Church Of All Saints Edmonton Parish Church

The Church of All Saints is Edmonton's parish church, with origins in the 12th century. The present building is largely the result of a major rebuilding in the 15th and early 16th centuries, which created the chancel, nave, tower, north aisle, north chapel, and north vestry. Some roofs date from the 17th century. In 1772, the exterior was clad in brick, and all the window tracery was removed and replaced with timber. The church was restored in 1855 by Ewan Christian, and the windows were redone in stone in 1868. A south aisle and southeast organ chamber were added in 1885 by W G Scott. Further refurbishing took place in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The church is built of Kentish ragstone rubble, with brick facing to the east and north sides, and some areas of tile and random flint and stone chequerboard. There are some stone dressings. The roofs are tiled and slated, with some aluminium replacing lead.

The plan consists of a chancel with north and south chapels and north vestry, a nave with north and south aisles, a west tower, and a south porch.

Exterior

Externally, the church is generally Perpendicular in style, presenting two distinct aspects: the north and east sides are faced in stock brick from 1772, while the south and west sides are stone. Only the 15th-century, four-stage west tower is medieval externally. It has angle buttresses and an embattled, polygonal southeast stair turret rising above the embattled parapet. The small, heavily renewed 15th-century west door has a hood mould, and there is a three-light 19th-century west window and two-light trefoiled bell-openings in square frames.

The south aisle and south chapel were added in 1889 and, together with the south nave parapet, are faced in roughly dressed, snecked rubble masonry. The aisle has Perpendicular-style windows and a sharply dressed, embattled parapet. The south nave parapet is similar to that on the aisle and suggests a clerestory, although none exists. The south chapel is roofed at right angles to the chancel, with two Perpendicular-style windows and a plain parapet.

The lower part of the chancel is faced in 18th-century brick; the upper part of the east gable has irregular flint and stone chequerboard, probably from 1858. There is a 19th-century Perpendicular-style east window. The north vestry, at right angles to the chancel, is also faced in brick and has a 19th-century Perpendicular-style east door. The north chapel and north aisle are also faced in 18th-century stock brick and have a plain parapet concealing two separate roofs and Perpendicular-style windows from 1868. There is a very shallow south porch.

Interior

The interior is fully plastered and painted, white in the body of the church and with fine 19th-century figural paintings in the chancel. Except for the north arcade, tower arch, and some of the roofs, the interior, like the exterior, is largely 19th-century.

The 15th-century tower arch has hollow-chamfered outer orders and an inner order on round, attached shafts with polygonal capitals. The 15th-century north arcade has four bays, with chamfered arches of two orders on polygonal piers with moulded capitals and bases; the east and west arches die into the wall without a respond. There is no structural division between the north chapel and north aisle except in the roofs.

The 19th-century south arcade is similar to the north arcade but has larger capitals and a carved inscription recording its construction in 1889. The 19th-century arch to the south chapel has dying mouldings. The chancel arch was rebuilt in 1889 and has a continuously chamfered outer order and an inner order on polygonal responds with Early English-style foliate capitals. The two-bay arches to the north and south chancel chapels have a polygonal central pier with a moulded capital and base and moulded corbels for the east and west responds. The north side may be partly late 15th or early 16th century; the south is wholly 19th-century.

12th-century fragments, discovered during the construction of the south aisle in the 19th century, are built into the west wall of the south aisle. They are from two separate features: one a door head with incised chevron, the other part of a larger arch, probably a chancel arch. The larger arch has two excellently carved orders, the inner with chevron, the outer with grotesque faces clasping a spiral moulding and a band of stylised flowers. A piece from the outer order of the larger arch has a fragmentary inscription 'IT DE WALDEN'. It is displayed on a pair of round jamb shafts with cushion capitals. Loose fragments nearby include two 12th-century shafts, one with spiral carving, the other with chevron, and several 15th-century pieces, probably from a door or an arch.

The roofs are a distinctive feature of the interior. The nave roof is 15th-century, low-pitched with short curved braces on defaced stone angel corbels, moulded tie beams, and closely spaced rafters. The north chapel roof is 16th-century, flat and domestic in character with moulded wall plates and closely spaced rafters. The north aisle roof is dated 1626 on the posts at its east end. It is divided into square panels by moulded beams and slender ribs, the rafters plastered in. The western five bays have ribs forming alternately crosses of St George and St Andrew; the eastern bays are plain. The low-pitched north vestry roof is late 15th or 16th century and has chamfered tie beams. The south aisle roof is a 19th-century copy of that in the nave, and the chancel has a steeply pitched, 19th-century arch-braced roof.

Principal Fixtures

The church was wholly refurnished in the later 19th century with some additional refurnishing in the 20th century. There is a large 19th-century, octagonal timber pulpit with blind tracery panelling. The font, dated 1872, is in Perpendicular style with quatrefoils on the bowl and a traceried stem. Timber panelling behind the chancel altar with riddle posts with angels is early 20th-century. There is very good late 19th-century wall painting in the chancel with figures of angels and saints and stencilled motifs. A small amount of 19th-century and early 20th-century glass survives, the best being the fragments in the upper tracery of the south aisle windows.

A plain, pointed medieval piscina is located in the north vestry. The 15th or early 16th-century door to the north vestry is leather-covered and studded on the chancel side, retaining traces of red colouring on the vestry side.

Large paintings of Moses and Aaron, from a former reredos probably installed during the 1770s refurbishment, hang at the west end of the nave, signed W. Turner; Aaron is particularly well painted. Two benefaction boards of circa 1778 with ogee heads, and two similar boards with round heads of circa 1929 done in a matching script, hang under the tower. There are two 18th-century hatchments. The organ dates from 1772, enlarged and rebuilt in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Possibly late 18th-century cupboards with L hinges are located in the vestry.

There are very good monuments, notably that to George Huxley of Wyre Hall, died 1627, a two-stage wall monument in the Artisan Mannerist style, surmounted by Time flanked by skulls, similar to the work of the Christmas brothers. Also that to John Kirton, died 1529, a small altar tomb of the Easter Sepulchre type with a panelled arch within a square frame under a lavish cornice, reset in the south aisle wall. There are several 16th and early 17th-century brasses, and a number of good wall tablets. Many 17th and 18th-century ledger slabs in the nave and chancel floors, most with armorial carving.

History

The church is first mentioned in a document of 1136-42, when it was given to Walden Abbey by Geoffrey de Mandeville. The earliest surviving fabric, the fragments at the west end of the south aisle, are also of this date. These probably relate to a door and the chancel arch. Nothing is known of the construction history of the church between the mid-12th century and the 15th century, when the church was wholly rebuilt. Some further work, including reroofing the north aisle, took place in the 17th century.

In 1772, the church, except for the tower, was clad in stock brick and the stone window tracery replaced with simpler, timber windows. The parapets were also taken down. Galleries were also installed around that date, and the church was refurnished, with the Moses and Aaron pictures from the former reredos being the principal survivals of this date.

The chancel was restored in 1855 by Ewan Christian (1814-1895), a prolific architect whose speciality was church work. The church was refurnished in 1871-2 and the galleries and box pews removed. The south aisle and south chapel, formerly the organ chamber, were added in 1889 to designs by W G Scott (1857-1930), a former assistant to Ewan Christian; Scott also replaced the south aisle windows in a Perpendicular style. The chancel wall paintings are late 19th-century. There was further refurnishing and reordering in the 20th century. The stained glass was largely lost during World War II. The writer Charles Lamb (died 1834) is buried in the churchyard.