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Churches of the British Isles

Gallery: Churches of Essex

by Peter Kessler, 13 June 2010

Epping Forest Part 5: Churches of Loughton

St Michael & All Angels Church, Loughton, Essex

St Michael & All Angels Church is on the western side of Roding Road, opposite Stonards Hill. By the 1930s this area east of the railway was being developed rapidly, so in 1937 St Mary's provided a church hall on the present site in Roding Road, at first primarily as a Sunday school and then for general worship. In 1944 the hall was dedicated as St Michael's Church within St Mary's parish, and in 1995 it gained its own parish. The Jubilee Hall was added in 2002.

St Nicholas' Church, Loughton, Essex

St Nicholas' Church lies on the western side of Rectory Lane, just above the Borders Lane junction. The original parish church for Loughton was built here some years before 1177, to serve the adjoining Loughton Hall. It consisted of a nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch and a weather-boarded tower with shingled spire. In 1737, the tower and spire were repaired and general repairs were made in the 1820s. In 1836, the old Loughton Hall was demolished.

St Nicholas' Church, Loughton, Essex

The church had already become isolated and was now even more so. In 1846 it was replaced by St John's. St Nicholas was demolished but the chancel remained, to be turned into a mortuary chapel. Within thirty years, it was decided to build another church on the site of the old. In 1877, what was left of the old church was demolished and a replacement St Nicholas was built a few metres to the west, in a similar style to the old, of which some relics can be seen in the grass.

Debden Christian Spiritualist Church, Loughton, Essex

Debden Christian Spiritualist Church meets in this modern building on the southern side of Border's Lane, just east of the Colson Lane junction. The Congregationalists who had been worshipping at Loughton Union Church built their own church here in 1953, although the exact site is uncertain. It opened as Debden Congregational Church (United Reformed from 1972), but closed at an unknown later date, probably the reason the site was available for this hall.

Loughton Chigwell & District Synagogue, Loughton, Essex

Loughton Chigwell & District Synagogue lies behind these black iron gates on the Northern side of Border's Lane, opposite Deepdene Road and approximately two hundred metres west of the site of the former Congregationalist church. The synagogue was founded before 1955, but perhaps not long before, to judge from the style of the building. The congregation is Ashkenazi Orthodox, and is affiliated to the Federation of Synagogues.

Trinity Church, Loughton, Essex

Trinity Church stands at the top of the hill on the western side of Mannock Drive, close to the Thatcher's Close turning. It is a Methodist church building with a joint Anglican/ Methodist congregation, erected to serve the housing estate which forms the eastern edges of Debden, which itself is little more than a suburb on the eastern side of Loughton. A date of construction for the church cannot be ascertained, but something between 1960-1980 would probably be appropriate.

All photos on this page by P L Kessler.

 

 

     
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