St Teresa of Avila Church is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

Chiddingfold Chiddingfold is a village and civil parish in the Weald in the Waverley district of Surrey, England. It lies on the A283 road between Milford and Petworth. The parish includes the hamlets of Ansteadbrook, High Street Green and Combe Common ...

, Surrey. It is situated on the corner of Petworth Road and Woodside Road in the centre of the village, next to the cricket green of Chiddingfold Cricket Club. It was built in 1959 and designed by Henry Bingham Towner. Although it is not a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

stated, "The church makes an important contribution to the townscape of Chiddingfold,"Chiddingfold – St Theresa of Avila
from

. Retrieved 17 February 2015 and that it of all the churches designed by Bingham Towner they stated, "we judge St Theresa of Avila to be the best of the churches we have seen."

History

Foundation

In 1953, Josephite priests from Barrow Hills School in

Witley Witley is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, England centred south west of the town of Godalming and southwest of Guildford. The land is a mixture of rural (ranging from woodland protected by the Surrey Hills AO ...

came to Chiddingfold to serve the local Catholic population. They said

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

in a small hut in the village.StTeresaChiddingfold.co.uk
Retrieved 18 February 2015

Construction

In 1959, construction on the church began. The architect was Henry Bingham Towner. He designed the church so that it occupied exactly the same space as the previous building on the site. The church opened on 15 October 1959.

Architecture

The church is

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

. There is an

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

running down the centre of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, parallel to one on the north side. The

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

is semi-circular. The ceiling is not separated, there is no divide between the nave,

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

s and the sanctuary. The south transept has a porch on its west side, and a side chapel on its east. The north transept is attached to the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

. The walls of the church are made of stone and the roof is made of slate.

Exterior

File:Recreation Ground, Chiddingfold by Dave Spicer Geograph 2669632.jpg, View across cricket green St Teresa of Avila's Church, Woodside Road, Chiddingfold (May 2014) (3).JPG, West side of church File:St Teresa of Avila's Church, Woodside Road, Chiddingfold (May 2014) (5).JPG, Back of the church File:Geograph-3817674-by-Basher-Eyre.jpg, East side of church

Parish

St Teresa's Church is in the same parish as Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Haslemere and St Anselm Church in Hindhead. The parish priest also says Mass at Holy Cross Hospital in Haslemere. Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Haslemere was designed by Frederick Walters and built between 1923 and 1925. In 1937, windows by Geoffrey Webb were installed in the church. St Anselm Church is in the Beacon Hill area of Hindhead. The site upon which it stands was bought in 1950 for £700. In 1954, the church was open and became its own parish. In the 2000s, the parishes of Haslemere, Hindhead and Chiddingfold became one.History
from StAnselmHindhead.co.uk. Retrieved 18 February 2015 St Teresa's Church has one Sunday Mass at 9:00 am, it also has a weekday Mass at 10:00 am on Wednesday. Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Haslemere has its Sunday Mass at 11:00 am, its weekday Masses are at 10:00 am on Monday, 12 noon on Thursday and 10:00 am on Saturday. St Anselm Church in Hindhead has its Sunday Mass at 6:00 pm on Saturday evening and a weekday Mass at 10:00 am on Tuesday. File:St. Anselm's church, Beacon Hill, Surrey..jpg, St Anselm's Church, Hindhead File:Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Weydon Road, Haslemere (June 2015) (2).JPG, Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Haslemere

References

External links

Haslemere Parish site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiddingfold, Saint Teresa of Avila Roman Catholic churches in Surrey Roman Catholic churches completed in 1959 1959 establishments in England 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom