east barnet parish church  

st mary the virgin   

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The History of East Barnet Parish Church

► Explore the Building      ► Time Line

► The Little Church on the Hill - An Easy History

► 1005AD Boundary Charter     

► Church Records

► Rectors of East Barnet

► Some Notable Residents of East Barnet

► The Churchyard

► Strange and Wonderfull Newes from Barnet, 1688

► East Barnet Processional Hymn

A Brief History

Introduction        "The Little Church on the Hill" - An Easy History

INTRODUCTION

The Norman Conquest in 1066 was a significant step in securing Britain in

the control of the western [Roman] Catholic Church.  In the years following

William's accession, the the feudal system gradually took hold across the land

and so put lords, serfs and peasants in their respective places. 

Where previously small wooden churches had been established the Normans

built stone Churches - the 'jewels of British Christianity' - and St Mary's in East

Barnet is a fine example.  Just as in previous generations the long barrows and

stone circles had played a central role in community life, so the parish churches

and cathedrals took on the role as the largest stone structures in a particular locality.

Such local churches were open to all, and became the accustomed venue for

community meetings, markets, and festivals where the major rites of passage

were marked and celebrated.  In a community like East Barnet, the Church was

the hub of life simply because it was dry, open and useable by the entire community. 

 In its early days, St Mary's was probably the only stone-built structure for miles around,

and as such acted as a community centre and all -purpose meeting hall.  

And yet it was also a place of beauty, inspiration and peace.

A major change with the arrival of the stone-loving Normans was that existing

churches that had been dedicated to local saints in the Celtic tradition were

re-dedicated to the more 'universal' saints as the Blessed Virgin Mary, St John the

Baptist and St Peter.  Already these saints had a growing 'cultus' in Europe, with

lucrative shrines, pilgrimages and relics to support their competitive economy. 

The Church also had a keen eye to 'christianize' existing pagan shrines and places

of worship, and there is a strong possibility that St Mary's was built on such a site.

"The Little Church on the Hill"

A very long time ago, the Abbot of St Albans needed timber to build his Abbey.

There was a forest of trees around the valley where Oakhill Park now lies and it

was home to many animals, deer, wild pigs and wolves. The monks of St Albans

formed a colony of woodmen and swineherds at Osidge and Monken Frith.

A little chapel was built on the top of this hill and it was dedicated to

St Mary the Virgin.  The Abbott consecrated it in 1080AD and he became both

Patron and Rector until the Reformation.

The locality became known as Baernet, 'an area cleared by burning'.  We know

this because Baernet is mentioned in the Gesta Abbatum (The Deeds of the Abbots)

in 1080AD and also a papal bull dated 1140 listing all of the possessions of

St Albans. The first chapel had thick walls made of compressed rubble, lime and

plaster with stone around the openings. The windows had no glass.  Much of the

north wall of our church is from that time. The frame of the door on the south side is

probably also from that same period. The chapel might have had a curved end

called an apse.  

The Abbot of St Albans, who was then also the Lord of the Manor, was granted a

charter by King John to establish a market at [High] Barnet in 1199. From this action

 the town obtained its name Chipping Barnet, the word ‘Chipping’ being derived

from the Anglo-Saxon ‘ceap’ meaning a bargain or market. The church on

Chipping Barnet hill was probably founded in the middle of the 13th century,

almost certainly as a chapel-at-ease to that of St Mary at [East] Barnet. We know

it had been built by Michaelmas 1276 because a court roll entry refers to ‘an

obstruction on the road leading to the church of Barnet and the market’.

Nevertheless, it did not become a separate parish church for six hundred years.

At St Mary’s, glass had been put in the windows by the 13th century and some

of it is still there today.

The apse was replaced in the 1400’s with a larger chancel and a porch would

have been constructed to protect the door.

The church at Chipping Barnet served the needs of those who dwelt in the

surrounding hamlets. In 1420 the building was burned down, except for the north wall,

and a new church was built and dedicated to the death of John the Baptist (Aug 28th).

Among the chronicles of St Albans Abbey are the annals of Walsingham, who lived

in the reign of Henry the Sixth. He records that in 1423 the Archbishop of

Canterbury passed through Barnet, and the rector and priest were reprimanded for

not ringing the church bells in his honour. When the offence was repeated the

following year, the Archbishop ordered the church doors to be sealed as a punishment.

 In 1539, King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the Monastery of St Albans meant that he

took over the ownership of the Manor of Chipping & East Barnet. His son,

King Edward VI then sold on the Manor of East Barnet in 1553 but kept the advowson

(patronage) for himself.

To this day the sovereign is still our patron. It is thought that our church may have had

three altars in Tudor and Stuart times. The first gallery was built during the reign of King

James I in 1619 probably as a schoolroom.

By the early 1700’s there were a few large houses in East Barnet. The only one which

we can see today is Oak Hill House. It was built in 1790 in the grounds of an older

mansion called ‘Le Monkefrieth’ which had been there since 1273. Its name meant

the monks woodland but Monkfrith was demolished in 1937. Next door to the church

was the medieval Manor House which was replaced by Church Hill House in 1610.

