According to the church website and other sources it is "the oldest church in the City of London" and was founded in AD 675,[3][4] although recent research has questioned these claims.[5][6] The church survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, but was badly damaged during the Blitz in World War II. Following extensive reconstruction, it was rededicated in 1957. From 1922 until 1962 the vicar was Tubby Clayton, and the church is still the guild church of Toc H, the international Christian organisation that he founded.
History
Reconstruction in 1955, following extensive damage in The BlitzThe Anglo-Saxon archway inside All HallowsThe interiorThe main-altar mural, a post-war work by Brian Thomas
The origin and early history of All Hallows-by-the-Tower church are obscure.[2] At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 the church belonged to Barking Abbey, a wealthy Benedictine nunnery in Barking, Essex, originally established in the 7th century. The association with Barking was a long one, and All Hallows church was already known as "Berkyncherche" in the 12th century. According to Domesday Book in 1086, Barking Abbey possessed "28 houses and half a church" in London: although the church is not named, it is usually identified with All Hallows.[2][5]
St Erkenwald, who may be associated with the earliest phases of the churchy in Saxon times, but certainly founded the Senior ecclesiastical house associated with it
The original Anglo-Saxon abbey of Barking was founded by Earconwald or Erkenwald,[7] along with Chertsey Abbey, before he became Bishop of London in 675, and it has been claimed that the land on which All Hallows stands was granted to the abbey, under Abbess Æthelburh (Ethelburga), Erkenwald's sister, at that time.[2] A charter dated to 687, listing properties belonging to Barking Abbey, includes two pieces of land in or near London.[8] One of these was simply described as "iuxta Lundoniam", near/next to London, the other as "supra vicum Lundoniae", that is, in "Lundenwic", the Anglo-Saxon town that had grown up in the area of the Strand, a mile to the west of the old Roman city of Londinium; neither of these, though, accurately describes the location of All Hallows church, inside the wall of the Roman city on the eastern side.[2]
In 1940, during World War II, the clearance after destruction caused by bombing revealed an archway built of reused Roman tiles and stonework, set in a surviving wall of the medieval church. The reuse of Roman building materials, and comparison with arches in the early Anglo-Saxon church at Brixworth, Northamptonshire, suggested that the All Hallows arch was very early in date, and that an original church could have been built as early as the 7th century.[9] This seemed to confirm the belief that the church had been founded as a daughter church of Barking Abbey at about the same time as the abbey itself was established, although it is doubtful that the first construction on the site would have been in stone. It is more likely that the stone church, of which the arch is a remnant, superseded an earlier wooden building.[4][10] Recent research, and archaeological evidence that Roman tiles and stone were being used in the construction of other London churches as late as the 11th century, suggest that the arch could have been constructed at any time between the 7th century and the arrival of the Normans.[6][5] Fragments of three 11th-century stone crosses also found during archeological work in the 1930s and clearance works after the bombing,[9] now displayed in the crypt, also date from this first church.[6][5]
The church was expanded and rebuilt several times between the 11th and 15th centuries, with various elements of the Norman, 13th-century and 15th-century constructions still visible today.[5][11] Its proximity to the Tower of London meant that it acquired royal connections, with Edward IV making one of its chapels a royal chantry and the beheaded victims of Tower executions being sent for temporary burial at All Hallows, Sir Thomas More being one of the most eminent of these.
The church was badly damaged by an explosion in 1650[12] caused when some barrels of gunpowder being stored in a warehouse adjacent to the church exploded; its west tower and some 50 nearby houses were destroyed, and there were many fatalities.[13] The tower was rebuilt in 1658. It only narrowly survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 and owes its survival to Admiral William Penn, father of William Penn of Pennsylvania fame, who had his men from a nearby naval yard blow up the surrounding buildings to create firebreaks. During the Great Fire, Samuel Pepys climbed the church's tower to watch the progress of the blaze and what he described as "the saddest sight of desolation".
Restored once more in the late 19th century, All Hallows was gutted by German bombers during the Blitz in World War II and required extensive reconstruction, and was rededicated in 1957.
Many portions of the old church survived the War and have been sympathetically restored.[14] Its outer walls are 15th-century, with the Anglo-Saxon arch doorway surviving from the original church. Many brasses remain in the interior. (The brass rubbing centre which used to be located at All Hallows is now closed). Three outstanding wooden statues of saints dating from the 15th and 16th centuries can also be found in the church, as too an exquisite Baptismal font cover which was carved in 1682 by Grinling Gibbons for £12, and which is regarded as one of the finest pieces of carving in London. The main-altar's reredos mural is a post-war work by Brian Thomas.
In 1999 the AOC Archaeology Group excavated the cemetery and made many significant discoveries.[15]
The church has a museum in its crypt, containing portions of a Roman pavement which together with many artefacts was discovered many feet below the church in 1926/27. The exhibits focus on the history of the church and the City of London, and include Anglo-Saxon and religious artefacts as well as the 17th-century church plate. Also on display are the church's registers dating back to the 16th century, and notable entries include the baptism of William Penn, the marriage of John Quincy Adams, and the burial of Archbishop William Laud.[16] Laud remained buried in a vault in the chapel for over 20 years; his body was moved during the Restoration to St John's College, Oxford. The crypt also houses the church's chapels dedicated to St Francis (14th century) and St Clare (early 17th century) as well as the columbarium, created in 1933.
All Hallows-by-the-Tower has been the guild church of Toc H since 1922. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.[18]
The church also has a chime which was brought back to working order in the 1970s by Philip Blewett, then a priest at the church, and Desmond Buckley over many weekends.
