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Friends of Woking Palace |
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The Old Vicarage part one |
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To contact us:email: askus at woking-palace.org |
Registered Charity No.1100852Copyright © 2008 Friends of Woking Palace
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A survey carried out in 1623 referred to the vicarage house being in an acre orchard and garden bounded by the lands of George Dunston a churchwarden in 1635 to the north, on the east by the common highway leading to the river in the south and the river to the west. On the other side of the common highway was a small house with the churchyard to the north, the land of Robert Garret to the east and the river to the south.
A Robert Garrett, clarke appears in the church rate assessments from 1673 to 1684. The rate of 24th February 1681 made specific reference to the repair of the fence wall between the lands of Mr Robert Garrett and the churchyard and the churchwarden’s accounts make reference to £15.15s 0d pd to Henry Boylett for bricks, lyme, sand and all workmanship for building three parts of the wall at the east end of the churchyard (the other part to be paid by Mr Robert Garrett, clerke by agreement made between the parishioners and him). It is interesting to note that the churchwardens mention that Mr Garrett had not, in his capacity as a parishioner, paid his proportion of the parishioners’ contribution, 8d!
There are assessments in respect of the Parsonage for Lord Aungier (1673-6) with tenant and Richard Bird and William Harvest as tenants (1682-5).
There seems no doubt that the house was not used as the vicarage in the 19th century or even in later years. Possibly it was too small for the large families common to Victorian clergymen. The censuses of 1851-81 show the use of the house for the accommodation of curates. What is now The Grange became the Vicarage (or Parsonage) in the early 19th century.
1851 Vicarage House John Bowman curate of Woking and his wife Mary together with Thomas White groom and Eliza Chitty house servant. 1861 Francis White, curate of Woking, his mother Eliza White and two house servants, Harriett Hill and Elizabeth Penning. 1871 Carter William Daking Ireland Moore Member of the Cambridge senate, MA of St John College, Cambridge, clergyman, curate of Woking, Hon. Chaplain to the Royal Dramatic College, Woking and domestic chaplain to Viscount Valentia. In a diary entry of 8th August 1869, Edward Ryde notes, Mr Carter Moore, the new curate. With this distinguished gentleman lived his wife Lucy Fanny and their children, Annesley Valentia Daking Ireland, Mary Windham Mountmorris, Haversham Anglesey Carter William, Drogheda Wentworth Mountcathel and Lucy Beaufort Noel Sarah Somerset plus an annuitant visitor, Georgiana Elizabeth Nurse and a general servant, Ann Edes.
© Phillip Arnold 2007 |
