Summary
A parish church constructed in 1865-1867 and designed by JP Seddon with tower and chancel added in 1903 and 1919 by unknown architects.
Reasons for Designation
The church of All Saints, Chigwell Row, with its boundary walls and lychgate, constructed in 1865-1867 to the designs of JP Seddon with a tower and chancel added in 1903 and 1919 by unknown architects, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* As the work of JP Seddon, a significant Victorian architect particularly celebrated for his ecclesiastical work;
* For the high quality of the craftsmanship and materials.
Historic interest:
* As a good and largely intact example of a Victorian parish church built at the height of the Gothic Revival.
History
Population growth in the Chigwell Row area in the early C19 had, by 1848, led to church services being held in temporary accommodation for a congregation of over 100. The parish of Chigwell Row was formed into an ecclesiastical district within the parish of Chigwell in 1860 and became a parish in its own right on completion of the new Church of All Saints, Chigwell Row in 1867 with J P Seddon (1827-1906) employed as architect.
Seddon is a significant architect and designer, associated with the pre-Raphaelite movement in art and the Gothic Revival in design and a noted designer of stained glass whose concern for design detail was shown in his influential publication ‘Progress in Design and Architecture’ (1852). As well as a number of listed houses, Seddon’s churches include St Peter’s in Ayot St Peter, Hertfordshire (1874, Grade II) and St Catherine’s, Hoarwithy, Herefordshire, (Grade I, 1878-1879). Seddon had worked in practice with the architect John Pritchard from 1852 to 1863 but had started his own practice by the time he was appointed to design Chigwell Row parish church.
Seddon initially designed a substantial building with a west tower with spire and an aisled chancel, but he revised it substantially and a church with nave, aisles and west porch but without the tower and chancel was built in 1865-1867 at a cost of £4,000. It appears that a wholly new design for a smaller church was considered by the parish, but the church as built was part of a revised version of Seddon’s larger building. The consecration service took place on 17th September 1867 attended by the Bishop of Rochester (the church initially being part of that Diocese). The carved stonework was by E Clarke and Son with stained glass by Clayton and Bell and an organ by Bryceson of London. Only one window appears to have been installed to Seddon’s design (a pair of lancets depicting Simeon and Anne in the south aisle), but these were not part of the initial build and date from 1897 when they were made by HG Murray of Belham and Co. Other windows by AL Moore were also installed in the aisles at that time. The chancel was then unbuilt, and the east wall under the chancel arch was blocked except for a small, simple window and a painted scheme executed on the wall below instead of a reredos. Benches were installed all the way to the east end. The east ends of the unfinished aisles were also left blocked.
It was intended to enlarge the building at a later stage but when the tower was added in 1903 JP Seddon had largely retired as a practicing architect and it is not known if he was involved. The tower, without a spire, does not appear to be a part of Seddon’s design and is not integrated into the church as his original scheme proposed. Six bells from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry were installed in 1911 (with a further two added in 1928) at which time Seddon gave a Caen stone pulpit to the church. A contemporary report suggests the design was produced earlier and even if the pulpit was not installed when the church was originally built it might be Seddon’s work.
The chancel and north vestry were added after 1919. The chancel is a single bay in length containing the sanctuary, not the two bays Seddon had intended and without the north and south vestries which were to be accessed from transepts. Stained glass in the new east window was installed in 1923 and a reredos installed in 1924 by WHR Blacking. As part of this reordering it appears a low stone wall was constructed to distinguish an enlarged chancel area from the nave and screens inserted into the east ends of both aisles.
Seddon’s commission also included a rectory which was built near the church in 1867 (later renamed All Saints House and put to different uses). Railings were initially installed along the street boundary to the site, but these were replaced by the current churchyard boundary wall in 1895 with the lychgate added in 1933.
Details
MATERIALS
The church is constructed of Bargate stone rubble on a brick core with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs.
PLAN
The church is traditionally oriented east-west. It comprises a nave with a west galilee porch and a tower at the north-west corner. There are north and south aisles, a chancel and a projecting north vestry.
EXTERIOR
The design of the building is Early English throughout, constructed in coursed rubble with ashlar margins.
The west front consists of a steep gable with central eight-light wheel window and horizontal ashlar bands above a five-bay galilee porch with hipped slate roof on a corbel table. The side two bays of the porch have single lancet windows with cusped heads under hood moulds, the central three bays are moulded pointed- arched openings with stiff leaf decoration at column capitals and hood mould stops with faces on the stops at either end. The west wall of the galilee porch is faced in dressed coursed rubble, but the end walls are in ashlar. The floor is of simple red and black tiles in diamond pattern. In the centre a large pointed arched doorway which contains double timber doors with decorative bracing expressed externally. At either end of the porch a simple, single door opens to the aisles.
