St Andrew's Church, Greensted

Church Details


Visited
19/03/2004 & 28/09/2008
Locking Status
Open during daytime hours - this can vary though - so avoid very early or very late attempts to visit.
Built
Nave logs felled between 1063-1100AD.
Restoration
1842-9; 1892
Restoration Architect
T.H. Wyatt (Nave wall base) Chancellor (nave roof)
Website
http://www.greenstedchurch.org.uk/

External Images

St Andrew, Greensted Church - From this view, you wouldn't appreciate that there is something very special about this church. Unfortunately, due to the planting of the churchyard, it is difficult to photograph St Andrew's as a whole.

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St Andrew, Greensted Church - This shot shows what is so special about St Andrew's. The nave walls are constructed split logs, with wooden tongues holding them together. Recent dendrochronological findings have placed the construction of the nave to around 1060AD, just prior to the Norman conquest. This means that this church is The Oldest Wooden Church in the World, and The Oldest Standing Wooden Building in Europe.

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St Andrew, Greensted Church - Here can be seen the tower, which according to a date on one of the bells "William Land made me 1618", is early-C17 or before. Many consider the tower to be earlier, as Essex is famed for it's mediaeval wooden towers and belfries.

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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Internal Images

St Andrew, Greensted Church - An internal view of the chancel. Prior to the C16, the chancel was built of wood. It pre-dated the nave, and would originally have been the only part of the building. It would have been of a more primitive construction than the nave. Around 1500 A.D., during the reign of Henry VII, great changes were made to the church. The chancel was rebuilt in brick, and the thatched roof on both the nave and chancel was replaced by tiles. Dormer windows were added to the nave.

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St Andrew, Greensted Church - Changes were again made to the interior of the church during Victorian times. In 1837 Philip Ray became rector, and saw to it that the neglected church was surveyed and restored. The work was undertaken by a local carpenter, James Barlow. The bases of the nave walls had to be cut off, and re-seated on a brick sill, due to rotting of the ancient timbers. Changes were made to strengthen the nave roof, and six dormer windows replaced the three tudor ones.

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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Glass Images

St Andrew, Greensted Church

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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Monument Images

St Andrew, Greensted Church - Here lieth Jone, sister of Thomas Smith of Mont Knight. Second wife of Alane Wood of Snodland in Kent. Gent who livinge vertuouslie 60 yeeres died godly the XX of August 1585.

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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Postcard Images

St Andrew, Greensted Church - An old postcard showing the wooden nave walls from the South.

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St Andrew, Greensted Church

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Location Map

 


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