All Saints',Woodham

All Saints' Church,Woodham

The village of Woodham, adjacent to New Haw and Addlestone, has a long history, being mentioned in the Charter of Chertsey Abbey in 933, as having been part of the lands given to the Abbey by the Saxon Prince Frithwald. The church, however, is relatively modern and about three miles away from the original hamlet, on the edge of Horsell Common.

It was built in 1894 when the then squire, Mr. Stevens, was dissatisfied with the churches in Woking, wanting something more anglo-catholic. There is nothing known to have been there previously except the common, although the adjacent Six Crossroads junction was marked on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map as a large multijunction on the common. The Buckingham Palace ley goes through both.

Circular section of bank & ditch

When visiting the church, however, something unusual was found. The church seems to be partially surrounded by a circular bank and ditch. Older churches in circular churchyards, such as St. Nicholas, Pyrford, are suspected by archaeologists as having been built on a prehistoric site. This one not only has the circular form, but the bank and ditch too, looking almost like a small henge monument. Can it be that this late nineteenth century church with nothing known here before, was built on an unrecognised prehistoric site?

Today, the circular bank does not extend all round the church, but is only round the west end; also, when going down the footpath the other side of the bank, this is found to straighten out into a linear bank and ditch which extends quite a long distance. This is the boundary between Woodham and Horsell, originally the boundary of land owned by Chertsey Abbey. But why does the linear bank become circular when it approaches the church? Could this part be earlier?

Looking under the rhododendron hedge between the church and the road on the south side of the church, a definite banking is found which looks very like a continuation of the circle, although now broken by the church entrance drive. But if it is prehistoric, there can be none of the usual explanation involving the Christianisation of pagan sites - for it was unknown at the time of the building of this relatively modern church. It would either be a most remarkable coincidence, or an effect of the strange compulsion to build places of worship on leys that we know as subconscious siting.

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