The porch turns to form the north and south aisles of the four-bay nave. The south side has four pairs of lancet windows matching those on the west side with a buttress between them. On the north side there are three pairs of such windows, the tower abutting the nave in the westernmost bay. The eastern end of the north aisle terminates in a later vestry projecting from the chancel, that of the south aisle is finished in brick with a blocked arched opening. Above the aisle roofs the four clerestorey windows are sexfoil occuli of plate tracery flanked by plain lancets under a continuous hood moulding. Both aisles and nave have corbel tables under slate roofs matching the porch. A central buttress on each aisle visually continues as a pilaster on the nave walls above with a matching one at the eastern end of the nave.
The four-stage, square-tower is at the north-west corner of the building, set against the aisle with a linking roof hidden behind a parapet. There are four-staged angle buttresses at the corners with a spiral stair in the north west, lancets with trefoil cusped heads on the lower stage, smaller plain lancets above and tall paired louvred openings in the top belfry stage below a crenelated parapet with corner finials.
The chancel is one bay deep with ashlar pilasters at the corners. There is a large east window of three lancets in bar tracery below three quatrefoil occuli. The gable end of the nave, behind, is taller and shows the higher stone course built for the originally-intended chancel roof.
INTERIOR
The north entrance from the porch has a broad, low niche in the north aisle wall. The baptistry is under the tower accessed from the north aisle. In the centre is a font raised on five black marble shafts with a band of foliate decoration around the rim. On the east wall is a memorial to Lieutenant Claude H Trotter (died in October 1918) in the form of a cross made from a broken aircraft propeller.
The nave is of four bays with arcades to north and south of deeply incised arches on round columns and clustered shafts on the responds at either end, all with stiff leaf capitals and stops at the arch springing, each different in detail. At the easternmost column of each arcade a transverse arch crosses both north and south aisles. The clerestory windows above are set behind three continuous arches raised on columns with stiff leaf capitals, giving the impression of a clerestory passage, although they are not linked to form a continuous walkway. The windows feature simple geometric patterns and are largely clear glazed. The nave ceiling is barrel vaulted in dark timber with slender transverse ribs (and is repeated in the aisles). The nave pews are of a simple design with open ends and curved backrest supports.
The north aisle features a low timber door in the external wall enclosing heating pipes to a boiler. Of the three pairs of lancet windows two contain stained glass designed by AL Moore dating from after 1891 and 1893. The eastern window contains plain pale green and blue glass only. The eastern bay of the north aisle is enclosed by oak screens on an ashlar wall to form a vestry with a half-glazed door from the aisle. The aisle ends with the blocked arch (which would have lead to the aisle continuing along the north side of the chancel, had it been constructed as intended) through which is a single door to the vestry extension.
The eastern bay of the south aisle contains the organ and is enclosed by similar timber screens to the north. There are four aisle windows, the central two contain stained glass. The eastern one contains images of Simeon and Anna above a mosaic panel dedicating the window, which dates from the 1882. The western one is of distinctly different design and is dedicated to Dorothy Evelyn Green and installed after 1886.
A war memorial on the south aisle wall consists of three panels below a cornice and round-headed pediment. The inscription reads: ‘IN PROUD AND LOVING MEMORY OF THE MEN FROM/THIS PARISH WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918’ below which are 20 names of the fallen on two panels flanking an image of Saint Michael. Below this is the inscription ‘GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS/THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS’ An additional white marble tablet has been added below containing the names of three fallen of the Second World War. Also in this aisle is a neo-classical style monument to Major Charles Henry Green who was killed in 1917.
The chancel stands in the easternmost bay of the nave with a one-bay sanctuary beyond. There are two steps up to the chancel running between the arcade columns with the pulpit at the north end. This is a square pulpit raised on a plain base in painted stone with relief tracery on the upper part and a projecting book rest with stiff leaf decoration. There is evidence of the low wall on which the vestry and organ loft screens sit having continued to form a previous altar rail on this line. The timber-panelled organ console projects into the nave with a decorative carved canopy at the top which is matched on the rear of the vestry opposite.
The sanctuary is defined by a one-step rise from the chancel under a large arch and a simple C20 altar rail. The sanctuary floor is of plain square tiles and the reredos of 1923 in small-framed oak panelling and painted figures of Christ and Saints Christopher, Alban, Peter and John the Baptist with the shields of the Dioceses of Rochester, St. Albans and Chelmsford in carved niches in the centre. The east window of 1923 by WHR Blacking depicts God enthroned flanked by groups of worshippers.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES
The boundary walls to Romford Road are built of coursed limestone rubble with moulded copings and plinths. Each bay is marked by an upright projection or merlon. At the north and south terminations of the wall are stone posts with pyramidal caps. There are two gateways formed by curved rebates in the wall, historically providing for a carriage drive. The southern gateway (which has lost its original gate leaves) has gateposts with large pyramidal caps decorated with additional gothic lucarnes or gablets. The northern gateway (also missing its gate leaves) is the later lychgate, which stands on ashlar limestone gateposts and has a tiled roof with a half-boarded gable and decorated bargeboards.