In 1690, Thomas Trevor bought it and called it Trevor Park. This in turn was demolished

in 1820 and replaced by a second Church Hill House in 1860. This too was taken down

in 1930s but its lodge still stands. East Barnet village began to spread down the hill to

where Pymmes Brook was widest (Reginald Pymm lived nearby in 1303). Before that

it was known as ‘Medeseye’ which meant ‘slow meadow stream’. Doggett Hill was

named after the 13th century Doggett family but later became known as Cat Hill

- probably because of the 15th century name for the area, Katbrygge.

In 1794 a wooden turret was erected on the church. It contained three small bells.

Just on the brow of Cat Hill there was a huge mansion as early as 1291.

It was known to be in the ownership of a Richard atte Den and he called it

Danegrove. The house had changed its name by 1556 to Littlegrove and it was

bought by Henry Parker [a citizen and painter-stainer] in 1653. He died in 1670,

and when it was in the ownership of John Cotton in 1719 he changed its name

again to New Place. This didn’t last for long because it had reverted to Littlegrove

by the start of the 1800s. It was enlarged by Frederick Cass, a gentleman and

magistrate of the Liberty of St Albans, who employed many house staff and

groundsmen. His son, the historian and Rector of St Mary’s, Hadley, added

a chapel and a west wing and a lake. The house was demolished in 1932.

Some evidence of its gardens can still be seen in the grounds of houses in Cat Hill.

By the 18th century the roof space of our church was being used as a vestry

and store so a dormer window was knocked through above the porch.

Not far from Monkfrith still stands Osidge House, but it is a rebuild of a previous

mansion. It was owned by Thomas Conyers in 1612 – who also owned

Monkfrith and Church Hill House. He was the bailiff of St Albans so he must

have been very wealthy. After he died it was bought by George Hadley in 1652,

rebuilt in 1767, bought by Augustus Bosanquet in 1843 who ‘married one of the

Belmont girls’. When he died in 1883 his widow sold it to Sir Thomas Lipton,

the grocer. He ran his large business affairs from this house especially his tea

plantations. The house was rebuilt on his death and is now used as a home for

retired nurses. Belmont was the new name for Mount Pleasant, which was owned

by Elias Ashmole, the founder of the Asmolean Museum in Oxford. It became a

school called Heddon Court at which Sir John Betjeman once taught but it was

demolished in the 1930s.

A church warden in 1805 decided to raise the walls by four feet and create

a new roof over the old. A new window was installed and later the turret was

replaced by an octagonal belfry.

The belfry stayed only for eleven years until 1828 when the tower was built.

It was separated from the church by the width of the old porch. It is in the

neo-Norman style and was reported at the time, “This unpleasant construction

 absorbed, it is believed, the larger part of subscriptions destined to the

general improvement of the edifice.” Clearly it was not met by unanimous

praise but it was built in a year. In 1861 two bells cast at the Whitechapel Foundry

were manufactured by Mears of London. The larger was cracked so they were

replaced by the present three bells in 1960, donated to the memory of Mr & Mrs Taylor.

 Although the tower is only fifty feet high, because of the church’s position on the hill top

it can be seen from a very long way, often surmounted by a flag blowing in the breeze.

In 1849,  G E Street, the architect of the Law Courts in the Strand, undertook some

minor alterations in the church and uncovered a medieval piscina and some patterned

wall paintings.

In the 1860s the Church Farm School, next door to St Mary’s, had many boys who

attended the church and sang in the choir. It was decided in 1868 to extend the church

and add another aisle. The extension was built and the south wall of the church

demolished and replaced by arches. A door was pierced into the tower to provide

an entry to the south aisle and a flank door allowed access to the graveyard.

By 1869 the historic box pews had been replaced and choir stalls had been installed.

In 1872 the Lych Gate was erected at a cost of £130. The stile beside it was to stop

animals entering the churchyard and grazing on the poisonous yew berries. In 1875

 the painted window of the Annunciation was placed in the west end of the north aisle

[under the gallery] to commemorate the foundation of the church by the abbey.

This was later removed.

It is probable that the roof on the new south aisle would have been finished before

the arches were opened to the nave.

Also in 1875, the parish church of Chipping Barnet was rebuilt with a new south aisle

and tower, the nave was lengthened and roof refurbished. In the 1880s, the main

chancel of St Mary’s was lengthened by twelve feet incorporating a new east window

celebrating the Annunciation of St Mary. This was presented by a churchwarden at

a cost of £100. The choir stalls were doubled in length. The chancel roof was

reshaped and the organ chamber was constructed as a transept. The present

gallery was completed for the choir and it also housed a barrel organ which had

been given by Sir Simon Houghton-Clark, the 9th. Baronet of Oak Hill fifty years

previously. The rector’s vestry was underneath the gallery at the back of the church.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw many tombs erected in the graveyard.

The impressive memorial on the north-east corner is to Sir Simon Houghton-Clark

and is sited so that it can be seen from Oak Hill House where he died in 1832.

And so St Mary’s entered the twentieth century. Its daughter chapel at High Barnet

had been declared a separate parish in 1866, and other parishes had been

dedicated all around. When the railway arrived in the 1850’s, the tracks virtually

isolated St Mary’s parish. The district above the line was given its own church in

 1868 when Holy Trinity was built on the site of Lyonsdown House, another large

and impressive mansion. St James in New Barnet was dedicated in 1911 when

the town started to blossom because of new industry coming into the area, the

opening of railway stations at (New) Barnet and later at Oakleigh Park. Many new

roads of affordable houses were built for the London commuters.

More and more people moved into the parish and St Mary’s flourished.

In 1911 the vestry extension was completed and the area below the gallery was

cleared. The 1875 window at the west end was removed and at the same time,

 the doorway under the gallery in the north wall was reopened after having been

bricked up for a number of years. Electricity was at last installed and for the first

time in 800 years parishioners could enjoy their church other than by candle light.

Eventually in 1920 the present organ was constructed and sited in the organ chamber.

During the Second World War the church was damaged by enemy action which

required much of the roof and some walls to be repaired. The east window in the

south aisle was installed in 1950 incorporating a war memorial. A major rebuild of

 the organ took place in 1984.

The nave of the present church still stands on the foundations of the original

chapel more than 925 years later.

Text and diagrams by Richard Selby

Inspirations for the content of this booklet were found in the following publications

which we are pleased to acknowledge.

Historic Barnet  (W. H. Gelder)

Barnet & Hadley Past  (Pamela Taylor)

Geoffrey de Mandeville & London’s Camelot  (Jennie Lee Cobban)

Barnet in Old Photographs  (Ian Norrie)

The Barnets & Hadley   (Barnet & District Local History Society)

Barnet, Edgware, Hadley & Totteridge  (Pamela Taylor & Joanna Corden)

TOP OF PAGE

Church Records

The church is fortunate in having many of its old records.

The earliest dating back to 1553 is the Baptism Register,

1568 for Burials and 1582 for Marriages.  

There are also early Churchwardens accounts, certificates

and maps. Copies are available for further inspection at

the County Archive offices.

All of our records have been transcribed and can be

viewed at the Church by appointment. The church has a

collection of Communion silverware including a Chalice

and Paten  which are hallmarked for 1636, during the

reign of King Charles I,  and so predate the Civil War.

TOP OF PAGE

Some Notable Residents

and 'Associates' of East Barnet

► Sir Robert Berkeley

► Elias Ashmole

►John Hadley

►Lancelot Hasluck

►Colonel William Gillum

►William Jackson

►Sir Thomas Lipton

►Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville

►Joanna Southcott

►see more in Notable Memorials

Sir Robert Berkeley  (1584-1656)

Sir Robert Berkeley was a resident of East Barnet for many years, marrying Elizabeth

Conyers of Church Hill House (later known as Trevor Park). The Church registers

record the baptism of their son, Thomas, on 24^th June 1630, and daughters, Katherine

and Isabel on 18^th August 1631. In 1631 Sir Robert purchased a house on the edge of

the village which was leased to the Rector as a parsonage, the original house by the church

being in ruins (This house was demolished in the twentieth century and redeveloped as

 flats)  It was at Berkeley’s instigation in 1663 that the chancel of St Mary’s Church was

extended, and the family brass was positioned in the south-east corner of the chancel. 

The brass was stolen, but the Society of Antiquities has a copy of a rubbing, which is all

that survives.  The mount for the brass is still visible in the floor.

The Berkeley family are an ancient aristocratic English family. They have been intimately

involved in much of English history, members of the family have lived at Berkeley Castle,

Gloucestershire, from the reign of Henry II (1133-1189) up to the present day. 

Berkeley Square in London owes its name to the family.

Sir Robert Berkeley, descended from Thomas, the fourth and youngest son of Lord James

and Isabel, was a justice of the King's Bench in the reign of King Charles I. He was a

staunch Royalist, and was one of the judges at the Ship Money trials, where several Members

of Parliament, including John Hampden, were fined or imprisoned for refusing to pay the

 illegal tax. Sir Robert stated that "Rex was Lex", that the King was "a living breathing law".

The divine right of Kings was just about to become an unfashionable idea in England - the

English Civil War was upon us. The judgement was overturned, and the Judge himself was

arrested when presiding in Court. He was reputedly dragged from the Bench by the Usher

of the Black Rod, and thrown in the Tower of London.

Whilst on bail awaiting trial, there was a chronic shortage of Judges, so he was allowed to

practice until his own trial. He was fined an astonishing £10,000 and deprived of ever holding

public office. He went into retirement on his estate at Spetchley near Worcester. In 1651 his

house was requisitioned by Cromwell prior to the battle of Worcester. His town house in

Worcester, now known as Charles' House, was used by King Charles II to make his escape

prior to his famous night spent sleeping in the branches of an oak tree. Sir Robert's house at

Spetchley was subsequently burned down by a retreating band of Scottish Presbyterians.

Sir Robert ended his days living in the stable block - all that remained of his manor house - and

died there in 1656.

John Hadley

Colonel William Gillum

Sir Thomas Lipton

Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville

Joanna Southcott