Stoke Newington: Churches

Churches

A rector was appointed in 1314 to the church of Stoke Newington, which was a peculiar of the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, London. (fn. 70) Patronage was exercised by the Crown in 1404, because of the 'voidance of the bishopric', by the dean and chapter from 1414 to 1580, and by the prebendary of Newington from 1585 to 1830. After the foundation of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners patronage passed to the bishop of London, who first exercised it in 1852. (fn. 71) During the Interregnum one rector, Thomas Manton (1644-56), was presented by the parliamentarian Col. Alexander Popham and another, Daniel Bull (1657-62), was elected by the vestry. (fn. 72) The church, whose dedication to St. Mary is not mentioned before 1522, (fn. 73) served the whole parish until the foundation of St. Matthias's in 1849. (fn. 74)

The annual value of Stoke Newington church was £6 13s. 4d. in 1366, £10 in 1535, £54 17s. in 1650, £420 in 1832, and £1,048 gross in 1896. (fn. 75)

In 1329 the rector held Churchfield of the lord of the manor by rent and suit of court and his executor refused to pay the heriot demanded by the bailiff. (fn. 76) In 1548 the rector received £20 a year, presumably from the lease of the parsonage, tithes, and glebe. (fn. 77) In the 1560s William Patten restored to the rector 18 1/2 a. which had been described in Patten's lease of the manor as customary land belonging to the rectory, which was neither to be taken by the manorial lessee nor turned into freehold. (fn. 78) Great waste had been committed by the farmer of the rectory in 1572 but by 1649 the 18 1/2 a. was worth £37 a year. (fn. 79) By the late 18th century it was treated as freehold and no payment was demanded by the lord at the rector's induction 'by an ancient agreement'. (fn. 80) The glebe, stretching south from the parsonage house, (fn. 81) was augmented by the bequest of a rector, Sidrach Simpson (d. 1704), of copyhold in Hackney and a copyhold house and 3 a. on the south side of Church Street (later called Wentworth House) on condition that the rector was resident and distributed £2 10s. a year to the poor. The next rector, John Millington (d. 1728), gave two thirds of the profits of land in Acton to the rector on condition that he read public prayers each day in church. In 1732 the parishioners associated with the rector in a suit to compel the chapter of St. Paul's to accept Millington's trust. By 1820 annual income from the two endowments was £60 and £46 respectively. (fn. 82) In 1832 the total income from land in in Stoke Newington, Kingsland (Hackney), and Acton was £341 a year. (fn. 83) The land at Acton was sold and ground rents in Penge (Kent) were purchased in 1865 and others in Herne Hill (Surr.) in 1905. (fn. 84) Most of the glebe was leased for building in 1850 and by 1923 the rector was said to have no land but £746 a year from ground rents. (fn. 85)

The rector received only tithes of 1s. 6d. an acre for copyhold land and the demesne was tithe free except for 6s. 8d. payable on the manor house, a payment which lapsed in the later 17th century when Church Row was built on the manor house site, the rector afterwards persuading each of the 9 tenants of Church Row to pay 1s. (fn. 86) Attempts to obtain tithe in kind in 1640 and to secure payment of tithe from demesne land in 1715 were unsuccessful and the same rate was paid in 1820. (fn. 87) By 1832 tithes were taken according to composition at 2s. 6d. a house, averaging £30 a year. (fn. 88) In 1846 the rector challenged the modus and in 1848 he obtained a rent charge of £100 a year in lieu of tithes. (fn. 89)

A 'mansion place' stood on the glebe in 1548 and had been repaired by Pattern by 1565. (fn. 90) It needed repairs again in 1657 and in 1832 was very old and built of wood but habitable. (fn. 91) It was a weatherboarded building on the south side of Church Street opposite the church, with gables, casement windows, and tiled roofs. (fn. 92) When the old rectory house made way in 1855 for a second church, a house was built to the south in the garden. (fn. 93) It was described in 1917 as a 'commodious dwelling' with a delightful old garden, (fn. 94) but by the 1920s rectors found it far too large. (fn. 95) In the 1970s the top floor became a flat for the curate and the basement was converted into parish rooms and an office for Hackney deanery community relations. (fn. 96)

A bequest by Margaret Jekyll in 1545 for an annual obit probably never took effect, since her will was not proved until 1549. (fn. 97) In 1682 voluntary contributions were made for the maintenance of the minister's lecture, (fn. 98) and lecturers were appointed by the vestry from 1705 to 1853, when the office lapsed. (fn. 99) In 1742 a large vestry elected the rector, Ralph Thoresby, as lecturer and although he refused because his election 'gave offence to some', he was again elected in 1743. (fn. 1) In 1832 the rector, angered at the rejection of his candidate, declared that he would perform the duties himself but had to give way. (fn. 2)

A rector was first recorded in 1314. (fn. 3) Dispensation to hold other benefices was granted in 1419 and 1461 (fn. 4) and many early rectors were probably pluralists and absentees. From 1562 the list of rectors is complete. (fn. 5) Godfrey Becke (1566-8) lived in the parish before he became rector, possibly as curate, but Thomas Langley (1568- 74), a minor canon of St. Paul's, was presented at the manor court in 1572 because he was not resident and did not exercise pastoral care 'to the great detriment of services'. (fn. 6) John Taverner (1629-38), although professor of music in Gresham college and secretary to the bishop of London, maintained a household at Stoke Newington. The parish was strongly parliamentarian during the Civil War and the rector William Health (1639-44), who had been appointed by the royalist prebendary Thomas Turner, (fn. 7) was sequestered. His successor Thomas Manton, although mobile in his allegiances, was a leading Presbyterian writer and a 'godly and painful preacher'. (fn. 8) When he moved in 1656 the vestry chose Daniel Bull, who continued to preach in the church until 1662 in spite of being ejected at the Restoration and who then organized conventicles in the parish. (fn. 9)

There were frequent clashes between parishioners and Sidrach Simpson (1665-1704), master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, who was presented at St. Paul's peculiar court in 1673 and again in 1702 for encroaching on the body of the church with his pews, letting seats to outsiders, and neglecting to repair the chancel, (fn. 10) although he was also described as diligent and always resident. (fn. 11) John Millington (1705-28), an academic and pluralist, employed curates but, retaining one room in the parsonage, himself administered communion once a month. (fn. 12) William Cooke (1767-97), provost of Eton, was granted dispensation in 1767 to hold a fellowship at Eton together with Stoke Newington and another rectory; a classical scholar and later provost of King's College, Cambridge, and dean of Ely, he became deranged. (fn. 13) Cooke was succeeded by George Gaskin (1797-1829), one of his curates, who had been born at Newington Green and was first secretary of the S.P.C.K.

No vicarage was ordained although William, vicar of the church of Stoke in Middlesex, was mentioned in 1342. (fn. 14) There were assistant curates in 1540, (fn. 15) 1558, (fn. 16) and 1562, when it is uncertain whether the curate was William Apleforth, who in the course of accusations that he spoke against the queen was described as serving at Newington, (fn. 17) or John Apleforth. (fn. 18) There was an assistant curate in 1621 and from the late 17th century curates were usual though not invariable. There were two in the 1870s, three in 1881, (fn. 19) four in 1896, three in 1907, two in 1924, none from 1947 to 1955, and thereafter generally one. They included John Price (1706-18) and John Bransby (1814-25) who also ran schools, the scholar Henry Owen (1757-60), (fn. 20) Augustus Clissold (c. 1823-c. 1840), the Swedenborgain enthusiast who married the heiress of Clissold Park, (fn. 21) and Richard Morris (1873-8), the philologist.

Archdale Wilson Tayler (1830-52) was appointed rector by the prebendary, his brother-in-law, and in 1832 held communion once a month, morning and afternoon prayers with sermons each Sunday, and prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays. (fn. 22) During the late 1830s the vestry became a battleground between the Low Church protestant reformism traditional to Stoke Newington and the new High Church Tractarianism of an influential group of laymen led by Robert Brett (d. 1874), who began practising as a local doctor in 1835 and moved to Newington Green in 1839. (fn. 23) The Low Church faction supported nonconformists who objected to church rates and to the vestry paying for organists and other exclusively church matters. (fn. 24) Brett started a Sunday school in 1837 and raised funds for an evening lectureship, maintaining that lack of an evening service drove people to the dissenting chapels. The first lecturer was John Jackson, headmaster of Islington proprietary school, a High Churchman who became incumbent of Muswell Hill in 1842 and bishop of London in 1868. (fn. 25) By 1838 accommodation, though increased by additions to the parish church in 1829, was again inadequate. The church held 900, less than half as many as attended nonconformist chapels. (fn. 26) The Tractarians, who found the rector 'amiable and inert', began to agitate for a chapel of ease but a large majority in the vestry in 1840 rejected the idea, on grounds of expense and because it would increase 'religious dissension'. (fn. 27) Tayler in 1845 attempted some Tractarian innovations but, after intervention by the dean of St. Paul's, agreed to restore the old services, to preach 'in the gown', and to omit the prayer for the Church Militant. (fn. 28) In 1846 he acquired a Tractarian curate, Thomas A. Pope, (fn. 29) whose encouragement, coupled with the paying off of the church building debt, led to the foundation of the district church of St. Matthias in 1849. (fn. 30)

In 1851 the old church contained 150 free sittings and 545 for which pew rents were paid; it was attended on census Sunday by 700 in the morning, 120 in the afternoon, and 210 in the evening. (fn. 31) In 1853 the vestry set up a committee to consider increasing the accommodation, especially for the poor. It was argued that many 'highly respectable families' had joined other congregations solely because there was no room in the parish church. The Low Church faction objected to building on financial grounds, since the abeyance of church rates had brought peace 'with our numerous and highly respectable dissenting brethren' and only 150 more seats were necessary. (fn. 32) The congregation of St. Matthias's joined in a bizarre alliance with the Low Church faction to oppose rebuilding, especially a suggestion that money could be raised by mortgaging he Palatine estate. (fn. 33) Tayler's successor Thomas Jackson (1852-86), whose reputation for preaching may have been partly responsible for the overcrowding, (fn. 34) offered the site of the rectory house and garden for a new church. The committee accepted, while stressing that there should be no 'lavish expenditure in mere decoration or eccentricity in design rendering it ill-adapted for. . . the Protestant Church of England'. (fn. 35) The new church, with 1,100 sittings, was opened in 1858 and there were suspicions that the rector intended to pull down the old one or use it for schoolrooms. Congregations of more than 300 continued to attend the old church but evening services were discontinued and communion was administered only at long intervals. The bishop promised that, although the title and endowments of the parish church were being transferred to the new church, the old church was to continue as a chapel of ease. (fn. 36)

In 1860 the vestry agreed to pay £60 a year to the rector in compensation for the house and garden and undertook all repairs in return for the surrender of rectorial rights in the chancel. When raising money for the new church the rector also pledged that there would be no changes in services. In 1865 the election of vestrymen was fought on the issue of choral innovations made in 1864. After the Low Church faction's success, attributed by the rector's party to the votes of dissenters, the vestry discontinued the £60 payment in protest at the 'excess of music'. One churchwarden, F. J. Hamel, author of Protestantism in Peril, presented the rector to the bishop, who instructed Archdeacon Hale to attend the services. Hale supported the rector, who resisted the vestry, and suffles took place in church over the appointment of an organist. (fn. 37) The rector eventually succeeded in establishing a reputation for music at St. Mary's. (fn. 38) By 1881 there were fully choral services. (fn. 39)

During the 1880s attention turned from battles over ritualism to social (fn. 40) and missionary work. St. Andrew's was founded in 1876, a soup kitchen was opened for the poor by 1882, (fn. 41) and mission services were held at no. 106 Church Street from 1883 to 1906. (fn. 42) Leonard Shelford, rector 1886-1904, had an especial interest in east London and promoted 'services for the people': mission services were held at the assembly rooms in Defore Road from 1888, at the Good Shepherd mission from c. 1889 to c. 1903, at Holy Redeemer mission from 1892 to 1939, and at St. John the Baptist mission from 1894 to after 1913. (fn. 43) Shelford's curates included one associated with Socialism, besides a ritualist who built up a plainsong choir at the mission, another largely responsible for the formation of St. Olave's (1892), and another who introduced men's services and Lenten lectures by well known clergymen at St. Mary's old church. (fn. 44)

At the beginning of the 20th century St. Mary's was at its zenith with three or four curates, 40 district visitors, 120 Sunday school teachers, 100 choristers, and 100 mission workers. (fn. 45) On census Sunday 1903 attendances at the main church were 531 a.m. and 632 p.m. and at the old church 260 a.m. and 298 p.m. (fn. 46) Communicants in 1905 averaged 128 a week at the two services at the new and 35 at the one service at the old church. (fn. 47) The old church offered 'an old-fashioned service to old-fashioned worshippers', while the new was a 'highly ornate church of almost cathedral size' filled by large numbers 'who follow the fashion of the day'. (fn. 48) More sympathetically, it was said to have 'everything from an aesthetic and artistic point of view', to make services pleasing, and to have well maintained institutions. (fn. 49) In 1905 the assembly rooms were bought to become St. Mary's church rooms. (fn. 50) The prosperity was due to the largely middle-class congregations (fn. 51) and, although the rector referred in 1903 to changes, (fn. 52) it was not until the 1920s that the influx of Jews and increasing local poverty much affected the church. (fn. 53)

When William Patten 'new builded' (fn. 54) the church of ST. MARY (fn. 55) in 1563, he virtually obliterated the medieval building. Built of stone, flint, and pebbles, (fn. 56) in 1500 it contained a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas and a rood in need of mending. (fn. 57) The medieval nave and south porch remained, encased in Patten's work which he described in 1565 as rebuilding the chancel, adding an aisle with, in addition to a chapel, a vestry at the east and a schoolhouse at the west end, 're-edifying' the whole body of the church, and repairing the rest of the fabric. (fn. 58) Above the 16th-century doorway is an 18th-century inscription, '1563 Ab alto'. The chapel, entered by a door above which are Patten's arms and the letters W.P. over 'Prospice', belonged, with its eight pews, to the lord of the manor. (fn. 59) The 16thcentury building was of brick and included a west tower built within the medieval nave. A north aisle was added in 1716-17 and the chancel extended eastward in 1723. (fn. 60) In 1728 new windows were put in at the west end, the walls on the south side were raised and coped with stone, and all the church, except the new north aisle, was roughcast. (fn. 61) The church was repaired and 'beautified' in 1770, and the west end raised to the same height as the rest in 1785. (fn. 62) In 1791 the church was too small and its replacement was considered, (fn. 63) but in 1806 it was restored and the outside (except the north wall) covered with cement to imitate stone. (fn. 64)

A survey in 1827 revealed a rotten roof and bad drainage, with coffins floating under the floor. Restoration by Sir Charles Barry, completed by 1829, included extending the north aisle westward to a line with the tower, adding a second north aisle and a clerestory to the nave, raising the floor and ceiling, removing the 18th-century parapets, re-roofing, and replacing the wooden spire, which was already much decayed in 1791. (fn. 65) The Church assumed a more conventional Gothic appearance and the accommodation increased from 499 to 700 sittings. (fn. 66) In 1853, when more space was needed, the vestry committee took the advice of George Gilbert Scott to replace the old building, a mere village church whose extensions had made it a 'heterogeneous mass'. (fn. 67) In 1928 the spire was again replaced and the cement was removed from the south aisle to reveal the Tudor brickwork. The old church was badly damaged by bombing in 1940 when the north aisle and 16th-century windows, given by Jonathan Eade in 1811, were destroyed. The church, but not Barry's north aisle, was restored by Charles M. O. Scott in 1953 with a new north-eastern vestry. The pews and Barry's pulpit and iron rails remain, as do the monuments, which include that of Elizabeth (d. 1602), wife of John Dudley (d. 1580) and Thomas Sutton (d. 1611), a marble wall monument with kneeling figures; there is a wall monument to Joseph Hurlock (d. 1793) and his wife by Thomas Banks.

In 1681 ringers were paid 4s. a day 'according to custom'. (fn. 68) In 1828 Thomas Mears of Whitechapel recast the six bells, (fn. 69) one of which, the tenor, was recast by Mears in 1864. (fn. 70a) Proposals to introduce an organ were rejected in 1791 but accepted in 1806. (fn. 71a) The organist's performance was unsatisfactory in 1824 and the organ figured in the dispute between the High and Low Church factions in 1838. (fn. 72a) John Herst, skinner, by will proved 1449, left a chalice to the church, (fn. 73a) but the surviving plate all dates from the 17th and 18th centuries: a cup and paten (1634) and flagon (1638), the gifts of William Stephens, a cup and paten bought in 1657, and a large almsdish, given by the rector in 1711, all of silver gilt. There are two brass almsdishes dated 1713. (fn. 74a) The plate was transferred to the new church in 1901 and a full set of communion plate was presented to the old church to replace it. (fn. 75a) The parish registers begin in 1559. (fn. 76a)

The new church of ST. MARY, (fn. 77a) opposite the old one, was started in 1855 and consecrated in 1858. It was built to a design by Sir George Gilbert Scott in a 13th-century style of Kentish rag with Bath stone dressings and consists of apsidal chancel with aisles, aisled nave, north and south transepts, and south-east vestry. A spire was completed on the western tower in 1890 by John Oldrid Scott. The church accommodated 1,300 people and had rich stained glass, a timbered roof, and an elaborate font. It was restored in 1923 but was badly damaged during the Second World War and again restored in 1957, when glass by Francis Skeat replaced the lost Victorian windows.

The first daughter church was St. Matthias, (fn. 78a) which took its parish from the south-eastern part of Stoke Newington and the detached parts of South Hornsey. It was founded in 1849 largely through the efforts of Robert Brett and the assistant curate of St. Mary's, Thomas Pope. Pope married the rector's daughter and became perpetual curate of the new church, where he established a High Church tradition which survived his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1854. Choral services at St. Matthias's were developed by the organist, William H. Monk (1852-89), musical editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, composer of 'Abide with me', and plain-song enthusiast. Charles James Le Geyt, vicar 1858-77, a former curate of John Keble, introduced incense and vestments, a gift from some of the laity, in 1865 and Corpus Christi processions in 1867. The church, 'one of the most advanced churches in the kingdom', attracted enthusiastic congregations who had to be protected by police from protestant mobs.

Robert Brett, together with Richard Foster, another layman who had been involved in founding St. Matthias's, promoted other High Church foundations in the area, including St. Faith's mission chapel in 1868 and All Saints' in 1873, partly because they feared the appointment by the bishop, whose turn it was, of an antiritualist as vicar of St. Matthias's. In 1858 the vicar, who had tried to obey the bishop's instructions to extinguish altar lights, had resigned, mainly under pressure from Brett. When the new vicar, in obedience to the bishop who appointed him in 1878, tried to abandon ritual practices, he provoked a storm of protest: the whole choir resigned, offertories declined, and during the 1880s the controversial practices were reintroduced. (fn. 79a)

In the 1850s St. Matthias's had been surrounded by a neighbourhood 'overrun with dissent', which it challenged with ritualism and where it succeeded in converting several Quakers. (fn. 80a) As the social standing of the area declined, elaborate ritual was defended as a means of attracting the poor, among whom St. Matthais's and St. Faith's undertook social and mission work from the late 1870s. In 1883 the Salvation Army was invited to St. Faith's to hear the bishop of London preach. (fn. 81a) In 1905 the main problem of the southern churches was indifference, although the large numbers of Jews and nonconformists also caused difficulties. The vicar of St. Matthias's commented that the majority of the pious were dissenters. (fn. 82a) In the north St. Andrew's, with its mainly middle-class congregation and some 'better working class', was praised for its church work and music in 1903. (fn. 83a)

Declining numbers and wealth, together with severe bomb damage in the Second World War, led to reorganization of the parishes in the 1950s. In 1951 the boundaries of St. Mary's, St. Andrew's, St. Olave's, and St. John's, Brownswood Park, (fn. 84a) were adjusted and St. Faith's was amalgamated with St. Matthias's. Initial opposition in St. Faith's was mollified when the patronage of the new benefice centred on St. Matthias's was vested in the City of London Corporation to secure the continuation of 'Catholic teaching and practice'. In 1956 the boundary of St. Mary's was again altered and All Saints' was amalgamated with the parish of St. Matthias and St. Faith. (fn. 85a)

The daughter churches and missions of Stoke Newington were: (fn. 86a)

ALL SAINTS, Aden Grove. Mission in iron ch. in Aden Grove in SW. Stoke Newington on site given by Ric. Foster 1872. (fn. 87a) Dist. formed from St. Mary and St. Matthias 1873. Patron bp. of Lond., Corporation of Lond. by 1937. (fn. 88a) Par. absorbed part of St. Matthias in reorganization 1951 but itself merged into new par. of St. Faith with St. Matthias and All Saints 1956, when ch. demol. and site sold. High Ch. but less ritualistic than St. Matthias and St. Faith. Fully choral svces., 4 each Sunday, one asst. curate 1881. (fn. 89a) Well attended svces. and many social activities 1902. (fn. 90a) Attendance 1903: 220 a.m.; 240 p.m. Bldg. seating 800 in Early Eng. style by F. Dollman and W. Allen 1876: chancel with vestries, aisled nave, narthex, NE. tower. Alabaster reredos; chancel and narthex screens. (fn. 91a) Sch. and mission hall built next to ch. 1878. (fn. 92a)

GOOD SHEPHERD. Mission svces. held by clergy of St. Mary's in room in Falcon Ct., Church Street, from c. 1889 until c. 1903. (fn. 93a)

HOLY REDEEMER. Chapel at no. 108 Church Street, briefly called St. Barnabas, dedicated 1892. (fn. 94a) Mission svces. by clergy of St. Mary's until suspended 1939. (fn. 95a) Attendance 1903: 181 p.m. 'Very successful' 1905. (fn. 96a)

ST. ANDREW, Bethune and Fairholt rds. Originated in iron ch. on N. side of Manor Rd. 1876. (fn. 97a) Dist. formed from St. Mary and St. Thos., Stamford Hill, 1883. Patron bp. of Lond. (fn. 98a) Fully choral svces., 3 each Sunday by 1881 although V. 'of no. Ch. party' 1891. (fn. 99a) High Ch. practices disclaimed 1905 (fn. 1a) but established by 1981. 3 asst. curates 1896, thereafter usually one. Attendance 1903: 696 a.m., 541 p.m., highest of any Anglican ch. in Stoke Newington. Endowment fund to enable V. to live without private means 1926-30. (fn. 2a) Allotted £100 a year for repairs from Palatine estate char. 1962. (fn. 3a) Bldg. of Bath stone and Kentish rag with Portland stone dressings in 13th-cent. style, seating 1,400, by A.W. Blomfield 1884, enlarged 1889: chancel, aisled nave, short transepts and spirelet. (fn. 4a) Ch. repaired and side chapel built 1959. (fn. 5a) Par. room in Fairholt Rd. 1885, replaced by large hall near ch. 1904. (fn. 6a) Queen Anne style Vicarage by Blomfield. Hall and vicarage replaced by flats by 1982. (fn. 7a)

ST. FAITH, Londesborough Road. Mission in small brick bldg. 1868, replaced by temp. iron ch. 1871. (fn. 8a) Dist. formed from St. Mary and St. Matthias 1873. (fn. 9a) Patron trustees, including V. and prominent laymen of St. Matthias, later Corporation of Lond. (fn. 10a) Consecration an occasion of ritualist demonstration; (fn. 11a) High Ch. from beginning. Fully choral svces., 5 each Sunday, altar lights by 1881. (fn. 12a) Censer and confession by 1905. (fn. 13a) Endowment for asst. curate 1874; (fn. 14a) 2 asst. curates by 1881, (fn. 15a) 3 by 1893, 2 by 1901, 1 by 1926, none by 1935. Attendance 1903: 181 a.m., 162 p.m. Bldg. in early French Gothic style by Wm. Burges and J. Martin Brooks 1873: basilica with 2 turrets on W. front; bellcot 1878, other additions 1879, 1881, 1883, 1889, 1891. (fn. 16a) Ch. altered 1931 and badly damaged 1944. (fn. 17a) Svces. continued in damaged bldg. but after 1949 V. of St. Faith also in charge of St. Matthias; new benefice of St. Faith with St. Matthias centred on ch. of St. Matthias 1951. St. Faith's ch. demol. (fn. 18a) Home for incurables in Milton Rd. 1876, mission ho. in Gordon Rd. 1881, (fn. 19a) mission hall in Londesborough Rd. 1883. (fn. 20a)

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. Weekly mission svces. by St. Mary's clergy at no. 2 Chapel Ct. or Pl. off High Street 1894. (fn. 21a) Attendance 1903: 10 p.m. Licence renewed 1913. (fn. 22a)

ST. JOHN OF BEVERLEY, Green Lanes. Institute for Deaf and Dumb, Ch. of Eng. char., built on site given by Ch. Com. 1913. (fn. 23a) Chapel dedicated 1920. Additions 1921. Bldgs. destroyed by fire 1960 and smaller centre built on part of site 1963. (fn. 24a)

ST. MATTHIAS, (fn. 25a) Wordsworth Road. Svces. in sch. built 1849 when dist. formed from Stoke Newington and St. Mary, Hornsey. (fn. 26a) Patron alternately Crown and bp. of Lond. Amalgamated in new benefice of St. Faith with St. Matthias, patron Corporation of Lond., 1951; absorbed All Saints par. 1956. Allotted £100 a year from Palatine estate 1962. (fn. 27a) Endowment for one asst. curate 1869, two 1881. (fn. 28a) Musical tradition and High Ch. practices cause of considerable controversy. Fully choral svces., 6 each Sunday by 1881. (fn. 29a) Attendance 1851: 150 a.m., 145 aft., 200 evg.; (fn. 30a) 1903: 250 a.m., 264 p.m. Bldg. of buff brick with Bath stone dressings in Dec. style, seating 756, by Wm. Butterfield 1851-3: short chancel, central saddleback tower, aisled and clerestoried nave with steeply pitched roof, N. and S. porches. Design approved by Ecclesiologist but attacked by historian E. A. Freeman. (fn. 31a) Chancel screen, wall paintings, and windows added later. Vicarage 1863. (fn. 32a) Ch. badly damaged 1941 and svces. held at institute. (fn. 33a) Ch. restored but chancel cut off and interior whitened 'in a way that Butterfield would certainly not have approved' and reopened 1954. (fn. 34a) Lively social life with increasing emphasis on mission and social work: iron ch. institute in Wordsworth Rd. 1894, replaced by new mission hall 1902, (fn. 35a) mission rooms at no. 17 Spenser Rd. 1884, at no. 7 Watson Rd. 1890, and no. 72 Howard Rd. 1910. (fn. 36a)

ST. OLAVE, (fn. 37a) Woodberry Down. City ch. of St. Olave, Old Jewry, demol. 1888-9 and proceeds applied to new chs. in Lond. including Stoke Newington. Temp. iron ch. built on site given by Ch. Com. (fn. 38a) at junction of Seven Sisters Rd. and Woodberry Down, and dist. formed from St. Mary and St. And., Stoke Newington, St. John, Stamford Hill, and St. Ann, Hangar Lane, 1892. (fn. 39a) Par. enlarged 1951. Patron Ld. Chancellor. Usually one asst. curate. High Ch. practices introduced by second V. (1924-42). Some social activities 1905, (fn. 40a) more during 1920s and 1930s. Attendance 1903: 476 a.m., 348 p.m. Bldg., next to iron ch., of red brick with Bath stone dressings in 13th-cent. style, seating 700, by Ewan Christian 1894: triple chancel and apse, wide nave with passage aisles, tower with small spire. 17th-cent. pulpit and font from St. Olave, Old Jewry. Iron ch. retained as par. room and extended 1896. Replaced by large new institute, seating 340, 1928. (fn. 41a)