Tower Of Old Parish Church Of St Mary

TOWER OF OLD PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY

This tower, standing on the south side of High Street, is all that remains of the Old Parish Church of St Mary in Hornsey. The lower stages date to the 15th century, while the upper part was rebuilt by George Smith in 1832–3 as part of a comprehensive rebuilding of the church itself.

The tower is constructed from an eclectic mix of materials. The lower part is mostly ironstone rubble, roughly coursed, while the upper part uses much lighter-coloured stone including Oxford stone and Kentish greensand, together with some brick. Dressed stone quoins mark the corners. The structure is square in plan, with northeast and southwest angle buttresses and a northwest stair turret. Parts of the aisle west walls of the former church have been left standing as buttresses.

The exterior displays a Perpendicular west window. Above this window are decayed carvings of angels holding shields, formerly bearing the arms of Bishops Savage (1496–1501) and Warham (1501–3) of London. On the east face, the blocked tower arch is visible, and above it can be traced the roof lines of both the medieval church and Smith's taller replacement structure. The buttresses at the northeast and southeast corners appear to be portions of the aisle west walls of Smith's church left standing.

Access to the ground floor, which formerly served as the vestry of the old church and is now used as a small chapel, has been created by inserting a door into the former tower arch, with another door in the south wall at a lower level.

The interior retains the former 15th-century tower arch, whose capitals are decorated with shields bearing angels. A blocked 15th-century south arch to the former west bay of the south aisle is also visible. The plaster vault dates to 1832 and was completed by George Smith. The interior of the tower has panelling of 1832. Two clock faces are mounted on the exterior: a skeleton frame without a back on the north face, and a square dial of painted copper on the west face, set under a hood mould with head stops.

The church was first mentioned in the late 13th century, though it may be of earlier origin. An engraving of 1806 shows the medieval church comprising an undivided nave, chancel, south aisle and south chancel chapel, with the south aisle continuing alongside the tower. A rood stair marked the division between nave and chancel. The early images suggest the church was largely of late medieval date. A bequest for the tower was made in 1429, and a bell hung in the tower by 1460, but the tower remained unfinished in 1481–2. Further bequests for the steeple were made in 1499, and the first three stages had been completed by 1501, as demonstrated by the now-decayed carvings of angel busts with shields bearing the arms of Bishops Savage and Warham. Additional bequests for the tower were made in the early 18th century. By the mid-18th century, the steeple was said to have been too large for the church. Late 18th-century and early 19th-century engravings show it without a spire, which may suggest that a medieval spire was removed, though the reference may only have concerned the tower itself, which is notably tall. The top of the tower was taken down and rebuilt in 1832–3 when George Smith, Surveyor to the Mercers' Company, undertook the rebuilding of the rest of the church. Smith's church ceased to be used in 1888 when it was replaced by another church (also now demolished). The church remained standing but empty until 1927, when it was demolished, leaving only the old tower. The site became a Garden of Remembrance in 1950, and the bells were removed from the tower a few years later. Repairs were carried out in 2005.

The tower stands within the remains of the former churchyard, now largely grassed over. Gothic stone pillars in the boundary wall along Church Lane (now enclosing the school as the churchyard has been reduced in size) appear to date from Smith's rebuilding, although the wall itself may have been lowered and rebuilt. The churchyard warrants further investigation.

The Tower of Old Parish Church of St Mary is a well-preserved 15th-century church tower that retains good evidence for both the medieval church and the early 19th-century replacement to which it was attached. It represents a rare and significant survival of the medieval village of Hornsey, which has otherwise been largely superseded by the Victorian development of Crouch End.