There has probably been a place of worship on the site of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul for as long as people have lived in the vicinity and even the present church is truly ancient.

For centuries the sight of the elegant spire soaring high above the trees and water-meadows of Godalming has welcomed local people and told them that they are ‘almost home’ again.

But St Peter and St Paul was already old when the oak-timbered spire - with its twelve tons of lead cladding - was built in the thirteenth century: a remarkable feat of engineering for the time.

And while the bulk of the church, as we see it today, is a Norman construction of the late tenth century, there is, within, Saxon stonework which dates back to the ninth century.

Additions, renovations and reconstructions followed with every century leaving its mark on the fabric of the building as they did with the fabric of the town. The constant, of course, was the devotion and service of the church to the people of the parish and today St Peter and St Paul is the hub of a thriving faith community, the heart that beats within the magnificent Bargate stone exterior.

The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Church Street, Godalming GU7 1ES. Parish Office (01483) 414135.