A brief history of Albury
Only the tall ornate chimneys above the houses in the village street indicate that here might be
a village with a tale to tell. Albury is in fact unique among Surrey villages, being the only example
of a 'village transplant'.
Old Albury
For hundreds of years the village with its mill, pub and cottages clustered around the
village green; its ancient church stood as the focus of the village from Saxon times to the mid
19th century. The only unusual feature was its remarkably close proximity to the manor house.
West front of Albury Park Manor House in 1645
The manor house underwent many changes over the years, particularly in the 17th century whilst in the
ownership of the Howard family. Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, was responsible for the
first alterations to the old medieval house.
His grandson, Henry, Sixth Duke of Norfolk, also made extensive alterations, and had the gardens
laid out to the design of John Evelyn, famous diarist and landscape designer - complete with a wide
'canal' fed by the Tillingbourne river, terraces, fine trees, vineyards and a long tunnel through the
hill rising behind the quarter-of-a-mile long terrace. Many of the Howard alterations were destroyed
by a major fire in 1697, and the house was rebuilt by the then owner, Heneage Finch, afterwards First
Earl of Aylesford, Solicitor-General to Charles II.
Albury Park Mansion
The Finch family retained Albury manor-house throughout the 18th century, the Fourth Earl of
Aylesford selling the house and estate to his brother Captain William Clement Finch in 1782,
a naval captain who acquired a fortune as a result of his capture of a Spanish ship. This change
of ownership coincided with the period when it became fashionable for the Lord of the Manor to
live in the isolation of a big house in a private park.
Inevitably, Captain Finch set about creating
more space for himself. He obtained magistrates' orders in l784/5 to close or re-route a number of
roads through the Park, enclosed the village green, incorporated part of the churchyard into his
grounds, and so harassed the villagers that some of them moved away to the nearby hamlet of Weston
Street, (the present Albury).
After Finch's death in 1794, the village was reprieved for a while,
although the harassment was to continue later.
The "Village Transplant"
The Apostles Chapel
In 1819 Albury Park was purchased by the banker and parliamentarian Henry Drummond, an eccentric
man with the wealth and influence to implement his ideas. He became a leading force in the Catholic
Apostolic Church, and showed his single-minded pursuit of his beliefs by hosting an annual conference
at Albury Park and by funding the building of the Apostles Chapel at Albury for the Catholic Apostolic
Church.
In the meantime, the Parish Church was in urgent need of repair and maintenance, so it was against
this background that Henry Drummond applied to the Bishop of Winchester in 1839 for the closure of
the old church in Albury Park, offering to build a new church at Weston Street, where most of the
parishioners were by then living. The old church was closed by Act of Parliament in 1840 and the
last service held in December l841. Thus the present village was founded and the original swept away.
Although Drummond had arranged the closure of the old church, he maintained a close interest in it,
retaining the architect Augustus Pugin to refurbish the south transept as a mortuary chapel for
the Drummond family - a gem of 19th century church art.
Pugin was also employed to entirely
alter the external appearance of Albury Park Mansion between l846 and l852. A prominent feature
of the house, and of Pugin's work, are the 63 chimneys, all different and all researched from
genuine Tudor originals.
The "village transplant" did not take place without opposition, which principally came from Martin
Tupper, the philosopher and author who lived at Albury House. But his protest and petition to the
Bishop of Winchester were of no avail.
He did however have more success when Drummond tried to prevent all access to the old church in
1855; the Bishop ruled that parishioners were 'free to enter at all reasonable hours'.
Albury Park Mansion after 1846
Albury Today
Albury Park and the Estate passed from the Drummonds into the hands of the Dukes of Northumberland
in 1890 and remain there today, with the exception of the house and seven acres of garden, now owned
and administered by the Country Houses Association as apartments for retired professional people.
The Old Church is vested in The Churches Conservation Trust as a building of outstanding historic
appeal and architectural merit. It is open to the public daily throughout the year, and two services
are held annually, a midsummer service and a Christmas Carol Service.
The Street, Albury
The Pugin Chimneys in Albury village
Since the last of the 'Apostles' of the Catholic Apostolic Church died in 1901 the Apostles Chapel
has not been used for services, but kept in readiness for the Second Advent of Christ. It is not open
to the public, but its fine exterior stands out when viewed from the A25 coming down the hill from
Newlands Corner before the turning off to Albury.
Much of the architecture of Albury stems from the mid 19th century when it experienced something of a
rebirth due to the 'village transplant'. But it is the multifaceted chimneys commissioned by Henry
Drummond that are the most distinctive feature - the chimneys are quintessential Albury, past and present.