Saint Alban's Church is a Grade II listed building in the Epping Forest local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 January 1972. A Victorian Church. 2 related planning applications.

Saint Alban's Church

WRENN ID
broken-bailey-saffron
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Epping Forest
Constituency
Epping Forest MP: Dr Neil Hudson (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
14 January 1972
Type
Church
Period
Victorian
Address
Saint Alban's Church, Coopersale Common, CM16 7QT
OS grid reference
TL 475 025
Coordinates
51.70217, 0.13387
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: sale history · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Saint Alban's Church is an Anglican church built in 1852, likely by Joseph Clarke. It is constructed of flint pebble facing with limestone dressings, and has red clay tile roofs.

The church is designed in a simple 13th-century Early English style, featuring lancet windows throughout. There is a pair of equal-height lancets at the west end and three graduated lancets at the east end. Plans existed to add a north aisle, and preparatory arcading is visible both inside and out.

The interior walls are plastered and whitened. The north wall displays arches and round piers indicating the planned north aisle; the capitals remain uncarved. The tall chancel arch has a moulded and chamfered head, foliage capitals, and semi-circular responds. The east end features three lancets with moulded arches and slender detached marble shafts with stiff-leaf capitals. The nave and chancel have seven-sided canted roofs. The chancel is floored with Minton's tiles, while the nave has red and black quarries.

Principal fixtures include a drop-sill sedilia and piscina in the chancel. A largely complete scheme of pews, reflecting the church’s original design, features square ends with sunk panels and small buttresses imitating a medieval style. Later chancel seating is likely from the mid-20th century. The altar rails, probably dating to the 1850s, have trefoil-headed arches. A Gothic-style reredos with three gables and pinnacles is also present. A small marble font without a shaft stands alongside a polygonal, timber pulpit. The church contains good 19th-century stained glass in several windows.

The church was funded by Miss Archer-Houblon of Coopersale House, who also commissioned the adjacent school from Joseph Clarke, supporting the likelihood he also designed the church. Joseph Clarke (1819 or 1820-1888) was a London-based architect specializing in church building and restoration, serving as diocesan surveyor for Canterbury, Rochester, and St Albans.

The church is designated at Grade II for being a small early Victorian Anglican church in the Early English style and for retaining original fittings and good Victorian stained glass.

Local climate

Saint Alban's Church sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 680 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 98% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 60% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • Sale history — 1 transaction since 2022
  • Related listed building consents — 2 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. Former Vicarage Grade II 62 m
  2. Coopersale House Grade II 495 m
  3. Theydon Oak Inn Grade II 764 m
  4. Dover Court Grade II 778 m
  5. Woodlands Grade II 789 m
  6. Laundry Building at St Margarets Hospital Grade II 794 m
  7. 24, COOPERSALE STREET (See details for further address information) Grade II 807 m
  8. Coopersale Lodge Grade II 860 m
  9. Lodge at Entrance to Gaynes Park Grade II 888 m
  10. Stonards Farm (house), Epping Grade II 932 m