The Knollys Rose Ceremony, held annually in June, starts at the church and processes to the Mansion House, where a single rose is presented to the Lord Mayor as a 'quit rent'. The parish's annual beating the bounds ceremony also includes a boat trip to the middle of the Thames to 'beat' the water that forms the southern boundary.
The earliest records of an organ in All Hallows is one by Anthony Duddyngton dating from 1521. This was presumably lost during the English Civil War.
An organ was installed in 1675 by Thomas and Renatus Harris. In 1720 a new case was built by Gerard Smith. The organ was restored and improved by George Pike England in 1813, Bunting in 1872 and 1878, and Gray and Davison in 1902. There was further work by Harrison and Harrison in 1909 and 1928. After destruction in 1940, a new organ by Harrison and Harrison was installed in 1957.
Sherborne Abbey, otherwise the Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England church in Sherborne in the English county of Dorset. It has been a Saxon cathedral (705–1075), a Benedictine abbey church (998–1539), and since 1539, a parish church.
Harmondsworth is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon in the county of Greater London with a short border to the south onto London Heathrow Airport and close to the Berkshire county border. The village has no railway stations, but adjoins the M4 motorway and the A4 road. Harmondsworth was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965. It is an ancient parish that once included the large hamlets of Heathrow, Longford and Sipson. Longford and Sipson have modern signposts and facilities as separate villages, remaining to a degree interdependent such as for schooling. The Great Barn and parish church are medieval buildings in the village. The largest proportion of land in commercial use is related to air transport and hospitality. The village includes public parkland with footpaths and abuts the River Colne and biodiverse land in its Regional Park to the west, once the grazing meadows and woodlands used for hogs of Colnbrook.
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew, whose statues look down from the three high gables of the famous West Front. Although it was founded in the Anglo-Saxon period, its architecture is mainly Norman, following a rebuilding in the 12th century. With Durham and Ely cathedrals, it is one of the most important 12th-century buildings in England to have remained largely intact, despite extensions and restoration.
Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. No universally accepted example survives above ground. Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.
St Clement Eastcheap is a Church of England parish church in Candlewick Ward of the City of London. It is located on Clement's Lane, off King William Street and close to London Bridge and the River Thames.
The Temple Church, a royal peculiar in the Church of England, is a church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar for their English headquarters in the Temple precinct. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem. During the reign of King John (1199–1216) it served as the royal treasury, supported by the role of the Knights Templar as proto-international bankers. It is now jointly owned by the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court, bases of the English legal profession. It is famous for being a round church, a common design feature for Knights Templar churches, and for its 13th- and 14th-century stone effigies. It was heavily damaged by German bombing during World War II and has since been greatly restored and rebuilt.
The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, sometimes abbreviated to Barts the Great, is a mediaeval church in the Church of England's Diocese of London located in Smithfield within the City of London. The building was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123. It adjoins St Bartholomew's Hospital of the same foundation.
St Olave's Church, Hart Street, is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane near Fenchurch Street railway station.
St Mary's Church, Barnes, is the parish church of Barnes, formerly in Surrey and now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Philip Thomas Byard Clayton, known as "Tubby" Clayton, was an Anglican clergyman and the founder of Toc H.
St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst, is the Church of England parish church of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, England. Much of the church is Anglo-Saxon. It was built in the 8th century, when Deerhurst was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. It is contemporary with the Carolingian Renaissance on mainland Europe, which may have influenced it.
The Church of St Andrew, Holborn, is a Church of England church on the northwestern edge of the City of London, on Holborn within the Ward of Farringdon Without.
St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate is a Church of England church in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, and also, by virtue of lying outside the city's eastern walls, part of London's East End.
St. Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street was a church in Castle Baynard ward of the City of London, England, located on the corner of Old Fish Street and Old Change, on land now covered by post-War development. Recorded since the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, then rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The rebuilt church suffered damage to its roof from a fire in an adjacent warehouse in 1886. It was not repaired and was finally demolished in 1893.
St Mildred, Poultry, was a parish church in the Cheap ward of the City of London dedicated to Anglo-Saxon Saint Mildred. It was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London, and demolished in 1872. St Mildred in the Poultry was the burial place of the writer Thomas Tusser. Some description of the church and its monuments is given in John Stow's Survey of London.
All Hallows, Honey Lane was a parish church in the City of London, England. Of medieval origin, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and not rebuilt; the site became part of Honey Lane Market, which was in turn partially cleared to make way for the City of London School in the 19th century. Much of the area was destroyed during the bombing in World War II and has been redeveloped. The name Honey Lane is retained in a nearby walkway.
Saint Æthelburh or Ethelburga, founder and first Abbess of the double monastery of Barking, was the sister of Earconwald, Bishop of London.
William Selby (1738–1798) was an English organist, harpsichordist, choirmaster and composer who emigrated to America.
St Mary is the parish church of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. The large medieval church, described as "one of the finest parish churches in Leicestershire", suffered from a poor Victorian restoration, and was left in a poor state of repair and deemed "unfit for purpose". By late 2017, work was completed to make the church more accessible and safe, which included a new floor and underfloor heating, a lighting and sound system and a rebuild of the historic organ; the reordering cost an approximate £2 million.
Edward Layfield was a Church of England priest in the 17th century.
References
↑ Harben, Henry A. (1918). A Dictionary of London. London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd. p.13.
↑ Ralls, Karen, Knights Templar Encyclopedia: The Essential Guide to the People, Places, events and symbols of the Order of the Temple, Career Press, 2007, p.22
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
