St Mary's Church, Guildford St Mary's Church, Guildford St Mary's Church is an Anglican church in Guildford in Surrey, England; the church's Anglo-Saxon tower is the oldest surviving structure in the town. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the author Lewis Carroll, preached here and his funeral was held in the church in 1898. Coming under the Diocese of Guildford, the church has been Grade I listed since 1953. A stone Anglo-Saxon church built in about 1040 AD the tower of which still stands today, St Mary's Church is believed to stand on the same site as Guildford’s first church which was probably a small timber structure
Charles Dodgson (priest) College, Oxford, and who was a friend of Dodgson, used to walk over to visit Daresbury on Sundays, sometimes helping with the church services. Bayne would bring his son Vere, who became a lifelong friend of the young Charles Lutwidge. Other friends and visitors included Richard Durnford, Rector of Middleton, Lancashire; Francis Egerton, Member of Parliament for South Lancashire and John Wilson Patten, MP for North Lancashire. Dodgson was concerned about the canal workers on the Bridgewater Canal running past his parish. Together with Egerton, who was a wealthy local landowner, he converted a barge into a floating chapel, moored