All Saints Church is a parish church in

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient p ...

, an area in east London. It has been a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since 1984.

History

Medieval and Tudor

In the medieval era the church's parish included all of West Ham, with the one exception of the 24 acres within

Stratford Langthorne Abbey Stratford Langthorne Abbey, or the Abbey of St Mary's, Stratford Langthorne was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1135 at Stratford Langthorne — then Essex but now Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. The Abbey, also known as West Ha ...

's precincts, which formed a separate parish of St Mary and All Saints until the abbey was dissolved, that parish's church was destroyed and the parish itself merged into All Saints. There has been a building on the site since at least the late 12th century - the three blocked

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

windows on either side of the present building's nave date to that time. One of the founding endowments for the Abbey was land that had belonged to "Ranulph the priest", implying the existence of a parish church. The first concrete reference is a charter of 1181-82 by

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...

which confirmed the church of West Ham to the abbey.

Gilbert Foliot Gilbert Foliot ( c. 1110 – 18 February 1187) was a medieval English monk and prelate, successively Abbot of Gloucester, Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London. Born to an ecclesiastical family, he became a monk at Cluny Abbey in Fr ...

, bishop of London also assigned a vicar to the parish church around the same time. The building contains a relief and possibly the remains of a font from the Abbey. The nave was largely rebuilt halfway through the 13th century, adding five-bay arcades on the north and south sides. Its crossing was demolished around 1400 to add two bays to the nave's east end - the chancel arch was rebuilt and the west tower added at the same time. The abbey acquired the parish by 1334 and held onto it until the crown took it over after the Dissolution. A north chapel was added in mid 15th century, closely followed by a south chapel. Many of the windows in the north aisle seem to date to the late 15th century, implying another rebuilding in that area at that time, whilst wall paintings found in the nave during 19th century restorations probably also date to the 15th century. Around 1547 the churchwardens sold some of the church's communion plate and a property in Stratford to fund a rebuilding of the north chapel in brick, without the parish' permission - this included a turret for a stairwell into a

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

on its north side. The Protestant Thomas Rose was made its vicar in 1552.

18th and 19th centuries

One of the present building's three fonts was added in 1707. In 1710 a west gallery was added, with an organ installed in it 21 years later. South and north galleries were added in 1727 and 1735 respectively. In 1763 the west gallery was rebuilt and in 1788-90 the pulpit altered. A long south porch had also been added by 1799, which survived until sometime in the 19th century. The south aisle, the south chapel and the chancel's east wall were all refaced with yellow stock brick in 1800-1803 and Thomas Holbrook provided a set of the royal arms for the church's east end in 1804. The parish's population was growing and all three galleries were expanded again in 1821–1824 to cope with the increased congregations. Even so, an 1827 account stated that only 12% of the parish's population could be seated. Chapels of ease began to be added to the parish, such as St Mary's Church, Plaistow in 1830 and

St John's Church, Stratford St John's Church or the Church of Saint John the Evangelist is the parish church in Stratford, London, standing on Stratford Broadway, the main thoroughfare. The site was previously home to a "Forest Prison" that incarcerated those who committed ...

in 1834 - these both later became parishes in their own right in 1844, taking parts of what had been All Saints parish, whilst the new parish church of

Christ Church, Stratford Christ Church, Stratford was a Church of England church on the corner of Union Street and High Street in Stratford, London. It was built in 1852 to serve the Stratford Marsh area and consecrated on 15 May that year. On 10 November 1852 it was assi ...

also took part of All Saints parish on its foundation in 1852. Another part of All Saints parish was split off to join part of

Emmanuel Immanuel ( he, עִמָּנוּאֵל, 'Īmmānū'ēl, meaning, "God is with us"; also romanized: , ; and or in Koine Greek of the New Testament) is a Hebrew name that appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the H ...

parish as a new parish for St Mark's Church, Forest Gate in 1894. George Dyson and

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

rebuilt All Saints in 1847–1849, replacing the box pews with modern pews that allowed for more free sittings and probably altering the old nave dormers into their present configuration. Scott was called in again in 1865–1869, removing the west gallery, inserting new windows and designing a new reredos. A second larger font was added to the nave's west end in 1869. Further restorations and alterations followed in 1879-1880 and 1892, removing the north and south galleries. All Saints also founded the mission churches of St Thomas's around 1878 (which took part of All Saints parish in 1891 and was merged back into All Saints' parish in 1961) and St Matthew's Church, West Ham in 1891. Part of All Saints parish was joined with parts of those of

and Emmanuel Church, Forest Gate to form a new parish for

St James' Church, Forest Gate St James' Church, Forest Gate was a church in Forest Gate, east London. Its origins lay in an iron building constructed around 1870 to serve a conventional district. A parish was formed for it in 1881 from those of Emmanuel Church, All Saints a ...

Today

Two curiosities are worth noting in the present church: the

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

, dated 1707, which bears the name of three

churchwarden A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish or congregation of the Anglican Communion or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' members of the parish ...

s instead of the usual two (the ancient parish was once divided into three wards and the custom continues); and the other is the clock in the tower, made in 1857 to Lord Grimthorpe's design, and the prototype of

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The official ...

References

External links

*http://www.westhamchurch.org.uk/ {{Churches in Newham, state=collapsed 12th-century establishments in England Church of England church buildings in West Ham West Ham Grade I listed churches in London Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Newham