St. Michael's Churchyard, Mickleham

St. Michael's Churchyard is the church and graveyard located in Mickleham, Surrey, England, belonging to the Church of England parish of Mickleham.

St. Michael's Church, Mickleham
51°16′03″N 0°19′24″W
Location	near Old London Road and Swanworth Lane, Mickleham, RH5-6
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
History
Consecrated	around 950 to 1180
Architecture
Style	Norman
Years built	950–1180 (original structure)
Specifications
Number of towers	1
Number of spires	1
Administration
Province	Canterbury
Diocese	Guildford
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name	Church of St Michael
Designated	28 November 1951
Reference no.	1028835

History

The church building dates back to the Anglo-Saxon and Norman period from 950 to 1180, but some changes to the building were made in 1823, 1842, 1872 and 1891.^[1][2][3]

Notable burials

There are 867 recorded burials, but more are accounted for since 1891, not including those from 950 to 1891. The graveyard is the final resting place of

• Philippa Walton (1674/5–1749), businesswoman and gunpowder factory owner^[4]
• Thomas Grissell (1801–1874), public works contractor^[5]
• Anne Manning (1807–1879), novelist^[6]
• Maria Kinnaird (1810–1891), widow of Thomas Drummond.
• Trevor Lawrence (1831–1913), had famous orchid houses at Burford Lodge in the parish. He was the grandfather of Cyril Hare's wife.^[7]
• Richard Bedford Bennett (1870–1947), Prime Minister of Canada and a member of the House of Lords. Bennett's grave is located steps from the front of the church doors and has a marker from the Government of Canada signifying the important figure buried there.^[8]
• John Norton-Griffiths (1871–1930), "Empire Jack", the driving force behind the Tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers in WW1, was buried here on 18 October 1930.
• James Jeans (1877–1946), physicist, astronomer, mathematician^[9]
• Graham Gilmour (1885–1912), pioneer aviator. Killed in a plane crash in Richmond Park.
• Cyril Hare (1900–1958), detective story writer, who was born in Mickleham Hall in 1900 and died at Westhumble in the parish in 1958.
• Janet Gladys Aitken (1908–1988), socialite
• John Junor (1919–1997), controversial editor of the Sunday Express and The Mail on Sunday.

References

1. "Leatherhead, Surrey websites – a selection".
2. Historic England. "Church of St Michael (1028835)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
3. "History". St. Michael and All Angels Church.
4. Fairclough, K. R. "Walton [née Bourchier], Philippa (1674/5–1749), gunpowder manufacturer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48262. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
5. Port, M. H. "Grissell, Thomas (1801–1874), public works contractor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49437. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
6. Armstrong, Mary A. "Major-generals (act. 1655–1657)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17969. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
7. Curthoys, M. C. "Lawrence [née Senior], Louisa (1803/4–1855), horticulturist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
8. "Leatherhead, Surrey websites – a selection".
9. Meadows, A. J. "Jeans, Sir James Hopwood (1877–1946), mathematician and astronomer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34164. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

• St. Michael's Churchyard, Mickleham at Find a Grave