragments of old street composition remain". It is fitting that this part of Cobham should form the backbone of our first Conservation Area. Now a quiet backwater to the busy High Street, in Victorian Cobham Church Street was the centre of trade and commerce. The census returns for 1861 and 1871 list a general store, a stationer, a watch-maker and two butchers as well as other trades.

St. Andrew's Church

The oldest building in Church Street is the parish church of St. Andrew, founded near the banks of the River Mole in c. 1150, during the reign of King Stephen and possibly built on the site of an earlier church. The oldest parts of the present building are from the Norman period; the tower with its arch, the nave, part of the chancel and the fine south doorway. The north Chantry Chapel with its original round pillars and blunt arches dates from the early 13th century: formerly much longer, it was truncated when the north aisle was built in the 19th century and restored as Cobham's War Memorial Chapel in 1919. The south aisle, also a 19th century addition contains three re-positioned 15th century windows.

St Andrew's Church

About 1450 the west doorway was built into the tower which has a ring of six bells, three of them dating from 1687. Amongst the items of interest to be found inside the church is a small, possibly unique, representation in brass of the Adoration of the Shepherds dating from c. 1500: at one time it formed part of a larger composition, the remainder of which is lost. A palimpsest or double sided brass is attached to the base of the arch near the organ and pivoted so that both sides can be seen. On one side is a priest in vestments dating from c. 1510: the brass was then re-used, following the reformation, to engrave a man in armour on the other side which dates from c.1550. This latter figure may be James Sutton a Bailiff of the Manor who died in 1530, or George Bigley the purchaser of all the church ornaments for forty shillings who died in 1558. A much later memorial, also near the organ, commemorates Matthew Arnold the poet, who lived at Pains Hill Cottage for the last fifteen years of his life. At the west end of the south aisle is a stained glass window designed by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones, who is known to have visited the church.

The churchyard, surrounded by some of the oldest houses in the village, forms an attractive part of the Conservation Area. Before leaving the church do not miss the gravestone of David Archibald who allegedly "Died 31st February 1880", or the ancient yew tree in the Garden of Memory which must be the oldest living thing in Cobham.

Church Corner

Near the church, facing Downside Road, is Church Corner now called Church Cottage. John Thorpe was living here in 1598. He supplied the churchwardens with nails and his wife washed the church clothes. This was also the home of William Watts, the engraver, from 1814 until he died in 1851 within a few months of his 100th birthday. Although he lived to hear of the Great Exhibition he distinctly remembered the news of the death of Wolfe at Quebec in 1759 and the accession of George III in 1760. Watts was buried under the 'table tomb' in the churchyard a few yards from his house. He left the property to Miss Dallen, presumably a relation of Mr. Dallen of Holly Lodge in the High Street who started a steam mill in Holly Hedge Road in the mid 19th century.

Pyports

Crossing the road we come to Pyports. The building is especially interesting because of the fine timbered hall hidden behind the trim Georgian facade. William le Pypard appears to have lived here in 1332. In 1755 Henry Skrine was taken across the road to be baptised. As 'Mr. Skrine the Tourist' he produced pioneer guide books to the wilder parts of Britain. After a period of residence by the Freeland family, Sir William Hoste, one of Nelson's officers, had settled here by 1826 and became an enthusiastic gardener. About 1857 Samuel Wesley Bradnack with his wife Juliana and their family arrived: the house was at that time called The Cedars. Samuel was the son of the Reverend Isaac Bradnack, a pioneer Methodist Missionary to the West Indies. By 1862 Samuel Bradnack had established here a private boarding school and would take the boys to the nearest Methodist Chapel at Walton-on-Thames for Sunday services. On his arrival in Cobham Bradnack had offered to unite with the Vicar in forming a Sunday School and he made similar approaches to the Congregationalists; but doctrinal differences prevailed.

Pyports
The trim Georgian facade of Pyports

Eventually Bradnack began his own evangelistic ministry to reach what he termed 'the baptised heathens' of the district. The mission commenced in Downside and later Bradnack opened up his home for services. After three weeks The Cedars could not accommodate the numbers attending and so a barn was fitted up as a place of worship and became the scene of many stirring events, recorded in religious periodicals of the time, of dramatic conversions and "pentecostal outpourings." The revival spread and so did opposition to Bradnack from the established church and, no doubt, from the local publicans whose trade went into rapid decline with the increase of the temperance movement. A visiting nonconformist minister had previously described Cobham as being "drenched in drink and wickedness" (there were about seventeen public houses in the area together with a flourishing brewery at Street Cobham!).

In 1862 the Bradnacks were forced to leave Cobham and moved to Surbiton where the school continued to function for some years, one of its pupils being Thomas Anstey Guthrie, the author of "Vice Versa", a novel which parodied life at the school.

A Methodist Chapel was built in Cedar Road in 1862.

Life at Pyports underwent a dramatic change: in July 1862 the first Cobham Cottage Garden Show was held in a field there by permission of Mr. S. Lowndes. At the dance which followed we are told that "waltzes and polkas followed in quick succession. Both young and old without distinction of social rank, dancing vigorously and happily together in every direction". Surely such gaieties would not have been approved of during the time of Bradnack's residence.

This site is sponsored by Cobham Chamber of Commerce