St James Church, Abinger

The flint-and-stone church sits quietly on the village road near Westcott, looking rather more like a fortified barn than a place of worship - which is rather the point. St James has been here since the 12th century, and it shows. Walk inside and you're confronted with something genuinely unusual: a lead font from around 1160, one of only a handful surviving in England. The craftsmanship is extraordinary - intricate patterns carved into metal that's been doing its job for nearly 900 years.

This is a church for people who actually care about medieval architecture and Saxon fragments rather than those after a quick Instagram snap. The interior rewards close inspection: look up at the timber roof, check the angles of doorways that reveal how the building's been modified, modified again, and then modified once more over centuries. It's modest in scale but dense with detail.

If you're staying at The Green Escape glamping site nearby - just under three miles away - this makes a proper walk on a decent afternoon. Allow 30-45 minutes to actually look around properly rather than rush through. The churchyard's peaceful, the village is quiet, and there's something rather settling about standing in a space where people have worshipped for 800 years without much fanfare. It won't dominate your Surrey trip, but for anyone with a taste for early medieval craft and the kind of history that isn't shouted about, it's well worth the detour from Westcott.