Former Church Of St Anne

The former Church of St Anne is a Victorian mission church built in 1863 by G E Pritchett. It is located on the north side of Slough Road in High Wych, at the east side of the junction with Allen's Green Road. The church is largely constructed of uncoursed flint with white brick dressings, quoins, a plinth offset, and stone windows to the chancel and vestry. The nave retains a timber-framed structure, with plastered verges and eaves. A square, shingled bell-turret sits above the chancel. Decorative wrought iron crosses are positioned over each gable, along with a bracketed door hood and a finial to the bell turret. The church comprises a rectangular, unaisled nave with a south door, a polygonal apse for the chancel, and a rectangular gabled vestry acting as a south transept. Two-light wood mullioned windows with diamond leaded glazing are present on the nave; a similar stone, chamfered mullioned window with diamond leaded glazing is found in the vestry’s south side. A central cross window is located at the west end, with grooved timbers dividing the rough plaster above a weatherboarded apron. The nave is lit by four windows on the north side, with a brick buttress marking the transition to the flint masonry of the chancel. Internally, the church is well-preserved, featuring a scissor-braced pine roof, an ornamental tiled chancel floor rising in three marble steps, an altar rail on wrought iron standards, a heavy altar table with ornamental cusped bracing, two stained glass windows flanking the altar, an octagonal stone font on slender shafts, and swing-back pine benches. A masonry structure exists inside, possibly intended to carry a west bell turret before the east turret was decided upon. The timber-framed nave was likely built as a temporary structure.