__NOTOC__ The Church of St John the Baptist, Outwood, is the parish church of Outwood,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Clergy and style of worship

Part of the Diocese of Southwark, the style of worship is traditional and its Christmas Eve services are an afternoon crib service with candles and midnight mass. This is preceded on a preceding Sunday by a carol service. The clergy serve the parishes

Burstow Burstow is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England. Its largest settlement is Smallfield. Smallfield is ENE of Gatwick Airport and the M23 motorway, southwest of Oxted and east of Horley. Crawley is a nearby ...

and Horne as one

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

Building, setting and amenities

;Architecture The early medieval style building was built in 1869 and designed by

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...

. Its tower of 1876 is by W. P. Manning featuring a half-octagonal projection (bastion) beside one of its two buttresses and near the modest porch. The interior has a simple brick design, whilst the exterior is of

knapped Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian, or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing w ...

stone with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ed tower over brick. The church is a

Grade II 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 ...

J. Mordaunt Crook Joseph Mordaunt Crook, (born 27 February 1937), generally known as J. Mordaunt Crook, is an English architectural historian and specialist on the Georgian and Victorian periods. He is an authority on the life and work of the Victorian architec ...

describes it as "outspoken to the point of bluntness", and

Nairn Nairn (; gd, Inbhir Narann) is a town and royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness, at the point where the River Nairn enters the Moray Firth. It is the tradit ...

comments that it is "honest, but not very good". ;Setting The church is bounded on three sides by land owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

: a farm,

common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

meadow and dense woodland. The church has a

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 ...

housing robes for choir and clergy. The church has a maintained graveyard surrounding. ;Amenities The exterior of the church is in local

Reigate Stone Reigate Stone is a freestone that was mined from the Upper Greensand in north east Surrey. It was used in building work throughout the middle ages and early modern period. It is sometimes classified as a calcareous sandstone, although very li ...

and the interior is brick with timbered beams and an acorn-shaped strip wood ceiling. The interior brick finish is intricate pointing, a showcase of Victorian workmanship. The building is heated and supplied with electricity.

Parish

Outwood is a parish of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

which overlaps its

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

. This area's nearest town is

Horley Horley is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England, south of the towns of Reigate and Redhill. The county border with West Sussex is to the south with Crawley and Gatwick Airport close to the town. It has its own ec ...

and has a high proportion of farms and cottages on radiating rural roads making it somewhat dispersed. The church is from the

nucleus Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucle ...

of the village and faces a junction with the last house of a road leading directly to the village. The current parish was formed on 19 August 1870 from parts of five medieval parishes; Burstow, Blechingley, Horley, Horne, and Nutfield, surrounding villages, a close cluster being Burstow (its most populous part being the mainly late 20th century village Smallfield) and Horne.

Other

Bell ringing is practised on Monday evenings."St John's Bells"
Article by Windmill Churches - the congregations of the three parishes of the benefice.

Notes

References