The church did not begin with a building, but with a family. The founder was Robert Lloyd, who came with wife and four young children to Knaphill in June 1867. Mr. Lloyd came from Rugby to be head gardener at the newly opened mental asylum, once Brookwood Hospital, now closed. He was responsible for the laying out of the grounds and gardens, and planned many of the building developments. He became well known as a horticulturist and landscape gardener, and was consulted on the layout of the grounds of other hospitals in the region.
Robert Lloyd came as a committed Christian, a member of the Churches of Christ, and with a passion to share his own living faith with others. This found immediate practical expression:
The first Lord’s Day at Knap Hill found him and his wife with the table spread in their own home, keeping the Memorial Feast, his four children as spectators.
