St Andrew's Church - Church Walk, Enfield, London, UK - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

The church's website tells us of the history of the church:

Certainly for well over 800 years, possibly for nearly a thousand, Christian worship has continued on this site and at every point we are faced with the work of our predecessors. You will surely rejoice at the faith which led our ancestors to build this place with such skill and beauty.

People often ask, "How old is St Andrew's?" Nobody knows. Two clues, however, do exist which point to there being a Parish Church in Enfield at a very early date. We find the first clue in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086 where a priest is mentioned as holding about 30 acres of land in Enfield. If a priest was ministering in Enfield in 1086, he presumably ministered in a church. A fainter though even earlier clue lies in the name of a Saxon Manor in Enfield - the name was Churchbury. Of any church that may have existed in Saxon or Norman times, however, nothing is known.

The first written evidence of there being a Parish Church in Enfield dates from 1136, when St Andrew's, along with a number of other neighbouring parishes was endowed to the Monastery at Walden in Essex, now Saffron Walden. In 1190, Abbot Reginald of Walden appointed Robertus to serve as the first Vicar of Enfield.

The earliest known parts of St Andrew's date from the years immediately following the appointment of Robertus. Part of the east wall of the church and the south wall of the sanctuary date from this period, including the lancet-shaped unglazed window in the south wall of the sanctuary, opening today into the Artillery Chapel. Originally, of course, this south wall formed the external wall of the church and there are even traces in this window aperture of the sockets for the iron framework of the glass.

It was around 50 years later when Bartholomew was Vicar that Godfrey de Beston gave "to God and the Church of St Andrew, Enfield and Bartholomew Vicar of that Church and all Vicars who succeed him" some two acres of land with the vicarage house upon it to the east of the Church. There is little doubt that the oldest part of the present vicarage, that which fronts Silver Street, formed the original Parsonage House. English Heritage have confirmed that part of the timbering at this end of the vicarage almost certainly dates from the 13th Century. The second picture below shows the view from the south.

The 14th Century saw much restoration and major enlargements to the Church, including the construction of the north and south aisles (although the south aisle was much lower than the north, being raised to its present height only in 1824). The church tower is also 14th Century although much restored and altered in later years. The arches in the nave date from this same period. The pitch pine pews were installed after much argument and dispute in 1853; the oak clergy and choir stalls in 1908 as a memorial to Prebendary Hodson, Vicar of Enfield from 1870 - 1904, and the painting over the Chancel arch in 1923 as a memorial to the men of Enfield who died in the First World War.

The church is Grade II* listed with the entry at the English Heritage website telling us:

DATES AND ARCHITECTS: C12 origins; C15-16; 1824 restoration by W.C Lochner; 1852-3 restoation by J P St Anbyn; 1866-7 works by Sir George Gilbert Scott; further restoration by J O and CMO Scott, early C20.

MATERIALS: An eclectic mix of materials including rubble with stone dressings, several types of C18 and C19 brick, and some flint. The medieval fabric is largely uncoursed rubble masonry with stone dressings, with some knapped flint in the N aisle. The S aisle and chapel, the nave E gable wall, the NE vestry and the N aisle parapet are brick, and there are patches of brick repairs in the N aisle. The S porch is part brick, part stone. Traces of render and limewash still adhere in places, and the E half of the vestry has modern render. Interior is plastered and painted, except for nave walls above arcade, which are painted over stripped stone and brick.

PLAN: Rectangular, with aisled nave and chancel of equal length. Nave with 5-bay N and S arcades continuing into 2-bay arcades for the chancel chapels. Nave has W tower, S porch, polygonal N rood stair and a probable blocked N door. NE porch and vestry to NE of N chapel. Gallery, now organ loft, over W end of nave.

EXTERIOR: A grand town church, both high and long. Unbuttressed W tower with high plinth and a string course with weathered heads below the parapet; the tower windows are late C14 of two traceried lights. The tower S door is C19 and is accessed by a short flight of external stairs. There is no stair turret, which, with the lack of buttresses, suggests an early original date for the tower.

The long nave is embattled and has N and S clerestories of the C16 (c.1522) with very depressed headed windows of 3 plain lights. The nave E gable wall was rebuilt in brick in the late C18.

The S aisle, S porch, S chapel and E part of S clerestory 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 part of which survive. Large 3-light late Perpendicular-style windows and a tall, false blocked lancet to the W of the porch. S porch partly brick, partly stone rubble and intended, like the aisle, to be rendered, has an octagonal plaster vault.

N aisle has very late C15 or early C16 windows with three foiled lights and hood moulds. Depressed-headed former N door blocked with brick, and a single cross in knapped flint in the centre of the N wall. Contemporary rood stair is polygonal and has stone dressings on the angles. There is a late medieval door with a 4-centred arch and modern, concrete jambs, possibly reset, at the W end of the N aisle, now converted to disabled use.

NE chapel has one window like those in the aisle, the other smaller with a square head and largely hidden behind the vestry. N chapel parapet in C18 brick. Chancel E end heavily restored, the E window C19 in a C14 Decorated style, 3 lights with a large cinquefoil, ogees and mouchettes, possibly based on the medieval E window shown mostly blocked in early engravings.

INTERIOR: The interior is spacious and lofty. The internal core of the church is C14, but the windows are late medieval or C19. The roofs were all redone in the mid C19.

A blocked late C12 window is visible inside the tower and also high in the W wall of the nave behind the organ. No tower arch is visible behind the W 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 W gallery, originally the organ loft, subsequently used for seating, and now again the organ loft, is late C18 in origin. Of timber on iron columns, it has Gothick panelling of shouldered arches on the N and S sides and probably C19 panelling (possibly 1850s, like the pews) with plain, framed panels on the front.

The nave arcades and chancel arch are of late C14 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 c.1522, and several of his carved wing and rose badges remain high on the nave walls. A partial, blocked opening in the NE corner of the nave above the E respond capital of the N 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 N aisle wall; there is an additional door towards the E end of the aisle to the C19 vestry. The S aisle retains the angel corbels from a medieval roof of a different pitch than the present roof. Both N and S aisles retain corbels for former galleries. The N and S aisle walls are panelled to dado height with C19 tiles in a polychrome, geometric pattern, but these have been painted over; there is painted mid C19 panelling in chapels.

The chancel has a C13 trefoil-headed lancet at the E end of the S wall that now opens into the S chapel. Its presence indicates that the church had reached its present length by that date. The C19 sedilia are larger than the medieval sedilia they replace. The chancel ceiling is covered with very unusual C19 decoration printed on paper. The E arch to the N chancel chapel, beyond the arcade, is partially blocked by the large monument to Lady Tiptoft (d. 1446), but the head of arch remains above the canopy of the monument. There is a blocked S door in S chancel chapel, and a blocked opening that may have been a squint between the chapel and the chancel.