Saint Alban'S Church

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.