St Mary the Virgin and All Saints, Potters Bar

Tour (1)

Introduction

The Church of St Mary the Virgin and All Saints was built during the incumbency of Fr George Preston, replacing the earlier Parish Church of St John the Baptist which had served the Parish from 1835 and had been situated on what is now the site of the War Memorial and Gardens on the east side of the High Street.

The architect was J S Alder and the new church building was consecrated on 12 June 1915 by the Bishop of London, but remained unfinished for 50 years. During the incumbency of Fr Cecil Charlton the west end with its modern narthex, designed by Lawrence King, was completed.

The Church is 108 feet long internally, from the glass façade of the narthex to the apse behind the high altar, the maximum width is 60 feet. The wings on each side of the covered area in front of the narthex add 8 feet to the overall length.

The building is throughout of greyish Bath stone on a brick core. All the windows and arcade mouldings are of a simplified Decorated design.

The west end

Please click on the pictures to produce a larger image.

On either side of the narthex are four rooms. The lower ones are entered from the aisles: the north room is the St Michael’s Chapel. This is used both for small services and meetings. The processional cross hung on the west wall came from St Michael’s Church, a temporary building that was erected in Church Road in 1904 and burnt down in 1942.

Three doors in the glazed from of the narthex match those opposite, leading from the narthex into the nave. Above the narthex is a balcony behind which is an immense modern window the full width of the nave and rising 40 feet to the crest of the false roof which runs the length of the Church. The window consists of 17 lights with random rectangular panes of clear glass and illuminates the whole nave.

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Page last modified:
26 January 2004