Church of All Saints, Chigwell Row, with boundary walls and lychgate

The Church of All Saints at Chigwell Row is constructed of Bargate stone rubble on a brick core with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs. The church follows a traditional east-west orientation and 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 throughout is Early English in style, built in coursed rubble with ashlar margins.

The west front features a steep gable with a central eight-light wheel window and horizontal ashlar bands above a five-bay galilee porch with a hipped slate roof on a corbel table. The side two bays of the porch contain single lancet windows with cusped heads under hood moulds. The central three bays are moulded pointed-arched openings with stiff leaf decoration at the 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, whilst the end walls are in ashlar. The floor consists of simple red and black tiles in a diamond pattern. In the centre, a large pointed arched doorway 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, whilst 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 positioned 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. The tower features 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 located under the tower, accessed from the north aisle. In the centre stands a font designed by Seddon, raised on a central column with four responds at the corners made of contrasting marble shafts. On the east wall is a memorial to Lieutenant Claude H Trotter, who 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 clerestorey windows above are set behind three continuous arches raised on columns with stiff leaf capitals, giving the impression of a clerestorey 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 this 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 led 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 containing stained glass. The eastern one contains images of Simeon and Anna above a mosaic panel dedicating the window, which dates from 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 20th-century altar rail. The sanctuary floor is of plain square tiles and the reredos of 1923 is 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 1921 by WHR Blacking depicts God enthroned flanked by groups of worshippers.

Boundary Walls and Lychgate

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.