Retaining Wall And Railings With Overthrows, Gate And Letter Boxes To Pountney Churchyard

The retaining wall and railings with overthrows, gate, and letter boxes to Pountney Churchyard date from the late 18th century and have undergone minor alterations. The structure features a pink and yellow brick wall topped with Portland stone coping, along with wrought-iron railings, overthrows, and an iron gate. The walls and railings are arranged in two sections, linked by an overthrow, forming two sides of a rectangle along Laurence Pountney Lane and returning to flank the alleyway between them. Each section has an entrance with an overthrow on the shorter third side, while the northern section includes a gate and a double letter box beside it. The wall height varies with the slope of the ground, ranging from approximately 0.5 meters to 2 meters, and has flat coping with some patching. The railings consist of square bars topped with spike finials and urn finials on the standards, featuring both straight and curved brackets. The overthrows are decorated with scrollwork and lamp holders, while the gate is plain. The double letter box, dating from the 1870s, displays a royal cipher flanked by a crown at the top above the aperture, with a door that has a collecting plate at the base. These railings once enclosed the two old churchyards that belonged to the Church of St Laurence, Pountney Hill, which was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. A record from 1779 in the Churchwardens' accounts notes the decision to lower the walls of the two churchyards and to enclose them with stone coping and iron railings, indicating that the existing railings are likely a result of that resolution.