Tag: Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical Embroidery

The church of St Barnabas Walthamstow is located among streets of modest Victorian terraced houses and owes its existence to the generosity of two philanthropists.

The location of St Barnabas Wlathamstow, London E17

Houses in St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London, c.2015.

Houses in St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London, c.2015.

Houses in St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London, c.2015.

The first, Henry Casey (c.1834-1914), was a merchant in the City of London and the owner of much of the local building land and freely gave the land on which the church is built. The second was Richard Foster (1822–1910), another wealthy City merchant, who paid not only for the construction of the church but also for the construction of the vicarage and the hall that is now named after him.

The first church buidling was a temporary corrugated-iron building that was set up in 1900 as a chapel of ease within the parish of St Saviour Walthamstow pending the creation of the separate parish of St Barnabas. That iron buidling is still in situ and in use as a community centre called Stafford Hall.

By 1901 the  separate parish of St Barnabas Walthamstow had been created, the advowson of the vicarage being vested in the diocesan bishop. The present church was opened in 1903. The architect of the church, the vicarage and the hall  was William Douglas Caröe [pr. Ka(r)oh] (1857–1938), son of a Danish diplomat based in the UK. It was the intention that the church should be “a typical specimen of a simple and not expensive place of worship suitable for erection in less wealthy outlying districts where funds are most difficult to come by.” (Saxby, 16-17)  The building, which cost £20,000, is mostly of red brick with stone dressings, a small spired turret at the north-west corner and windows in a late-Gothic style.

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, main sanctuary, containing work by The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical Embrodiery (1903), Alex Miller of the Guild of Handicraft (1910); A. W. N. Pugin (c.1845), and Dart & Francis (1903). . Source: Litten, 2003,

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, interior looking east. (Source: Litten, 2003)

The eastern end of St Barnabas church (1903) Walthamstow E17 . (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, church hall, interior, Caröe (1903)

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, nave detail. (Source: Litten, 2003)

St Barnabas church (1903), Walthamstow, London. The south-east entrance and Vicarage seen from St barnabas Road.

The west end of St Barnabas church (1903) Walthamstow E17 . (Source: http://queensroadstories.org)

The church has a number of splendid fixtures and fittings many of which are not original to the church but contemporary with it and acquired in the closing decades of the twentieth century. A few are shown here:

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, Purbeck-stone font, unknown maker. (Source: Litten, 2003)

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, copper candlesticks and cross, (c.1905), by the Guild of Handicrafts. Source: Litten, 2003.

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17. Chalice and patten by Edward Spencer, 1873-1938, (Artificers’ Guild), 1933. (Source: Litten, 2003)

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, Lady Chapel altar reredos (1923) by Christopher Webb, from St John’s church Red Lion Square, London (demolished). Source: Litten, 2003

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, painted stature of St Barnabas (1946) by Faith-Craft Works. (Source: Litten, 2003)

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, oak rood (1921) designed by W. D. Caröe, carved by Nathaniel Hitch. (Source: Litten, 2003)

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, altar frontal designed by Caröe (1903 by the Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical Embroidery. Source: Litten, 2003,

The organ

 

Console of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London

Organ case – rear, looking west – of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London

Pedal board of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London

Builder’s plate he organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London,

The south-east side of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London

Organ case – rear, looking east – of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904 for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London

The organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London

Power and light switches on the console of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London

• Anglican Church Building in Victorian Walthamstow by S. Saxby. Series: Monograph New Series No. 46. (London: Walthamstow Historical Society, 2014
• ‘St Barnabas: organ specification‘, National Pipe Organ Register. Online resource accessed  4 No vember 2017
• St Barnabas and St James the Greater, Walthammstow E17 by J. W. S. Litten (London: PCC of St Barnabas and St James the Great Walthamstow, 2001)
• ‘Richard Foster (philanthropist)‘, Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 4 November 2017
• ‘Walthamstow: Churches‘, A History of the County of Essex. Volume 6. (London: Victoria County History, 1973), pp.285-294. Online reource, accessed 4 November 2017
• ‘Walthamstow, St Barnabas‘, The Church of England: a church near you. Online resource accessed 4 November 20-17
• ‘W. D. Caröe‘, Wikipedia. Online resource, accessed 4 November 2017