St Joseph's Church is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. It was founded in 1872 with help from the

Duke of Norfolk Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The premier non-royal peer, the Duke of Norfolk is additionally the premier duke and earl in the English peerage. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the t ...

. It is situated in Falkland Grove in the town. It is the only Catholic

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

in Dorking and is served by the

Diocese of Arundel and Brighton The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton () is a diocese in southern England covering the counties of Sussex and Surrey (excluding Spelthorne, which is part of the Diocese of Westminster). The diocese was erected on 28 May 1965 by Pop ...

History

Foundation

Historically, the Dukes of Norfolk were major landowners in the Dorking area. They were a Catholic family and had their own

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

s, who also served the needs of local Catholics in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, (27 December 184711 February 1917), styled Lord Maltravers until 1856 and Earl of Arundel and Surrey between 1856 and 1860, was a British Unionist politician and philanthropist. He served as Postmas ...

originally owned the site of present-day Falkland Grove, and it was there that the duke and duchess financed the building of a church to serve the local Catholic congregation. In 1871 or 1872, a temporary structure was erected to be a church. The "unpretentious structure" stood on Coldharbour Lane. Catholic schools were established soon afterwards.

Construction

In 1895, the church was rebuilt and the architect

Frederick Walters Frederick Arthur Walters (5 February 1849–3 December 1931) was a Scottish architect working in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, notable for his Roman Catholic churches. Life Walters was born on 5 February 1849 at 6 South Terrace, Brompton, Lond ...

was brought in to design it. It was built in place of the old church and the land was donated by the Duke of Norfolk to the newly created parish. He also made a contribution to the cost of the building. It was built as a memorial to Minna Fitzalan-Howard and is in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style. The first Mass was celebrated on 26 June 1895. A statue of Saint Joseph is in the garden next to the church. St_Joseph_Statue_Dorking

Parish

School

The church has a close relationship with the nearby St Joseph's Catholic Primary School. St Joseph's is the only Catholic school in Dorking and was founded alongside the church in 1873, also by the Duchess of Norfolk. In 1887, a group of Servite Nuns ran the school and continued to do so until 1970. In that year the school moved to its present site on Norfolk Road.School History
from St Joseph's School Dorking, retrieved 1 May 2013

Church

From 1 January 2022, the church has two Masses, 6:00pm on Saturday evening and 10:00am on Sunday morning, with varying times for particular occasions, such as Easter and Christmas.
from St Joseph's Catholic Church, retrieved 25 February 2020.

References

Bibliography

External links

St Joseph's Parish site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's Church, Dorking Roman Catholic churches completed in 1895 Roman Catholic churches in Surrey Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Surrey 1895 establishments in England

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

Frederick Walters buildings 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom