Church Of St Andrew Enfield Parish Church

The Church of St Andrew is a grand town church with origins in the 12th century. It underwent major building phases in the 15th and 16th centuries, was restored in 1824 by W.C. Lochner, further restored in 1852–3 by J.P. St Aubyn, with additional works by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1866–7, and further restoration by J.O. and C.M.O. Scott in the early 20th century.

The church presents an eclectic mix of materials. The medieval fabric is largely uncoursed rubble masonry with stone dressings, with some knapped flint in the north aisle. The south aisle and chapel, the nave east gable wall, the northeast vestry, and the north aisle parapet are brick, with patches of brick repairs in the north aisle. The south porch is part brick, part stone. Traces of render and limewash still adhere in places, and the east half of the vestry has modern render. The interior is plastered and painted, except for the nave walls above the arcade, which are painted over stripped stone and brick.

The church is rectangular in plan, with an aisled nave and chancel of equal length. The nave has five-bay north and south arcades continuing into two-bay arcades for the chancel chapels. A west tower rises from the nave, with a south porch, a polygonal north rood stair, and a probable blocked north door. A northeast porch and vestry extend from the north chapel. A gallery, now the organ loft, stands over the west end of the nave.

The exterior is both high and long. The unbuttressed west tower has a high plinth and a string course with weathered heads below the parapet. The tower windows are late 14th-century, with two traceried lights. The tower south door is 19th-century and accessed by a short flight of external stairs. There is no stair turret, which, along with the lack of buttresses, suggests an early original date for the tower.

The long nave is embattled and has north and south clerestories dating to around 1522, with very depressed headed windows of three plain lights. The nave east gable wall was rebuilt in brick in the late 18th century.

The south aisle, south porch, south chapel, and east part of the south clerestory were rebuilt in brick by W.C. Lochner in 1824 on the original foundations. Both aisle and chapel are much higher than their medieval predecessors, the lower parts of which survive. Large three-light late Perpendicular-style windows feature alongside a tall, false blocked lancet to the west of the porch. The south porch, partly brick and partly stone rubble, was intended, like the aisle, to be rendered, and has an octagonal plaster vault.

The north aisle has very late 15th- or early 16th-century windows with three foiled lights and hood moulds. A depressed-headed former north door is blocked with brick, and a single cross in knapped flint appears in the centre of the north wall. The contemporary rood stair is polygonal and has stone dressings on the angles. A late medieval door with a four-centred arch and modern concrete jambs, possibly reset, stands at the west end of the north aisle and is now converted to disabled use.

The northeast chapel has one window like those in the aisle; the other is smaller with a square head and largely hidden behind the vestry. The north chapel parapet is 18th-century brick. The chancel east end was heavily restored. The east window is 19th-century in a 14th-century Decorated style, with three lights, a large cinquefoil, ogees, and mouchettes, possibly based on the medieval east window shown mostly blocked in early engravings.

The interior is spacious and lofty. The internal core of the church is 14th-century, but the windows are late medieval or 19th-century. The roofs were all redone in the mid 19th century.

A blocked late 12th-century window is visible inside the tower and also high in the west wall of the nave behind the organ. No tower arch is visible behind the west gallery, and there is further blocking and a modern door below the gallery. The ground floor of the tower has been panelled, but the upper floors have exposed stonework and very heavy timber framing on stone corbels. The west gallery, originally the organ loft, subsequently used for seating, and now again the organ loft, is late 18th-century in origin. Of timber on iron columns, it has Gothick panelling of shouldered arches on the north and south sides and probably 19th-century panelling (possibly 1850s, like the pews) with plain, framed panels on the front.

The nave arcades and chancel arch are of late 14th-century form, with quatrefoil piers, moulded arches, capitals, and bases. The chancel chapel arcade piers are very similar, but the capitals are slightly less complex, suggesting different campaigns of work. The nave clerestory was paid for by Sir Thomas Lovell around 1522, and several of his carved wing and rose badges remain high on the nave walls. A partial, blocked opening in the northeast corner of the nave above the east respond capital of the north arcade by the chancel arch may be the remains of a former window from an unaisled nave. The upper and lower doors for the former rood stair are visible in the north aisle wall; there is an additional door towards the east end of the aisle to the 19th-century vestry. The south aisle retains the angel corbels from a medieval roof of a different pitch than the present roof. Both north and south aisles retain corbels for former galleries. The north and south aisle walls are panelled to dado height with 19th-century tiles in a polychrome, geometric pattern, but these have been painted over; there is painted mid 19th-century panelling in the chapels.

The chancel has a 13th-century trefoil-headed lancet at the east end of the south wall that now opens into the south chapel. Its presence indicates that the church had reached its present length by that date. The 19th-century sedilia are larger than the medieval sedilia they replace. The chancel ceiling is covered with very unusual 19th-century decoration printed on paper. The east arch to the north chancel chapel, beyond the arcade, is partially blocked by the large monument to Lady Tiptoft (died 1446), but the head of the arch remains above the canopy of the monument. There is a blocked south door in the south chancel chapel, and a blocked opening that may have been a squint between the chapel and the chancel.

Fittings

The liturgical fittings include a polygonal stone pulpit of 1866 with Gothic Revival arches, now painted white but possibly originally polychromed, and with a brass dedication plaque. A three-seat sedilia in the chancel, dating to 1852, has three pointed arches on single shafts with polychromed and gilded diaper work decoration on the back panel, replacing a smaller, medieval sedilia. A 19th-century font with diaper carving stands in the south chapel. A 20th-century altarpiece of green and pale grey marble in the chancel features statues under square, gilded canopies.

The roofs were all redone in 1866–7 by Sir George Gilbert Scott, though it is likely that the nave and north aisle roofs utilise corbels from the 16th-century roofs. The nave roof has tie beams with carved spandrels, the east truss painted and gilded. There are short posts with braces to the ridge. The north and south aisle roofs are similar, but do not have central posts or braces. The chancel roof is of three bays. Quite steeply pitched, it has moulded, arched trusses standing on small timber corbels and moulded, square coffering.

The chancel floor has a number of ledger slabs. The rest of the floors are largely woodblock parquet, probably 20th-century, but this may cover earlier tiles.

Elegant Arts-and-Crafts Gothic screens with delicate tracery separate the chancel from the north and south chapels, and the south aisle from the south chapel. Together with the choir stalls, they are a memorial to Prebendary Hodson, Vicar of Enfield 1870–1904.

One 18th-century box pew with fielded panelling survives at the east end of the north aisle at the entrance to the chapel. Known as the Bowles pew, it formerly belonged to the Bowles family of Myddleton House, who threatened legal action unless it was retained in the 1853 reseating. The rest of the nave and aisle pews are enclosed benches with slightly moulded top rails, and fielded ends and doors. Many of the doors survive. There are also a few 19th-century benches with shouldered ends at the west end of the nave. The oak chancel seating, which has ornate Arts-and-Crafts Gothic tracery panels, dates to 1908 as a memorial to Prebendary Hodson, Vicar of Enfield 1870–1904. The matching screens to the north and south chapels are contemporary, and there is an inscription recording the gift.

A very fine carved organ case of 1753 by Richard Bridge was paid for by Mary Nickells, who also paid for an organist. Originally in the west gallery, it was moved several times in the 19th and 20th centuries and is now returned to the west gallery.

Most of the glass in the north, west, and south sides was destroyed in the Second World War. In the south aisle, two small panels of 16th-century work survive: one bearing the arms of Thomas Roos, 1st Earl of Rutland (died 1531), the other reassembled fragments of the nuns of Holywell weeping for Sir Thomas Lovell (died 1524), who lived at Elsing Hall opposite the church and was responsible for the nave clerestory. The chancel east window of 1873 depicts the Passion. The north chapel east window commemorates Sir Philip Twells, MP (died 1880).

The chancel ceiling has very unusual and rare 19th-century printed paper panels. The east bay features the Instruments of the Passion; the rest shows repeated IHS monograms surrounded by foliage, with a Latin inscription on both sides. The chancel roof is painted to match. This was possibly installed in 1873 when the east window with the Passion was installed. Delicate wall painting around the chancel arch of 1923 by Powells serves as a war memorial for the First World War. There is a crucifixion scene above the arch, with the figures of St George and St Andrew below and two panels of poetry. The east truss of the nave roof has been painted to match and has an inscription. It is likely that a darker, 19th-century colour scheme, including polychrome tiles at dado level in the nave, survives beneath the present white paint throughout the church, as traces of it can be seen where the paint is peeling off.

In the north aisle, there is a very large benefaction board of 1772 comprised of two panels topped by a broken pediment. There is also a series of light oak panels of 1938 painted with the names of the vicars further east in the north aisle. In the north chapel, positioned as a reredos, an oak bread shelf of 1614 with a plaque recording a gift of 1585 features three Tuscan columns supporting an entablature with a dentil cornice.

Monuments

The church has an outstanding collection of medieval and post-medieval monuments. In an arch between the north chancel and the chancel stands the monument to Joyce, Lady Tiptoft (died 1446). Described as the finest brass in Middlesex, it has a female figure in a heraldic mantle under a complex architectural canopy. The setting of the brass, on a panelled tomb chest under a large four-centred arch with heraldry in the spandrels supporting a brattished cornice, is 16th-century and was probably part of the work undertaken in the 1520s by her grandson-in-law, Sir Thomas Lovell (died 1524). The arch itself commemorates Edmund, Lord Roos (died 1508), Lovell's father-in-law. The tomb may have served as an Easter Sepulchre before the Reformation. It has been recoloured. Also in the chancel, the monument to Martha Palmer (died 1617) by Nicholas Stone consists of an upright marble cartouche flanked by graceful, swaying mannerist figures of Faith and Charity. There is also a marble tablet to John Watt (died 1701), a flowery cartouche attributed to William Woodman Senior.

In the south chapel, a brass commemorates William (died 1592) and Ellen Smith: the inscription notes that William Smith served Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I (perhaps, although it does not say, in Elsing Hall opposite the church). A large monument in white marble to Colonel Thomas Stringer (died 1706) by G.B. Guelfi features a bust in armour under a large tent-like canopy with heavy drapery, and an entablature and broken pediment above. High on the south wall of the south chapel are two 17th-century monuments with kneeling figures, one to Francis Evington (1614), Alderman of London, the other to Henry Middlemore, Groom of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I, dated after his wife's death in 1610. The south chapel also has a group of 18th- and early 19th-century lead plaques, presumably coffin plates from internal burials.

In the north chapel, a large alabaster and marble monument to Sir Nicholas Raynton (around 1646) features stiffly reclining figures of him and his wife in contemporary dress, lying one above the other, with kneeling figures of his son (died 1641) and his wife and other children below. The top canopy has arms in a broken, segmental pediment. Attributed to Thomas Burman, it has been recoloured. There is also a small wall monument to William Diecrowe (died 1586), with a kneeling figure in low relief under a rusticated Tuscan arch.

There are a large number of 18th- and 19th-century monuments in the nave. In the south aisle to the east of the south door, a number of wall plaques commemorate members of the Garnault and Bowles families of Myddleton House and several other local families. To the west of the south door, a double white marble plaque commemorates members of the Boddington family, including Thomas Boddington (died 1821), the noted slave owner and philanthropist, who was involved in the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor and the foundation of Sierra Leone in the late 18th century.

Subsidiary Features

The brick east boundary wall towards the vicarage dates to 1800 and has an inscription over the gate recording its construction. This section is separately listed, but there are further unlisted boundary walls with late 18th- or 19th-century ironwork, including an arched wrought iron gate to the north of the churchyard. Immediately outside the churchyard is a small, embattled building now used as a parish room that is probably part of Lochner's work.

History

Enfield was an enormous parish of over 14,000 acres and was a market town from the early 14th century if not earlier. The majority of the western part of the parish was long a park called Enfield Chase, and there were several royal hunting lodges in the parish, including the demolished Elsing Hall, later called Enfield Palace, opposite the church.

The church dominated the northern side of a green and marketplace, part of which is still in use. A priest is mentioned in Domesday Book, and while no visible fabric survives from this period, it is likely that there was already a large church there by that date. By the 12th century the church had a substantial tower, and by the mid 13th century it had achieved its present length, which together suggest the presence of a substantial earlier building. It was given to Walden Abbey (Essex) in 1136, and the rectory was appropriated by Walden before the mid 13th century. The large vicarage to the east is partly 13th-century. After the Dissolution it passed to Trinity College, Cambridge.

The oldest fabric, the tower, appears to date to the 12th century, and a formerly external lancet in the chancel shows that the church had attained its present length by the mid 13th century, making it very large for that date. The church underwent considerable rebuilding in the 14th century when the chancel arch was rebuilt and the aisles and chancel chapels built. Early images show the south aisle with Decorated windows. More rebuilding was carried out in the very late 15th and early 16th centuries when the clerestory was added and the outer walls of the chapels and the north aisle were rebuilt. The two-storey, apparently timber-framed south porch shown in early prints was probably also 16th- or early 17th-century. There was considerable work on the church in the mid 18th century, including the insertion of galleries and the rebuilding of the nave east wall, apparently including widening the chancel arch. The south aisle, south chapel, south porch, and part of the south clerestory were rebuilt on their original foundations in 1824 to designs by W.C. Lochner.

The parish church was well endowed by the many prosperous residents of Enfield Town and the surrounding hamlets, attracted by its proximity to London. There were seven altars besides the high altar before the Reformation, and many gifts to the fabric, including bequests in the early 16th century towards rebuilding the north aisle, chancel chapels, and clerestory. There are also numerous monuments to wealthy residents, many of whom were successful in royal service or in the City of London. The church was "beautified" in 1705, and repaired and refurnished in 1771. Further work in the later 18th century included rebuilding the chancel arch and nave east gable wall in 1779.

Despite its size, the church was much too small for the growing population by the early 19th century. A new gallery was put in the north aisle in 1819, and in 1824 the south aisle was rebuilt and raised to allow for another gallery to designs by W.C. Lochner. The east window, largely blocked by a large 18th-century reredos, was reopened in 1834. Some of the pressure on St Andrew's was lifted with the building of new churches (for example, St James, Enfield Highway; Jesus Church, Forty Hill; and Christchurch, Cockfosters, all 1830s, with others later) in the outer parts of the parish. The chancel was restored and refitted, and the church reseated in 1852–3 by J.P. St Aubyn. It was reroofed and the choir vestry added in 1866–7 to designs by Sir George Gilbert Scott, and there was further restoration and refurnishing in the early 20th century, apparently by J.O. and C.M.O. Scott. The organ was moved into the west gallery in 1952. Alterations in the early 1850s, including reseating the whole church (except for the Bowles pew) and refurbishing the chancel, caused controversy. Further restoration later in the century seems to have been less controversial, and the north and south galleries were removed in the early 20th century. The west gallery ceased to be used as seating after the Second World War and was reconverted to an organ loft.