Holy Cross & St Lawrence, Waltham Abbey
Holy Cross & St Lawrence, Waltham Abbey
The Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross and St Lawrence is a Grade I parish church on Highbridge Street, Waltham Abbey, Essex, in the Diocese of Chelmsford. It is the surviving nave of a major medieval abbey, the last religious house dissolved in England in 1540.
- Location
- Waltham Abbey, Essex
- Country
- England
- County
- Essex
- City / town
- Waltham Abbey
- Address
- Highbridge Street, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1DG
- Postcode
- EN9 1DG
- Built
- Nave and aisles c.1100–1151; west bays and west front c.1300; Lady Chapel early C14; west tower 1556–62; restored 1859–60
- Architect
- William Burges (1859–60 restoration; Lady Chapel 1876 with J A Reeve)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Holy Cross and Lawrence
- Diocese
- Chelmsford
- Parish
- Waltham Abbey
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Norman
- Grid reference
- TL 381 006
- Opening hours
- Church open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from late morning until 4pm.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England records a medieval church much reduced in size. The nave and aisles date from about 1100–1151; the two west bays and west front from about 1300; the Lady Chapel and undercroft from the first quarter of the fourteenth century; and the west tower from 1556–62. The main body was restored in 1859–60 by William Burges, who added a new nave roof, reredos and an east window with glass by Edward Burne-Jones. Burges and J. A. Reeve restored the Lady Chapel in 1876. Bases of two columns and a curved wall survive east of the present church from the Norman choir. A fourteenth-century Last Judgement wall painting survives in the Lady Chapel. The listing also notes brasses of 1559 and 1591 and later monuments. The church remains the parish church of Waltham Abbey after the abbey’s suppression.