Photographs of the original Vicarage
The Vicarage suffered a terrible fire in 1930 as the photographs below show. The Reverend A J Wheeler lived there. He saved his pet spaniel from the fire by lowering the dog from a window in a quilt. His wife and daughter had to make their own way out. Unfortunately some church records were destroyed in the blaze as the vicar had taken them home having removed them from the church safe. Revd Wheeler was responsible for uncovering the 12th Century sedile (a group of stone seats for clergy in the south chancel wall of a church, usually three in number and often canopied and decorated, OED) in the church and for discovering in 1927 the Saxon windows in the chancel. After the fire, the Revd Wheeler bought the Haybarn field at Smallbrook Farm and converted a yard and barn used for the cattle and known as "The Hovel" into a bungalow, which then got rebuilt by Paul Wedge. Sadly, the Revd Wheeler could not stay due to his asthma induced by the cattle. He had to sell and move away. He and his wife divorced and he left the ministry. Mary Bennett said that he ran off with his ward. He was vicar of Thursley from 1925 - 1932.
The lower end of the fire damage. The Vicarage building was nearly identical to the school building.