Holy Innocents Church
The church of the Holy
Innocents is not the first church at High Beach. There was
previously a church dedicated to St Paul down Church Road,
north east, and across the road from Fair
Mead Cottage. In 1845, only nine years after it was
built, the St Paul's was already closed undergoing
repairs. By 1869 the state of St Paul's was such that the
vicar and wardens were already planning its replacement
and in the 1873 a new church was built, paid for by Thomas
Baring (of the banking family) on the condition he could
decide what it should look like.
White's Directory, 1863
says of High Beech: "Its Church, dedicated to St. Paul,
was built by subscription in 1836, at a cost of about
£900."
The Post Office Directory,
1878: "High Beech is 3 miles south-east [of Waltham
Abbey], and is an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1837,
and is situate on the boarders of Epping Forest, about 12
miles from London. The church of St. Paul, now in disuse,
is a plain brick building, with bell turret and 1 bell.
Holy Innocents church, opened for divine service in 1873,
is a gothic stone building, consisting of 13 bells, which
are played by machinery. The register dates from the year
1837."
By 1933 the parish has developed somewhat and the design of the church such that the following lengthy entry in Kelly's Essex Directory, 1933 reads: "High Beech, 3 miles south-east from Waltham Abbey, and is an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1837 from that parish and is on the borders of Epping Forest, 2 miles north from Loughton station on the London and North Eastern railway, 3 north from Chingford and about 12 from London, in the Epping division of the county, half hundred of Waltham, Waltham Abbey county court district, Metropolitan police district, rural deanery of Chigwell, archdeaconry of Southend and Chelmsford diocese.. The church of St. Paul, disused for some time, was finally removed, and superseded, by an Order of Council, Dec. 2nd, 1884, by the new church of the Holy Innocents, all rights and emoluments atached to the ancoent church being transferred to the new. Holy Innocents church, picturesqely situated in the forest and surrounded by woodland scenery, was opened for divine service in 1873 and consecrated in 1883: it is a cruciform edifice of stone in the Gothic style , from designs by the late Sir A.W.Blomfield M.A., A.R.A., F.S.A. architect, of London, and consists of apsidal chancel, nave, transepts, south porch and a north-west tower with octagonal spire containing a clock and 13 bells, played by machinery: the chancel windows, all of which are stained, were the gift of the late T.C.Baring esq.: a memorial window was inserted in 1893 by Mrs Baring in memory of her husband, T.C.Baring M.P. and there is another to Mrs Baring and her children: a marble tablet was placed on the north wall of the nave in 1919 to the men who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918: there are 247 sittings: the lych gate, erected in 1898, is a memorial to Mr & Mrs Arrowsmith of this parish. The register of baptisms and marriages dates from the year 1837 and that for burials from 1884."
Thomas Charles Baring died in
1891 and Mrs Baring had a memorial window to her husband
inserted in the church in 1893. There is another to Mrs
Baring and her children. A marble war memorial was placed
on the north wall in 1919.
The Churchyard
For the purpose of gathering monumental inscriptions, the
graveyard has been split into four sections. Reference
numbers have been assigned to each plot in order to locate
them in the church yard and relate them to a
transcription, but these do not correspond to church
records. Rows are assigned a letter starting on the Church
Lane side, and a number increasing from the path between
the lych gate and the church.
- N - North of the main path to the church door
- S - South of the main path to the church door
- SR- Two rows at right angles to the rest at the most southerly end of the churchyard
- Sq - Memorials about a foot square around the church wall and plaques on the stone cross
Most monumental inscriptions were recorded in 2014 by photographing each plot and transcribing later. The condition of memorials is generally good making most easy to read. A few memorials south of the church are more difficult to read and require further work to transcribe.
The Registers
Baptism registers 1837-1961, marriage registers 1838-2003,
and the burial register 1884-1985 have been deposited with
the ERO
and may be viewed on-line. The following registers have
been transcribed and are available to search on this site:
Marriages
1838 - 1940
Burials
1884 - 1985
The first marriage register
runs from 1838 to 1912 containing 161 marriages, sometimes
with years gaps between entries, until it was closed with
the following memorandum: "In view of the fact that these
Marriage Registers are of obsolete pattern andthat many
years must elapse before they would become filled, they
are disused at this point by direction of the
Registrar General, and new Marriage Registers containing
spaces for 50 entries have been supplied for future use at
the church. General Register office, Somerset House,
Strand, W.C. 16th July 1912.". Something of the way
the church saw itself can be deduced from this register.
It starts off in 1838 with St Paul's being a referred to
as a chapel in the parish of Waltham Holy Cross. In 1843
the incumbent decides to refer to St Paul's as a church.
In 1857 entries start to refer to St Paul in the New
Parish of High Beech. Between 1877 and 1884 there are no
marriages, and when entries start again they are at the
new church of Holy Innocents, still in the New
Parish of High Beech until 1887.
