St Mary's Church, Oxted

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Fri, 01/05/2026 - 00:00

The Church of St Mary the Virgin in the town of Oxted in Surrey has a rather squat tower, which suggests a construction date in the 1100s. The inside is awash with the usual paraphernalia of an elderly village church, including a medieval font, Elizabethan memorials and a range of window styles. Two things in particular set me wondering. The first was a late seventeenth or early eighteenth-century memorial plaque, undated, with features an angel with a distinctive hairstyle (below). He was either based upon a 1980s rock singer, or a seventeenth century, periwigged gent, which I think the more likely. The angelic races neither follow not imitate our earthly fashions, but I suppose they would appear like one of us should they make an appearance. The artist might be more justified than I first imagined, therefore.

The other feature is the wonderfully old south door by which one passes to enter the building. Apart from the well worn oak, its age is given away by the little carvings of faces which are found at head height. One bearded gentleman, below, is harder to date, but a female colleague wears a distinctive headdress that would have been fashionable about 1370-1430 (my limited expertise in ladies’ fashions of that period cannot offer greater accuracy). Who these individuals are, I cannot tell, but hundreds of thousands of people have passed them over the centuries to enter that church.

Jesus Christ alone is the ‘door’ to God the Father and His Kingdom. Yet often, the Lord uses other people to bring us to Himself: parents, grandparents, friends, neighbours, evangelists, et al. Somehow, their little heads or faces are on the door by which we enter the state of salvation. They cannot save us, but they can point us to One who can; they cannot open the door to heaven, but they can be a part of the process by which the Lord swings it wide and bids us welcome. May God be pleased to use us to usher others into the fold.