St Teresa of Avila 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 ...

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 ...

Chiddingfold Chiddingfold is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Weald in the Waverley, Surrey, Waverley district of Surrey, England. It lies on the A283 road between Milford, Surrey, Milford and Petworth. The parish includes the h ...

, 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 Henry Bingham Towner (1909–1997) was an English architect. He is best known for designing churches in Southern England. Biography Early life He was born and raised in Uckfield, Sussex.

. Although it is not a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

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 Barrow may refer to: * Tumulus, a burial mound Places England * Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria ** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, former local authority encompassing the wider area ** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency) * Barrow, Cheshir ...

Witley Witley is a village in the civil parish of Witley and Milford in the Waverley (borough), Waverley district in Surrey, England. It is centred south west of the town of Godalming and southwest of Guildford. The land is a mixture of rural (ran ...

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

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

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

. 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 A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...

. There is an

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

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 space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

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 ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

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 of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

. 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 The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south-west Surrey, England, around south-west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill (Hindhead, Surrey), Beacon Hill, they comprise ...

and St Anselm Church in

Hindhead Hindhead is a village in the Waverley, Surrey, Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England. It is the highest village in the county and its buildings are between and above sea level. The village forms part of the Haslemere parish. Situ ...

. The parish priest also says Mass at Holy Cross Hospital in Haslemere. Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Haslemere was designed by

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 ...

and built between 1923 and 1925. In 1937, windows by

Geoffrey Webb Geoffrey Fairbank Webb CBE (9 May 1898 – 17 July 1970) was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Allied Control Commission during World War II. Early life Webb was born in ...

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