St Peter's Church, Wrecclesham
grade II listed church in Farnham, Waverley, Surrey, England, UK
St Peter's Church is an active Anglican Parish church in Wrecclesham, a village outside Farnham in Surrey. It is in the deanery of Farnham, the archdeaconry of Surrey and the Diocese of Guildford. The church was consecrated in 1840 and is a Grade II listed building.
History
Church
In 1820 Wrecclesham was seen as a village of not having the best of reputations. The situation so disgusted an Australian who had come to live in Farnham that he wrote to a publication, The Speaker, as follows:
There is one licence to every 126 inhabitants (in Farnham), with the result that during the eight months I have been in the district I have seen more drunk people than during the previous 12 years in Adelaide, with a population more than ten times as large. It is very necessary that something be done to lessen the evil, which is even worse in the surrounding villages. About two miles from here is a village called Wreekelsham (sic), with a population of 600, and in its main street there are five licensed houses within 200 yards, besides another in a side street, and several grocer's licences. On Monday afternoons the whole village is drunk, and one has to drive through it very carefully.
The Bishop of Winchester, who lived at the nearby Farnham Castle, after hearing about Wrecclesham, decided to build a church to 'bring the worship of God into the village'. A collection to fund the church was begun and after raising £1000 the building work started.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “St Peter's Church, Wrecclesham” as grade II listed church in Farnham, Waverley, Surrey, England, UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as grade II listed church in Farnham, Waverley, Surrey, England, UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7595307. Authority coordinates are 51.198, -0.818. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1840, 1820 and 1000.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “St Peter's Church, Wrecclesham”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow St Peter's Church, Wrecclesham primary sources, St Peter's Church, Wrecclesham archive and Peter's research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “St Peter's Church, Wrecclesham”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “St Peter's Church, Wrecclesham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.