Loughton: The Church of St Nicholas

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 8 Feb 2011

The original church of St Nicholas stood near to this location, next to Loughton Hall. When the hall was destroyed in 1836 and the centre of population was growing elsewhere in the parish it was decided to build the new parish church of St John's in a location where it could better suit the needs of its congregation, with the old church being demolished. In the event the current Church of St Nicholas, the building in the photograph, was constructed in 1877 as a private chapel to the rebuilt Loughton Hall. It was designed by William Eden Nesfield. It was refurbished as a public place or worship, as a chapel of ease to St John's, in 1947. Despite its comparative modernity it is a Grade II Listed Building and the English Heritage website describes it thus: "Anglican church, 1877. Coursed rubble with stone dressings, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Chancel and nave in one rectangular plan aligned approximately NE-SW, with timber porch to NW and vestry with lean-to roof to SE. In NE wall one 2-centred window with 3 trefoiled lights and quatrefoils over, diagonal buttresses, and foundation stone inscribed AM 1877. In NW wall, N doorway with 2-centred arch, one 2-centred window with 2 trefoiled lights and quatrefoil over. In SE wall one similar smaller window NE of vestry. In SW wall one 2-centred window with 4 trefoiled lights and 2-centred tracery over, 3 buttresses, and bellcote. The C18 boundary wall of Loughton Hall abuts each side of the SW end, aligned with it, showing that the church was sited at this orientation to adjust to the existing wall, with the SW end of the church inside the private grounds. An inscription at the NE end states that the church was erected by Anne Maitland." The wall in the photograph is the NE wall described above.

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